The Phantom Patrol

"Here come the Trojans — armed to the teeth! Get ready for big trouble!"

The Phantom Patrol by Willie Patterson and Gerry Embleton, edited and introduced by Steve Holland
To be published: 1 October 2024
Format: A4, 130 pages, b/w, softcover, with matte cover

 

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Available on AMAZON.CO.UK.

THE PHANTOM PATROL

In the summer of 1941, Sergeant Joe Timm and his infantry patrol were trapped in the Greek hills a mile away from the sea and a hidden landing craft that would take them to safety. The Germans hold a vital Pass ahead of them and escape seems impossible. German shells begin to drop around their heads, uncovering a cavern with a curious looking craft. Inside, Joe grabs a strange-looking apparatus and rejoins his men just as the Germans advance into their hiding place. Escaping through the cave system, they reach their landing craft only to face more danger as Stuka dive-bomber turns and screams down at them. As the men hit the deck, Joe accidentally pushes a switch on the apparatus.

The Stuka disappears. Instead, on the horizon they see ancient galleys battling and Corporal Jock McLuckie realises the truth... it was they who had disappeared, transported back 3,000 years. With a tank, a landing craft, a handful of guns and a captured Nazi, the British infantry unit find themselves in the midst of the Trojan Wars.

The Phantom Patrol is a superb yarn of a kind that British comics did best. Fast-moving and wildly plotted, the story grows more complex as the patrol battles its way through Egypt and Private Paddy O'Connell finds himself adrift in time with a police trooper from the future. Flitting from past to future, will the Sarge and his men manage to escape back to now... and, given the situation they left behind, will they survive even if they do get back?

This lost classic with artwork by Gerry Embleton has been rarely seen since it's original appearance in Swift. The Phantom Patrol reprints all 57 episodes in one blockbuster volume with a wraparound colour cover by Chris Weston.

Female Detectives in Early Crime Fiction 1841-1920

An extensive survey of female detectives in works of fiction published between 1841 and the end of 1920.

Female Detectives in Early Crime Fiction 1841-1920
Published: 13 September 2024
Format: A4, 460 pages, with matte cover

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FROM THE INTRODUCTION

This is a survey of female detectives in works of fiction published between 1841 and the end of 1920. The start date simply acknowledges that the female detective as a recognisable character did not exist before 1841. There is slightly less rationale for the end date but after the First World War crime fiction moved in new directions and the twenties and thirties are often referred to as its ‘Golden Age’. The aim of this survey is to chronicle the formative era of the genre, before this Golden Age, and to focus on its first seventy or eighty years.
     The book is divided into entries, each of which deals with a work of fiction which generally falls into one of three categories: a novel, a series of stories or a standalone short story. Both periodical appearances and appearances in book form are covered. The entries are stand-alone commentaries with only a little cross-referencing. Relevant works by the same author are mentioned and, for those works written in the early years of the genre, there is some discussion of their context and place in the historical development of the female detective.
     The treatment of each work is not rigidly uniform but contains a variable blend of bibliographic information and critical commentary with the discussion focussing on the character, career and capabilities of the detective. However it is often impossible to discuss the activities of the detective without revealing details of the plot and so — caveat lector — there are ‘spoilers’ ahead.
     Featured here are private detectives and, although some authors have taken liberties with historical authenticity, official police detectives. There are also the committed amateurs who would proudly describe themselves as detectives but alongside these there are others whose membership of this illustrious sisterhood is more problematic.
     In some stories there is a protagonist who becomes involved with a mystery and helps with its resolution but who cannot be considered a fully fledged detective in that she makes a positive contribution to the problem only in an ad hoc or fragmentary way. She may thwart a criminal, make logical deductions, uncover clues or assist others in apprehending a wrong-doer, but still not function as a detective.
     Clearly, to resolve these issues, one needs a working definition of what does and what does not constitute a detective. In fact it is useful to have two definitions: the definition of a ‘detective’ and the definition of a ‘detective story’. Taken together these will help to establish criteria for a work to be included in this survey.
     A detective resolves to solve a mystery and is prepared to make a sustained and determined attempt to do so. There should be a planned and purposeful approach to interpreting facts, gathering clues and making logical deductions with the aim of furthering the investigation. The detective will take proactive steps and, ideally, achieve something that no one else has done, such as making new discoveries or finding new explanations to fit the facts. On its own, an intense desire to learn the outcome is not enough; nor is having occasional insights or asking pertinent questions unless these are translated into positive, constructive actions. Nor is it enough just to thwart or foil villains in a purely reactive way. The detective need not be infallible but should nevertheless be seen to adopt a methodical and focussed strategy that has at least the potential to succeed.
     For a few humorous works, where there is undeniably a female detective, these requirements have been applied flexibly or waived all together.
     Over the years commentators and critics have suggested criteria to define what is meant by detective fiction and those given here follow the broad consensus. To qualify as a ‘detective story’ there is a bare minimum that must be true:

• The story must contain a detective.
• There must be a criminal problem or a mystery and the detective must actually perform acts of detection in an attempt to arrive at its solution.
• The detective must be an important character.
• The mystery and the detective’s attempts to solve it must be a major — arguably the major — plot strand.

So the mere appearance of a character described as a detective does not define detective fiction. Romances or adventure stories where there is a minor detective strand to the plot are also unlikely to qualify.

High Seas and High Adventures

High Seas and High Adventures
Published: 29 July 2024
Format: A4, 134 pages, with matte cover

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ALSO AVAILABLE VIA AMAZON.

HIGH SEAS AND HIGH ADVENTURES

Here is a collection of three classic stories by Jeffery Farnol and H. Rider Haggard, brought to life by one of the finest of all comic strip artists: Jesus Blasco.

Originally published in the pages of Look and Learn, 'Black Bartlemy's Treasure' and 'Martin Conisby's Revenge' (based on Martin Conisby's Vengeance) adapt two of Jeffery Farnol's most famous books – a tale of vengeance and death that begins with Conisby a galley slave on a Spanish ship. He escapes to a British ship and heads back to England to take his revenge on Sir Richard Brandon, the man responsible for his years of slavery, only to rescue and fall in love with Lady Joan, his enemy's daughter.

Thus begins a tale that follows Conisby's adventures on the high seas as he sails in search of Sir Richard aboard the ship of Adam Penfeather, who is looking for the treasure of pirate Black Bartlemy, left on an island with a treasure map hidden in a daggar the only clue.

The story (originally written as one epic book) continues through the pages of 'Martin Coniby's Revenge', where his discovery of Sir Richard's whereabouts leads him to rescue his enemy and takes him to an island where he is confronted by Lady Joan Brandon.

The third of our strips is another grueling tale of high adventure and vengeance as Thomas Wingfield sets off for the Indies, only to be wrecked at sea and rescued from certain death by his enemy. Escaping, Wingfield is washed up on the shores of a strange land and captured by its natives. He is saved from being sacrificed and taken to meet the emperor, Montezuma.

The adventure that follows sees Wingfield marry into the royal household and face the encroachment of Spanish invaders led by Cortez. All the time, Wingfield still burns with the desire to avenge the death of his mother and kill the man responsible.

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Forgotten Authors Volume 5

More essays about long-forgotten authors whose work once entertained millions.

This new volume of Forgotten Authors follows in the footsteps of the previous series—the four volumes that made up fifty essays on long-forgotten or dimly-remembered writers—with eleven articles the writing careers of highwaymen biographer Alexander Smith in the early 18th century, to 20th century lama and mystic, T. Lobsang Rampa.

Available as both a Kindle e-book and a print volume via Amazon:

PRINT EDITION:
Available in the following territories: Amazon UK | Amazon US | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon ES | Amazon IT | Amazon NL | Amazon PL | Amazon SE | Amazon JP | Amazon CA | Amazon AU

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Contents

Before the Newgate Calendar
Today’s tabloids, with their daily diet of sensational and tawdry tales, are nothing new. Chapbooks and pamphlets, complete with grisly woodcuts, were common in the eighteenth century, when highwaymen still roamed the heaths and pirates ruled the waves. Two of the most influential books gathering the biographies of notorious criminals appeared in 1714 and 1726, and arguments over their authorship have raged for 300 years.

James Skipp Borlase
Accused of plagiarism in Australia, the former lawyer returned to England and a career as a penny-a-liner until he became one of the most successful writers of feuilletons.

John G. Brandon
Nowadays known only for his contributions to the Sexton Blake saga, Brandon was once a successful playwright and theatre actor, whose play The Silent House was a huge success on stage, screen and sold a quarter of a million copies in book form.

Alfred Duggan
A writer of historical novels who could count Bernard Cornwall and George R. R. Martin amongst his fans... but whose troubled personal and family background almost destroyed him before he turned to writing in his forties.

T. Lobsang Rampa
Few stories can be more bizarre than that of Cyril Hoskin, who claimed that his body was taken over by a lama from Tibet. The story was told through a series of best-selling books, beginning with The Third Eye, much to the disappointment of Tibetan scholars.

Donald Cresswell
Actor and novelist Donald Cresswell had once spent time in prison and on the run from the police when he broke out of Dartmoor… and then he went missing one night while taking a walk along the cliff tops around his Cornwall home…

Judith M. Berrisford
The creator of pony-mad Jackie filled her books with horses, dogs and cats and was inspired to write her first novel after watching a neighbour’s sheep dog.

Bryan Haven
Australian who fought in Korea before turning to journalism and fiction, penning a number of historically accurate western and spy novels, although success always seemed to elude him.

Michael Butterworth
From unsuccessful weighing machine salesman to hugely successful editor of teenage girls’ and women’s magazines, Butterworth turned his back on Fleet Street, retreated to a mansion in Sussex, and wrote psychological thrillers, blackly comic novels and gothic romances under pen-names.

H. J. Campbell
After training as a chemist and assisting in various hospitals and institutions, Campbell turned his writing sideline into a full-time job and wrote 23 novels in four years before returning to science.

Anthony Dyllington
Who was the mysterious Dyllington, author of The Unseen Thing, and what was his connection with the manor house at Knighton Gorges on the Isle of Wight.

Beyond the Void: The Remarkable History of Badger Books

Beyond the Void: The Remarkable History of Badger Books
Published: 25 March 2024
Format: A4, 172 pages, full colour with matte cover.

Currently available via my Ebay Shop. I'm signed up to the global shipping programme, so this option should be available to anyone wherever they live (warzones excluded).

Also available via Amazon.

If you want a signed copy, contact me at the address to the right.

BEYOND THE VOID
The Remarkable History of Badger Books

Badger Books was an imprint of British publishing company, John Spencer & Co., who were active between 1948 and 1967, during which time they published around 800 novels, short story collections and magazines. They were notoriously bad payers, 10 shilling a thousand words, so a 55,000-word novel would receive £27 ($75). That's not a bad deal if you can knock out a novel over a weekend, or over a few days in the evenings after work. Step forward John S. Glasby, a chemist at ICI, and the Rev. R. Lionel Fanthorpe, at the time a teacher, who, between them, wrote over 400 books for the company.

This is their story, and the story of other toilers in the field at Badger Books from John F. Watt, who wrote most of their science fiction magazines in the early 1950s, to Henry Fox, the imaginative cover artist of over 240 books. The book explores the history of John Spencer / Badger Books, and includes interviews and essays on many of the leading contributors, including a look at perhaps the worst SF author of all time, Barney Ward.
The book is 172 pages, full colour, and has around 520 cover illustrations.

Reviews
(to come)

The Trials of Hank Janson [New Edition]

SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLD DAGGER AWARD FOR NON-FICTION

The Trials of Hank Janson
Published: 6 September 2023.
Format: US trade paperback (6" x 9"), 318 pages of cream paper with matte cover. Also available as a casebound hardback and on Kindle. Please note that not all formats are available in all territories.

SOFTCOVER

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HARDCOVER

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SIGNED COPIES

If you want signed copies of the book or a copy in hardback in territories where Amazon do not supply, contact me directly at the address below the photo (top right).

THE TRIALS OF HANK JANSON

A perfect storm of paper shortages and fly-by-night publishers in the years after World War II led to a boom in cheaply produced American-style hard-boiled crime fiction. Hank Janson, dubbed the ‘Best of Tough Gangster Authors’—in truth a south London former shipping clerk turned publisher—sold five million copies of his novels to a public who craved excitement and escapism in Hank’s violent, sexually charged world.

The courts took a more damning view, destroying hundreds of thousands of paperbacks and magazines that were judged obscene. Janson’s novels, with their voluptuous pin-up covers, were a regular target, but requests for guidance from authorities went unanswered. Then, Janson’s publisher and distributor were arrested, tried and jailed.

This is the story of Hank Janson, of his creator Stephen D Frances, and how, out of the ashes of destruction orders levelled at cheap gangster novels, the Obscene Publications Act was reformed.

THE TRIALS OF HANK JANSON was a runner-up for the Crime Writers’ Association’s Golden Dagger Award. This revised and expanded edition reveals more of the background and people behind the much-maligned  author whose books eventually sold twenty million copies, were translated widely, and who had an arrest warrant issued, should he dare to return to the UK from his home in Spain.

This new edition of the book reinstates a chapter missing from for the original edition, as well as adding information not available twenty years ago.


REVIEWS

"I always assumed Hank Janson was a tough ex cop turned writer living in the Bronx.Now I find he was a rather mild Englishman but still a great writer who's books sold in their millions. This is a very well researched bio with some great photos. The guy had a strange and hard life and worked hard at his craft.Literary snobs turn up their noses at the name Hank Janson but you can't argue with massive sales and this book confirms that he was one of the best modern day writer's. A great behind the scenes read."—Amazon. (5 stars)

"This fine book is several stories in one volume: a biography of Stephen Frances, author of pulp thrillers and other works of popular literature; an account of the "life" of Frances' best-known creation and occasional alter ego, Hank Janson; the tale of seat-of-the pants publishing in postwar England; and a chapter in the long 20th Century history of moral authority attempting to suppress books people want to read, the low rent district not far from Lady Chatterley's farm. Steve Holland's prose is clear and he sorts deftly through the sometimes complex accounts of who published whom under which names, sometimes with unclear attribution or authorship. The court cases are largely portrayed through transcripts, some of which reach Carrollian depths of assumed guilt before the trial even begins. Altogether, this book is mostly the story of a writer during the last great age of fictioneering, pumping out several books a month across multiple genres, successful enough and proud of his art even in the face of blue nosed persecution. It's a great story."—Bill Wallace, Goodreads (4 stars)

"Steve Holland has done a great job in presenting the facts how Hank Janson aka Stephen Frances was stitched up by the Justiciary under the all embracing Obscene Publications Act This is the definitive book that every Hank Janson fan will want to read."—Amazon. (4 stars)

"What a fascinating book! A cracking read and so well written. Holland keeps our interest from start to finish. We follow a rough chronological order of the life and times and events in Stephen Frances / Hank Janson's life. Holland never lets go of his objective to focus on censorship and prosecutions in the 50s and also letting us behind the veil in seeing a man whose life was dedicating to writing."—Amazon (5 stars)

On the Queen's Service by J. J. G. Bradley

On the Queen's Service by J. J. G. Borlase
Published: 26 March 2023.
Format: US trade paperback (6" x 9"), 404 pages of cream paper with matte cover. Also available as a casebound hardback and on Kindle. Please note that not all formats are available in all territories.

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ON THE QUEEN'S SERVICE

James Bond meets Indiana Jones in this fast-paced thriller set in part around the action of the Crimean War.

The year is 1855 and Harry Dunbar is sent by Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on a mission to deliver two messages to Istanbul. Before he has even left England, Harry finds himself looking down the barrel of a gun—and that's just the start of an adventure that will see him ambushed and trapped in the Alps, tracked by secret police, captured by Cossacks, tortured, attacked by wild animals and cannibals, and battling a madman in a hot-air balloon.
    Will Harry survive long enough to join the British troops as they march into the Valley of Death?

Originally serialised in The Boy's Standard in 1875-76, reprinted in Boy's Leisure Hour in 1884 and subsequently reissued in 12 penny parts by Hogarth House, On the Queen's Service has been out of print for over a century.

From the Introduction

"What may surprise the reader is that the story is told clearly and straightforwardly, with none of the florid prose often associated with Victorian literature. Borlase knew how to keep his readers happy and that was to pile incident upon incident to keep the story moving and, as such, it resembles the kind of thriller that remains popular in book and film to this day, with Harry Dunbar an early James Bond. The story has its outrageous moments, but no more than an Indiana Jones movie, which it also resembles in places."

About the Author

J. J. G. Bradley was the pen-name of James Skipp Borlase (1839-1909), Cornish-born solicitor, magazine editor and writer. He began selling stories at the age of 19, became infamous in Australia and returned to England where his stories and novels found a ready market in 'penny-dreadfuls'. After a decade writing for Sons of Britannia, Young Briton and Boy's Standard, he found far greater success penning serials for syndication in newspapers. His books, most notably The Night Fossickers, are highly collectable.

"The secret of Mr. Borlase's immense popularity as a romance writer seems to be that he dashes at once into the full interest and excitement of his subject, and doesn't allow that excitement and interest to flag for a single instant until he has reached the last line of the last chapter ... Heaping thrilling incident atop thrilling incident, keeps the reader's attention on a perpetual strain, and his excitement at perfect fever-pitch, until the startling climax is reached"—Ipswich Journal.

Reviews

"I would highly recommend On the Queen’s Service, a Tale of Many Lands. As far as penny dreadfuls go it was the perfect choice for a reprint, a classic example of the genre, authored by one of the best of the penny parts novelists of the 1870s. All the Boy’s Standard/Hogarth House titles by J.J.G. Bradley are well worth the reading. It leaves me wanting more of the same, particularly when they are presented as attractively as this title, with the care and attention that they deserve." - John Adcock, Yesterday's Papers.

Andrew Forrester, Jun. — The Private Detective, Secret Service, The Female Detective

In April 2008, interest in Andrew Forrester, Jun., leapt with the publication of The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher; or, The Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale, although his mention was only in a footnote relating to the publication of a pamphlet about a Victorian murder case know as the Road Hill Murder. A brief essay on the author J. Redding Ware appeared on Bear Alley on 6 May 2008, which also further established the links between journalist and author Ware and the pseudonymous Forrester.

Forrester's The Female Detective (1864) was reprinted in 2012 as part of the British Library's Crime Classics series, cementing the notion that its heroine, Miss Gladden, was "the first female detective", although whether that is the case is challenged in the essay on Ware and his career published in this new edition of the collection — published now in a uniform edition with Forrester's two earlier collections, The Revelations of a Private Detective (1863) and Secret Service; or, Recollections of a City Detective (1864), reprinted for the first time in 150 years.

THE REVELATIONS OF A PRIVATE DETECTIVE

I MAY as well say, at once, that this statement never could have been made had I not been, as I remain, an admirer of Edgar Allan Poe; and if ever I have time, I hope to show that his acts were the result, not so much of a bad, as a diseased mind. For one thing, I believe his eyes were affected with an inequality of sight, which, in itself, was enough to overbalance a very exciteable brain.
    But Poe has nothing to do with my statement, except as its prompter. My name is John Pendrath (Cornish man, as I dare say you see in a moment), my age. is twenty-eight, and I live with my sister Annie. We are all that are left of our family, which you must see by the name was equally good and old. I need not say what I am; because, though I feel no shame for my work, I do not care about it, and hope, some day, when the Lord Chancellor wakes up, to be able to go back to Cornwall.
    However, it seems I am writing about myself, and that is not my intention; which, indeed, is to show how much individual good such a writer as even the condemned Edgar Poe can do, and even on this side of the Atlantic.

So begins “Arrested on Suspicion” a tale of false arrest as Pendrath tries to prove that his sister has been falsely arrested on suspicion of shoplifting. Using his knowledge of  Poe, he first discovers the hiding place of a fragment of paper, then uses his skills at solving a doubly-encrypted cipher — an early use of cryptography in British fiction.

The Revelations of a Private Detective contains 13 tales of mystery and crime, ranging from the fleecing of a dying man of his savings, the stealing of precious jewellery during a railway journey, and a scam to defraud a life insurance policy, to stories of reluctant divorcees and witnesses, forgery, conmen, and kleptomania.

SECRET SERVICE; OR, THE RECOLLECTIONS OF A CITY DETECTIVE

A coroner’s inquest sat upon the body of the deceased, and returned an open verdict of “Found drowned.” Some people in the town and neighbourhood, among whom were the Newtons, professed much grief at the calamity . . . How, or for what reason, they could not tell; but here was the death, it might be by accident, or it might be by suicide, in a state of drunkenness, of their predecessor, not long after they had lost every thing (as they in the freedom of their language said they had) through a fire on the premises.
    The insurance company heard of the death of Mr. Paterson, and the secretary got it into his head that the Newtons were incendiaries and murderers—that they had killed this man for some evil reason best known to themselves. He consulted the solicitors of the company, and they employed me to sift the mystery, and, if it turned out that the secretary’s suspicions were justifiable, to spare no trouble or expense in obtaining evidence upon which to prosecute the alleged miscreants.
    I went down secretly, and investigated all the circumstances as far as I could. I collected a variety of little scraps of fact, which left no doubt in my mind that the secretary was right. I came, indeed, to the conclusion that these Newtons were the vilest wretches who had for a long time been permitted to escape the hangman.

The follow-up to “The Private Detective” features 17 stories in very much the same style as its predecessor. The anonymous narrator reveals how he introduces a fake candidate in order to “spin” a local election; how a “plant” is used in the snatching of wages; how financial frauds are enacted; how an innocent servant was accused of theft; and how an incendiary gang was used in an insurance fraud.

THE FEMALE DETECTIVE

I am aware that the female detective may be regarded with even more aversion than her brother in profession. But still it cannot be disproved that if there is a demand for men detectives there must also be one for female detective police spies. Criminals are both masculine and feminine—indeed, my experience tells me that when a woman becomes a criminal she is far worse than the average of her male companions, and therefore it follows that the necessary detectives should be of both sexes.
    Let it suffice, once for all, that I know my trade is a despised one, but that being a necessary calling I am not ashamed of it. I know I have done good during my career, I have yet to learn that I have achieved much harm, and I therefore think that the balance of the work of my life is in my favour. . .
    I may also point out, while engaged upon these opening lines, that in a very great many cases women detectives are those who can only be used to arrive at certain discoveries. The nature of these discoveries I need here only hint at, many of them being of too marked a character to admit of their being referred to in detail in a work of this character, and in a book published in the present age. But without going into particulars, the reader will comprehend that the woman detective has far greater opportunities than a man of intimate watching, and of keeping her eyes upon matters near which a man could not conveniently play the eavesdropper.

A key text for researchers and readers of mystery and crime stories, The Female Detective features one of the earliest appearances of a woman police detective, the mysterious “G”—also known as Miss Gladden—who narrates her adventures among the criminal classes in a rational, realistic manner. The collection contains stories based upon two horrific real-life cases: the Thames Carpet Bag Mystery and the Road Murder, the latter the inspiration for Kate Summerscale’s award-winning book, which became the TV series The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher.

All three books include the essay "J. Redding Ware: The Man Behind Andrew Forrester, Jun." by Steve Holland, exploring the three Forrester books and Ware's career as a writer, journalist, translator and editor. It also answers the question: which came first — The Female Detective or Revelations of a Lady Detective?

Order Now
(Please note: prices may vary because of the way Amazon calculates postage & packing rates and its fees. Orders via Lulu's bookstore may appear priced in US dollars — it's an American company — but payment in UK sterling will not incur any fees.)

The Revelations of a Private Detective — order from Lulu - order from Amazon (to follow)
Published: September 2021
Format: US trade paperback (6" x 9"), 196 pages of cream paper with matte cover.

Secret Service; or, Recollections of a City Detective — order from Lulu - order from Amazon (to follow)
Published: September 2021
Format: US trade paperback (6" x 9"), 198 pages of cream paper with matte cover.

The Female Detective — order from Lulu - order from Amazon (to follow)
Published: September 2021
Format: US trade paperback (6" x 9"), 198 pages of cream paper with matte cover.

The Bill Kellaway quartet by Gwyn Evans

“You have heard of a man who, for a wager, offered to sell genuine sovereigns—in the days of sovereigns—at sixpence a time on London Bridge, and not a soul would buy them.”
    “Yes,” said Kellaway. “But you don’t surely mean that—that your offer is on a par with that?”
    Dr. Lenoir nodded.
    “My question is perfectly genuine,” he answered.
    “Would you like a million pounds—and if so, are you prepared to fulfil the necessary conditions?”
    Kellaway glanced sharply at his companion’s pale, impassive face. It was as expressionless as the bronze Sphinx itself.
    “Of course I could do with a million quid—who couldn’t?” he said. “The point is, who’s going to give it me, and what have I got to do to get it?”

“Hercules, Esq.” by Gwyn Evans introduces Bill Kellaway, a brash, bright young ex-reporter who had spent years in Africa, returning to England when Egypt regained its sovereignty. When readers first meet Bill he is at his lowest. Penniless, he stands by Cleopatra's Needle on Victoria Embankment, wondering where he can find the money to pay for a cigarette... and then he feels a hand touch his sleeve and a voice asks: "Would you like a million pounds, my friend?"

A born venturer, Kellaway follows the stranger and finds himself at the whim of a group of millionaires who challenge him to complete six tasks that will acquaint him well with the underworld. On condition that his agreement remains a secret and that he makes no attempt to identify his employers, or seek their help if arrested, Kellaway receives the first of his six "labours" in a note attached to a dead body.

Following his first adventure, Kellaway surfaced again in The Homicide Club to face the strange, exclusive Q Club, its membership limited to five, all millionaires and men of vicious character. To relieve the tedium of their wealth, they devise a contest in which each attempts to commit the perfect crime. Symphony Sam becomes their unwilling agent and Bill Kellaway a potential member. Bill joins, but on learning of their criminal activities, determines to wage a secret war against them…

In Satan Ltd., Quentin Steele, the leader of the Shadow Club, is on the verge of collapse through an overstrained heart, when Bill Kellaway finds him and takes him to his rooms. Here he is urged to take the place of Steele as leader of the Club. Partly because of his love of adventure, and partly because of his whole-hearted approval of the aims of the Club, Kellaway agrees. His adventures thereafter make absorbing reading.

And, finally, in The Return of "Hercules, Esq.", Sam Hicks, better known as ‘Symphony Sam’ has turned detective and stars in three thrilling stories—“The Man from Abyssinia,” “The Secret of All Baba's Jars,” and “The Man with the Diamond Mask.” With the aid of ex-Fleet Street newspaperman and eccentric millionaire Bill Kellaway, the pluperfect Henry Henry, and the calmly efficient Miss Candy Lee, he sets up the S.S. Detective Bureau and opens its office directly opposite Scotland Yard—to the intense fury of Detective-Inspector Barker, who wants nothing more than to put Sam back in clink.

Created in 1928, the first Bill Kellaway novel, Hercules, Esq., was a great success, serialised in teh pages of Union Jack before appearing in hardcovers in both UK and USA. Even as a sequel appeared, the film rights to the debut novel sold for a then-staggering £3,000 —the equivalent of over £130,000 today. Evans reputedly spent his share within a fortnight, hosting some of the brightest, booziest parties Chelsea had ever seen, and not one of his creditors saw a penny from his payout.

About the author

Gwyn Evans (1898-1938) was born in Bangor, North Wales, the son of a Weslyan minister. He turned to writing fiction after a brief career as a journalist in Egypt. He is best known for his tales of Sexton Blake, written in the Golden Age of the detective. His slick, racy style, colourful characters and bizarre plots led one editor to exclaim: “He turned out stuff like a factory, nearly all of it superlatively clever.”

The mercurial Evans lived in the heart of Bohemia and was a heavy smoker and a heavy drinker, which eventually led to his early death at the age of 39.

For much more on Evans, read Gwyn Evans: The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poete, written by Steve Holland, which is now available in a similar 6" x 9" format to the four Bill Kellaway novels, with a portrait of Evans on the front cover. The earlier, larger (A4), heavily illustrated version is also still available from Bear Alley Books.

Details

Hercules, Esq. by Gwyn Evans
Published: 25 January 2021
Format: US trade paperback (6" x 9"), 244 pages on cream paper with matte cover.

The Homicide Club by Gwyn Evans
Published: 25 January 2021
Format: US trade paperback (6" x 9"), 208 pages on cream paper with matte cover.

Satan Ltd by Gwyn Evans
Published: 25 January 2021
Format: US trade paperback (6" x 9"), 150 pages on cream paper with matte cover.

The Return of "Hercules, Esq." by Gwyn Evans
Published: 25 January 2021
Format: US trade paperback (6" x 9"), 182 pages on cream paper with matte cover.

Gwyn Evans: The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet by Steve Holland
Published: 25 January 2021
Format: US trade paperback (6" x 9"), 92 pages on cream paper with matte cover.

Reviews

"Bill Kellaway is admirably resourceful in a number of criminally compromising situations. The challenges or labours (a device Evans anticipates ahead of Christie’s own short story collection), build up in complexity, until the final one (which somewhat crystallises the comedic quality of the book) ... The narrative is packed with action and I think readers will have a lot of fun with [Hercules, Esq.] and there are some genuine moments of laugh out loud humour. I can understand why the film rights for this book were snapped up and even today I could envisage it being a very enjoyable one-off TV series." — Cross Examining Crime.

"What a hook! Perform six tasks and get a million pounds — and this appeared first in the 1930!! The story drives along really well. Each task is easy to understand (one being slightly cryptic) but the execution of each may not be so easy! ... This reminded me of The Thirty-Nine Steps but only in terms of entertainment. The story appears similar at first but Hercules Esq. is a singularly exciting and intriguing novel... and there are more in this reprint series!" — Goodreads, 5 stars!

"Although there’s some criminous stuff going on and Bill often finds himself vying against or working with various lawbreakers, the stakes are never really life and death in this book ... There is some slam-bang action, though, as well as a smart, really likable protagonist and a lot of really clever plot twists, but what really makes HERCULES ESQ. work is Evans’s style, which is consistently breezy, fast-paced, and funny." — James Reasoner, Rough Edges.

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(please note: orders via Lulu's bookstore may appear priced in US dollars — it's an American company — but payment in UK sterling will not incur any fees.)

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All five books are also available via Amazon
(please note: price may vary because of the way Amazon calculates postage & packing rates and its fees)

Hercules Esq. —  Amazon.
The Homicide Club — Amazon.
Satan Ltd. — Amazon.
The Return of "Hercules Esq." — Amazon.
Gwyn Evans: The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet — Amazon.

Longbow — Volumes 1 & 2

Doctor Jim Bennett had a strange secret -- he was also Longbow the last of the Cheyenne -- a white man who had been brought up as the son of a Cheyenne chief. In moments of danger, he would quietly steal out of Powder Creek and head for a hidden grove of giant redwood trees which lay beyond Cheyenne Crest. Before the mightiest of the redwood trees -- the tree of the Great Spirit which bore the sacred mark of the Cheyenne and which was guarded by Longbow's magnificent stallion, Flying Star...

Longbow, the last of the Cheyenne, is the latest character to be resurrected by Bear Alley Books, his over seventy adventures collected in two volumes filled with the amazing artwork of Don Lawrence, Geoff Campion, Jesus Blasco, Juan Gonzalez Alacreu, Keith Shone, R. Charles Roylance, Frank Humphris, Gerry Haylock, Rodney Sutton, Francisco Cueto, Cesar Lopez and Martin Salvador. 

Volume One includes a history of the character revealing his origins a decade earlier in the shape of Strongbow the Mohawk, how the strip mixed old and new stories by Mike (Trigan Empire) Butterworth and how his adventures were to continue following a merger. There are extensive biographies of five of Longbow's artists (Campion, Lawrence, Shone, Roylance and Blasco), plus a bonus feature, 'Along Indian Trails' introduced by Longbow.

Volume Two continues the story as Steve Winders delves into the history of Blackbow the Cheyenne in the pages of Eagle and how the character changed under the pen of Ted (Robot Archie, The Spider) Cowan and brush of artist Frank Humphris.

Humphris is one of the artists contributing to this volume, which also contains extensive biographies not only of Blackbow's long-time artist, but the remaining six who contributed to the Longbow saga: Francisco Cueto, Juan Gonzalez Alacreu, Gerald Haylock, Martin Salvador, Rodney Sutton and Cesar Lopez. This volume continues the bonus feature 'Along Indian Trails', introduced by Longbow.

Hoka-hey!

Details

Longbow Volume 1 by Mike Butterworth (author), Don Lawrence, Geoff Campion, Keith Shone, R. Charles Roylance, Jesus Blasco (artists)
Published: 21 August 2020
Format: A4 perfect bound, 134 b/w pages, with a full-colour cover by Don Lawrence

Longbow Volume 2 by Mike Butterworth (author), Don Lawrence, Geoff Campion, Keith Shone, R. Charles Roylance, Jesus Blasco, Francisco Cueto, Juan Gonzalez Alacreu, Gerry Haylock, Martin Salvador, Frank Humphris, Rodney Sutton, Cesar Lopez (artists)
Published: 21 August 2020
Format: A4 perfect bound, 140 b/w pages, with a full-colour cover by Don Lawrence

Order now
(please note: orders via Lulu's bookstore are priced in US dollars — it's an American company — but payment in UK sterling will not incur any fees.)

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Rocket: The First Space-Age Weekly

Although the “space-age” truly began in the autumn of 1957 when Sputnik beep-beeped around the globe for three weeks, the race to create a rocket that could propel a satellite into low Earth orbit had been underway for over a decade. Advances made during the Second World War led to the development of the rocket propulsion systems that would launch cosmonauts and astronauts into space in the early 1960s. Rocket was, some might say, ahead of its time. With its features on missiles and descriptions of three-stage rocketry, it mapped out a blueprint of how we might break the bonds of gravity and seek adventures beyond the stratosphere. Colourful comic strips gave its readers glimpses of the kinds of world that could be discovered in our solar system and in other galaxies—but it lasted a mere 32 weeks and was long gone by the time ham radio operators tuned in to hear the Russian satellite’s signal as it orbited 15 times a day, or citizens heard recordings of it on their regular news broadcasts.

These were the days when Dan Dare of Eagle and Captain Condor of Lion commanded a readership of over a million children between them, and dozens of other comics—and adult newspapers—had space heroes whose names still echo down the years: Jeff Hawke, Rick Random, JetAce Logan, Don Conquest, Space Kingley and Jet Morgan to name but a few. Capt. W. E. Johns and Patrick Moore were penning intergalactic adventures and Journey Into Space was the last evening radio show to attract a bigger audience than the television shows it was broadcast against.

With science fiction proving so popular, the question has to be asked: Why was Rocket such a failure? Hopefully Rocket: The First Space-Age Weekly will answer that question, looking at the strips and features that made up Rocket’s contents, the creators behind them, and revealing how the weekly paper was doomed from almost the moment the first issue hit the newsstands.

 

 

 

Hurricane and Champion: The Companion Papers to Valiant

Hurricane and Champion: The Companion Papers to Valiant

Bear Alley Books is proud to announce a new edition of Hurricane and Champion: The Companion Papers to Valiant. This updated index details the histories of both papers and reveals—some for the first time—the names of many of the creators behind the classic comic strips that filled their pages. It now includes information on the twelve associated annuals.

Heavily illustrated throughout, the new edition of Hurricane and Champion also includes an expanded creators' indexes covering both papers and annuals, and a new full-colour cover by Jordi Penalva.

In his introduction, Steve Holland describes how Hurricane (1964-65) went through four phases during its lifetime and reveals the many problems faced by Champion (1966) during its brief 15-issue run.


Reviews of the first edition:

• "It's no easy feat to produce these accounts and Steve deserves praise for his hard work. The many changes of ownership that befell the Amalgamated Press titles, many finally coming to rest at Egmont (who now own almost every character first published by Fleetway Editions after 1st January 1970), means any documentation listing contributors and sales figures is scant ... Steve has nevertheless assembled a fascinating account of both titles."—John Freeman, Down the Tubes.
• "Steve's feature article in this Hurricane and Champion book takes up 25 of its 48 pages and it, like the rest of the book, is heavily illustrated. The book is well worth the money."—Jeremy Briggs, Down the Tubes. 
• "I can appreciate Hurricane and Champion far more now from a mature perspective, and even though I only have a couple of issues in my collection I found Steve's history of those comics a fascinating read. If I enjoyed it I'm sure that actual fans of those titles will be over the moon with this book."—Lew Stringer, Blimey!.