John Robert Fowles (1926 - 2005) was a British novelist, essayist, poet and short story writer.

He is best known for his novels The Collector (1963), The Magus (1965), and The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969).

In The Collector, Fowles's character, Frederick Clegg, has a peculiar habit: his first authentic thrill of the day was always the moment when he read in the paper of someone having died.

Clegg isn't necessarily gleeful about death but rather views it as a moment of pure, unadulterated reality in a world he otherwise finds dull and meaningless.