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
Arthur Quiller-Couch contributor to the "Speaker", he settled in 1891 at Fowey in Cornwall. In Cornwall he was an active political worker for the Liberal Party. He was knighted in 1910, and in 1928 was made a Bard of the Cornish cultural society Gorseth Kernow, adopting the Bardic name "Marghak Cough" ('Red Knight'). He was Commodore of the Royal Fowey Yacht Club from 1911 until his death. Quiller-Couch died at home in May 1944, after being slightly injured by a jeep near his home in Cornwall in the preceding March. He is buried in Fowey's parish church of St. Fimbarrus. Duke of