Arthur Quiller-Couch the source of the popular writers' adage "murder your darlings". He is mentioned briefly in "The Well of Lost Plots" by Jasper Fforde as one of the few authors with a name beginning with the letter "Q". It is Quiller-Couch who originated the saying "kill your darlings": A collected edition of Q's fiction appeared as "Tales and Romances" (30 volumes, 1928–29). Arthur Quiller-Couch Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (; 21 November 186312 May 1944) was a Cornish writer who published using the pseudonym Q. Although a prolific novelist, he is remembered mainly for the monumental publication "The Oxford Book Of English
Bevil Quiller-Couch the Somme and in August of that year he was promoted to acting Major. In September 1917, he was wounded during the Third Battle of Ypres. He was later involved at Cambrai, and by January 1918 went on leave back to England. Towards the end of the war, Quiller-Couch led his battery into action at Noyelles. He last saw action in November 1918 before joining the reserve forces at Villers Pol. Quiller-Couch survived the war without injury only to die at Langerwehe, near Düren in Germany, on 6 February 1919 during the Spanish flu pandemic. He was buried at Cologne,