Trivia

The CBS Radio Mystery Theater adapted Collins' story "Brother Griffith's Story of Mad Monkton", written in 1855, into an episode, airing February 28, 1979 and entitled "Shadows from the Grave", starring Fred Gwynne.

The first writer of mystery novels in English.

A friend of Charles Dickens and they are thought to have influenced each others' work.

His father was a well-known landscape painter, William Collins (1788-1847), and the younger Collins painted well enough to be exhibited at the Royal Academy.