World of Wonder: part 20

Neville Dear

Angus McBride

Angus McBride

Angus McBride

Angus McBride

Severino Baraldi?

(* World of Wonder © Look and Learn Ltd.)

World of Wonder: part 19

 

Ron Embleton

Wilf Hardy

?

Angus McBride

Martin Aitchison

(* World of Wonder © Look and Learn Ltd.)

World of Wonder: part 18

 Neville Dear

Graham Coton

 Angus McBride

 ?

Martin Aitchison

(* World of Wonder © Look and Learn Ltd.)

World of Wonder: part 17

Ron Embleton

Angus McBride

Graham Coton

Severino Baraldi?

Angus McBride

(* World of Wonder © Look and Learn Ltd.)

World of Wonder: part 16

Wilf Hardy

Clive Uptton

Severino Baraldi?

Luis Arcas?

(* World of Wonder © Look and Learn Ltd.)

B E M Ward

B. E. M. Ward was the author of a handful of small (4¾" x 7¼") books published by London-based Regency Press in 1945-46. I've never seen any of them but, via Morgan Wallace, I now have a scan of one of the covers, possibly the first book they published. The cover is by Doug who also signed his name Douglas on other similar chapbooks from the same period.

Having fruitlessly search for information on B. E. M. Ward previously, I was surprised that, spurred on by the arrival of the cover scan, I managed to discover something this time.

Not so much about Regency Press. They were based at 32 Coptic Street, London W.C.1 and the only contemporary reference to someone at that address I could find was for the curiously named Nugent H. Cocks in the 1946 London phone book (phone number MUSEUM 8872), who appears to have remained at that address until 1951.

Nugent Harold Togo Cocks was born in Southfields, London, on 29 December 1904, the son of James Cocks and his wife Margaret Elizabeth. and grew up in Wandsworth. He married twice, first to Eva North (or Mitchley) in 1933, who died in April 1974; and secondly to Joan D. May, in 1977, shortly before his death at the age of 72.

Now, whether Nugent Cocks was involved in Regency Press I have no idea. They were listed in the phone book for 1947 at 32 Coptic Street with the phone number MUSEUM 7987, so it may be that the address contained a number of offices of small businesses.

Regency's most prolific author was, I've discovered, a newly married woman from Leicester. Blanche Emily M. Ward was married in 1945 to Richard Young Ward. Born Blanche E. M. Hull on 8 May 1922, she was in her early twenties when she married and, sadly, only 24 when her husband died in 1947, aged 37.

It would appear that Blanche began writing for Regency Press at around the time of her marriage; her output was broad, if we can judge by the titles: The Black Cat Murder, The Hellmouth Horror, Murder at the Playhouse, The School on Lone Island, She Was No Angel!, The Viper's Vengeance, A Double for Trouble, Her Secret Husband and A Night of Love — all in the small 32-page format and often containing more than one story.

With the disappearance of Regency Press in 1946, her next book was a guide to footpaths entitled Around Hereford (1948). She next appears in 1954 writing romances for Phoenix Press: An Indian Summer and Love Unsuspected and with another short romance, An Island Romance, from Barrington Gray in 1957, although this last title may reprint one of the earlier titles.

She then disappears until the appearance of the illustrated children's book The Kitten Nobody Wanted (BPC Publishing, 1968).

Blanche eventually remarried, to Donald A. Darlison in Leicester in 1971. She died in January 2005, aged 82.

I'm certain that this brief outline of her career misses a great deal. Did she, perhaps, adopt a pen-name or names and continue writing her whole working  life? Perhaps her output is simply lurking in some of the dozens of women's magazines, newspapers and romantic pocket libraries that have yet to be indexed.

Reginald Hill (1936-2012)

Reginald Hill, the crime novelist who created Superintendent Andy Dalziel and Sergeant Peter Pascoe in his first novel, A Clubbable Woman, died on 12 January 2012 at the age of 75 after fighting cancer for a year.

Born Reginald Charles Hill in Hartlepool, Durham, on 3 April 1936, he was the son of Hartlepool United footballer Reg Hill, who moved his family to Cumbria when his young son was aged three. Hill was educated at Carlisle Grammar School and served with the Border Regiment in Göttingen, Germany, for his national service.

After studying English at St Catherine's College, Oxford, he became a teacher and lecturer. Whilst working full time at a teacher-training college in Doncaster, Hill began publishing novels, producing 18 in the 1970s as well as short stories and a TV play; he became a full-time writer in 1980.

Dalziel and Pascoe starred in a TV pilot featuring comedians Hale and Pace in 1993 but it was the later BBC series starring Warren Clarke and Colin Buchanan that everyone (thankfully) remembers.

Hill's output of over 40 novels encompassed thrillers (a number as Patrick Ruell), historical novels (some as Charles Underhill) and science fiction (as Dick Morland). Six of his novels featured private detective Joe Sixsmith. He was the winner of the Gold Dagger award from the Crime Writers' Association — for Bones and Silence — who also awarded him the Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement in 1995.

Hill lived in near Ravenglass in Cumbria and is survived by his wife, Pat (Patricia, nee Ruell, whom he married in 1960) and two brothers.

Obituaries: Daily Telegraph (14 January), The Guardian (14 January), The Independent (18 January).

PUBLICATIONS

Novels (Series: Dalziel & Pascoe; Joe Sixsmith)
A Clubbable Woman (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, Collins, 1970; Woodstock, Vt., Countryman Press, 1984.
Fell of Dark. London, Collins, 1971; New York, New American Library, 1986.
An Advancement of Learning (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, Collins, 1971; Woodstock, Vt., Countryman Press, 1985.
A Fairly Dangerous Thing. London, Collins, 1972; Woodstock, Vt., Countryman Press, 1983.
Ruling Passion (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, Collins, 1973; New York, Harper & Row, 1977.
A Very Good Hater, A Tale of Revenge. London, Collins, 1974; Woodstock, Vt., Countryman Press, 1982.
An April Shroud (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, Collins, 1975; Woodstock, Vt., Countryman Press, 1986.
Another Death in Venice. London, Collins, 1976; Woodstock, Vt., Countryman Press, 1987.
A Pinch of Snuff (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, Collins, 1978; New York, Harper & Row, 1978.
The Spy's Wife. London, Collins, 1980; New York, Pantheon, 1980.
A Killing Kindness (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, Collins, 1980; New York, Pantheon, 1981.
Who Guards a Prince?. London, Collins, 1982; as Who Guards the Prince?, New York, Pantheon, 1982; as Guardians of the Prince, London, Fontana, 1983.
Traitor's Blood. London, Collins, 1983; Woodstock, Vt., Countryman Press, 1986.
Deadheads (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, Collins, 1983; New York, Macmillan, 1984.
Exit Lines (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, Collins, 1984; New York, Macmillan, 1985.
No Man's Land. London, Collins, 1985; New York, St. Martin's Press, 1985.
Child's Play (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, Collins, 1987; New York, Macmillan, 1987.
The Collaborators. London, Collins, 1987; Woodstock, Vt., Countryman Press, 1989.
Underworld (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, Collins, 1988; New York, Scribners, 1988.
One Small Step (novella; Dalziel & Pascoe). London, Collins, 1990; New York, Delacorte, 1990.
Bones and Silence (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, Collins, 1990; New York, Delacorte, 1990.
Recalled to Life (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, HarperCollins, 1991; New York, Delacorte, 1992.
Blood Sympathy (Sixsmith). London, HarperCollins, 1993; New York, St. Martin's Press, 1994.
Pictures of Perfection (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, HarperCollins, 1994; New York, Delacorte, 1994.
Born Guilty (Sixsmith). London, HarperCollins, 1995; New York, St. Martin's Press, 1995.
The Wood Beyond (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, HarperCollins, 1996; New York, Delacorte, 1996.
Killing the Lawyers (Sixsmith). London, HarperCollins, 1997; New York, St. Martin's Press, 1997.
On Beulah Height (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, HarperCollins, 1998; New York, Delacorte, 1998.
Singing the Sadness (Sixsmith). London, HarperCollins, 1999; New York, Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Minotaur, 1999.
Arms and the Women, An Elliad (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, HarperCollins, 2000; New York, Delacorte, 1999.
Dialogues of the Dead, or, Paronomania!, A Word Game for Two Players (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, HarperCollins, 2002; New York, Delacorte, 2002.
Death's Jest-Book (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, HarperCollins, 2002; New York, HarperCollins, 2003.
Good Morning, Midnight (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, HarperCollins, 2004; New York, HarperCollins, 2004.
The Stranger House. London, HarperCollins, 2005; New York, HarperCollins, 2005.
The Death of Dalziel (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, HarperCollins, 2007, as Death Comes for the Fat Man, New York, HarperCollins, 2007.
A Cure for All Diseases (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, HarperCollins, 2008, as The Price of Butcher's Meat, New York, HarperCollins, 2008.
The Roar of the Butterflies (Sixsmith). London, HarperCollins, 2008; New York, Avon Books, 2008.
Midnight Fugue (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, HarperCollins, 2009; New York, Harper, 2009.
The Woodcutter, London, HarperCollins, 2010; New York, HarperCollins, 2011.

Collections
Pascoe's Ghost and Other Brief Chronicles of Crime. London, Collins, 1979; New York, Signet, 1989.
There Are No Ghosts in the Soviet Union: A Novella and Five Short Stories. London, Collins, 1987; Woodstock, Vt, Countryman Press, 1988.
Asking for the Moon (Dalziel & Pascoe). London, HarperCollins, 1994; New York, Countryman Press, 1996. 

Novels as Dick Morland
Heart Clock. London, Faber & Faber, 1973; as Matlock's System by Reginald Hill, Sutton, Severn House, 1997.
Albion! Albion!. London, Faber & Faber, 1974; as Singleton's Law by Reginald Hill, Sutton, Severn House, 1997.

Novels as Patrick Ruell
The Castle of the Demon. London, Long, 1971; New York, Hawthorn Books, 1973, as The Turning of the Tide by Reginald Hill, Sutton, Severn House, 1999.
Red Christmas. London, Long, 1972; New York, Hawthorn Books, 1973.
Death Takes the Low Road. London, Hutchinson, 1974; New York, Mysterious Press, 1987; as The Low Road by Reginald Hill, Sutton, Severn House, 1998.
Urn Burial. London, Hutchinson, 1975; Woodstock, Vt., Countryman Press, 1987; as Beyond the Bone by Reginald Hill, Sutton, Severn House, 2000.
The Long Kill. London, Methuen, 1986; Woodstock, Vt., Countryman Press, 1988; as by Reginald Hill, London, HarperCollins, 1998.
Death of a Dormouse. London, Methuen, 1987; New York, Mysterious Press, 1987; as by Reginald Hill, London, HarperCollins, 1999.
Dream of Darkness. London, Methuen, 1989; Woodstock, Vt., Countryman Press, 1991; as by Reginald Hill, London, HarperCollins, 1997.
The Only Game. London, HarperCollins, 1991; Woodstock, Vt., Countryman, 1993; as by Reginald Hill, London, HarperCollins, 1999. 

Novels as Charles Underhill (series: Captain Carlo Fantom)
Captain Fantom: Being an Account of Sundry Adventures in the Life of Carlo Fantom, Soldier of Misfortune, Hard Man and Ravisher. London, Hutchinson, 1978; New York, St. Martin's Press, 1980.
The Forging of Fantom. London, Hutchinson, 1979.

Comic Cuts - 13 January 2012

And the good news for today is that the proof of Pages from History Illustrated by C. L. Doughty is in and I'm very pleased with the way the book has come out. There is still some minor adjustments to be made and I'm waiting on reports from my little team of proofreaders, but I'm not anticipating any major problems.

With that in mind, the book is now available for pre-order and I'm anticipating copies will be available within the next few weeks... at the moment I'm putting the official release date as 6 February but I'm hopeful that we may have copies ready for distribution a few days ahead of that. With that in mind, I'm thinking that it would be nice to reward people who pre-order the book — I appreciate the fact that readers have shown a lot of trust by ordering titles from Bear Alley Books ahead of publication and this seems to be the best way to reward them. So I'm thinking that for the next three weeks I will offer the book at a special pre-order price and knock 10% off the cover price on any order between now and Friday, 3 February. Hopefully that will allow everyone who gets paid at the end of the month to benefit from the offer.

Random scans. Following on from last week's Oliver Brabbins' special — well, a handful of the hardboiled covers he produced for Corgi — I thought you might like to see some of the covers he produced for westerns. Brabbins was a regular cover artist for Hamilton & Co. and Grant Hughes in the late 1940s and, although he was far from the best figure artist of the era, he was a master of colourful action as these examples show.

 

 

Next week: While I'm doing the final proofing and tweaking on the book we will be running some more images from World of Wonder. I will also be showing off some more pages from the book. And, hopefully, the week after that we'll begin another Paul Temple strip.

World of Wonder: part 15

Eustaquio Segrelles

 Emilio Frejo

Eustaquio Segrelles

Emilio Frejo

(* World of Wonder © Look and Learn Ltd.)

World of Wonder: part 14

 

 Ron Embleton

 

Angus McBride

 

Ron Embleton

(* World of Wonder © Look and Learn Ltd.)

World of Wonder: part 13

Wilf Hardy

Neville Dear

 Alexander Oliphant

Wilf Hardy

(* World of Wonder © Look and Learn Ltd.)