Who created the fictional French detective Jules Maigret?

Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (12/13 February 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a Belgian writer, most famous for his fictional detective Jules Maigret. One of the most popular authors of the 20th century, he published around 400 novels, 21 volumes of memoirs and many short stories, selling over 500 million copies.

Apart from his detective fiction, he achieved critical acclaim for his literary novels which he called 'romans durs' (hard novels). Among his literary admirers were Max Jacob, François Mauriac and André Gide. Gide wrote, “I consider Simenon a great novelist, perhaps the greatest, and the most genuine novelist that we have had in contemporary French literature.

Jules Maigret, or simply Maigret, is a fictional French police detective, created by writer Georges Simenon. The character's full name is Jules Amédée François Maigret. Between 1931 and 1972, 75 novels and 28 short stories about Maigret were published. With the creation of Maigret, Simenon renewed the detective novel-genre. The novels and stories have been translated into more than 50 languages.