Robert William Arthur Cook, better known since the 1980s by his pen name Derek Raymond, was an English crime writer. His work culminated in the Factory novels, landmarks that have led many to consider him the founding father of British noir.

"There used to be dignity in life; I used to see it all round me when I was young. But now it's gone. People no longer care about each other the way they used to — not the way my old man used to tell me life was when he worked in the fire service during the war and the bombing. Then, people who didn't even know each other would go down into the flattened buildings after a raid and shovel to get at the people buried down there as if the victims were their brothers. Even after the war there was still some trust left; it ran on nearly into the Sixties. But now it's all sorry, squire, don't want to know."

– The Devil's Home on Leave