Jack Piler

I'm always interested in one-off authors. Often those relating to movie tie-ins turn out to be pen-names but, in the case of Jack Piler, a little bit of research (and a useful biographical sketch in the book itself) turned up some background.

Jack Maxwell Piler was born a true Cockney within the sight of London's dock cranes and the sound of Bow Bells on 30 June 1928. He grew up in the unease of London's East End through the tremors of the thirties. He left college at fifteen determined on a career in journalism, and finally got his chance as a junior reporter on a group of London weeklies. He graduated to Fleet Street and worked for the Daily Sketch as general reporter, then crime reporter and eventually moved into show business writing because of his love of acting.

Piler became one of the top London-based movie publicists and, in some fourteen years as a contracted Director of Publicity, he handled a number of big movies starring scores of legendary names. [IMDB turns up two movies he worked on as publicist: Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974) and Orca (1977)] Four years ago [c.1976] he returned to Fleet Street where he now [1980] works as a reporter on the Daily Mirror.

Piler died in December 1984. He was married to Josephine Bartick in 1961 and had at least three children. 

Novels
S.O.S. Titanic (novelisation of a screenplay by James Costigan). London, Futura, 1980.