Colin Dexter slideshow

The author was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his services to literature in 2000.

Colin's time reading classics at Cambrige had a huge influence on his later literary output, and many of Morse's tastes were shared by his creator.

Colin is pictured here with John Thaw and Kevin Whately, who would make the roles of Morse and Lewis their own.

Morse was fanatical about his 1960 Mark 2 Jaguar

Inspector Morse ran on ITV for 30 episodes and was hugely popular, bringing Colin's books to a wider audience.

Despite Colin's education at rival Cambridge, the Morse investigations have always been based around Oxford - where the author has lived since 1966.

Where would Morse have been without his steady, reliable partner Lewis?

After John Thaw's tragic death in 2002, fans thought they had seen the end of Lewis. But in 2006 he returned in a hugely popular series of his own.