"I wrote a Sexton Blake.
I was paid half the going rate because the story had to be "cleaned up and cut down by half", although when it appeared in the bookshops, under a house-name that seemed more suited to an undertaker or a bent solicitor, not a word had been changed, not a comma snipped.
As an experience to put steel into the beginner-writers` soul, it is to be recommended. Even so, the sum I got, to one not long out of blazer and straw boater, was staggering."
Jack Adrian, from his introduction to Sexton Blake Wins
I first encountered `Jack Adrian` as editor of Sexton Blake Wins and Crime at Christmas, and have only recently leaned that `Jack` is in fact author Christopher Lowder.
I have often wondered which Blake story he wrote, and which pseudonym was `attached` to it.
Sadly, I remain in ignorance over the matter. Or can someone enlighten me ?
In the meantime, you can satisfy any longings you may have to learn more about Lowder by clicking on these links ;
Nick, Christopher Lowder's own Sexton Blake story was published as THE ABDUCTORS in May 1968 by Mayflower Books. It appeared with "Desmond Reid" as the byline. Like "W. A. Ballinger" and "Peter Saxon" this was at this stage no more than one of the "house names" used by editor W. Howard Baker when wishing to conceal multiple or true authorship.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that. Funnily enough, The Abductors was the first Sexton Blake story I ever read - a battered old paperback I bought in a charity shop for a miniscule sum as a youngster.
DeleteI still have it and re-read it last year whilst on holiday.
Always happy to have your input on these things.