A H Brown

Arthur Henry Brown was born in Appledore, Kent, on 24 August 1924, the youngest son of William Brown and his wife Annie Florence (nee Gibson). Along with his two older brothers, Brown grew up in Appledore and showed an early aptitude for creative writing, winning a national story competition run by Cadbury's at the age of eight - the prize being 30 bars of chocolate.

After working for the Co-op in Tenterden, Kent, Brown joined the Army at 18, serving in the Royal Signals (Air Formation Unit) in Europe and Africa after his initial training in Ossett, Yorkshire. A witness to the horrors of Belsen Concentration Camp, Brown spent the years immediately after the war in Cairo before being demobbed.

Returning to civilian life, he continued working for the Co-op, becoming manager of the store in Hawkhurst. Here he met Joan M. Tester, the two marrying in 1952. The newly married couple lived in Cranbrook, Kent, where their childrem, Felicity and Martyn, were born in 1953 and 1956.

Brown supplemented his earnings by writing short stories and novels, writing under a variety of names including A. H. Brown, Rod Brannan (for westerns) and Susan Brown (children's stories). In all he published some 20 books, so there would seem to be additional pen-names still to be discovered.

Brown was a keen sportsman and had a lifelong love of cricket, becoming a supporter of Kent County Cricket Club and playing with a local cricket team.

In later life, Brown lived at Loudon Court, Ashford, Kent, where he died in 2010. His wife predeceased him in 2006 and he was survived by his two children and three grandchildren.

PUBLICATIONS

Novels as A. H. Brown
For Valour. London, Digit Books, Apr 1959.
Special Unit. London, Digit Books, Aug 1959.
The Fourth Man. London, Digit Books, Jan 1961.
The Sun and the Sand. London, Digit Books, 1961.

Novels as Rod Brannan
Treachery at Carson's Creek. London & Melbourne, Ward Lock & Co., 1965.
Prairie Preacher. London & Melbourne, Ward Lock & Co., 1966.
The Steer Stealers. London & Melbourne, Ward Lock & Co., 1966.
Man from Wyomin'. London & Melbourne, Ward Lock & Co., 1967.
Outlaw Lawman. London & Melbourne, Ward Lock & Co., 1967.
Ghost Herd. London & Melbourne, Ward Lock & Co., 1968.
Texas Stranger. London & Melbourne, Ward Lock & Co, 1968.

(* My thanks to John Herrington for pointing me towards a biographical sketch about Brown written by his granddaughter Felicity Moore from which much of the above information is derived.)