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The Toff. The Toff was created by John Creasey (The Baron, Sexton Blake, Patrick Dawlish, Department Z, Dixon Hawke, The Liberator, Bruce Murdoch, Doctor Palfrey, Roger West) and appeared in sixteen stories and fifty-nine novels and story collections from 1933 through 1975, beginning with “The Black Circle” (The Thriller, Dec. 2, 1933).

The Toff is Richard Rollinson, a handsome, wealthy Mayfair playboy gentleman. Out of a sense of justice the Toff solves crimes, discovering who committed a crime and then relying upon the police, in the person of Inspector Gryce, to collect the evidence afterward. The criminals who the Toff takes on are far from cozy, and range from black marketers to kidnapers to murderers. The Toff is assisted by his valet, the wise and devoted Jolly, and by his aunt, Lady Gloria "Old Glory" Hurst, who rather enjoys fighting crime with her nephew. The Toff is surprisingly fallible, cheerful, unassuming, and somewhat unsure of himself. Rollinson is rather mild and reflective and is very much concerned with what Jolly and Lady Gloria think of him. Rollinson asks them for advice and actually takes it.

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