Francis Henry Durbridge (1912 - April 11, 1998) was a British playwright and author born in Hull.

Educated at Bradford Grammar School in Yorkshire, he was encouraged to write by his English teacher, and continued to do so whilst studying English at Birmingham University. After graduating in 1933, he worked for a short time as a stockbroker's clerk, before selling a radio play to the BBC at the age of 21.

In 1939, he created the character Paul Temple , a crime novelist and detective. With his wife, a Fleet Street journalist, Temple solved numerous crimes amongst the glamorous world of the leisured middle-classes on radio and, from 1969 until 1971, in a big-budget television series.

In 1967, The European Broadcasting Union invited him to write an original radio serial for the international market - La Boutique - which was broadcast in more than fifteen countries, and in a variety of languages.

He went on to forge a succesful career as a writer for the stage, with seven plays, the last of which, Sweet Revenge, was written in 1991.

He married Norah Lawley, with whom he had two sons, in 1940. He died at his home in Barnes, London in 1998.