Author Name:

Author Description Born in Leytonstone, Essex, Sydney Horler was educated at Redcliffe and Colston Schools in Bristol.<br /><br />His family wanted him to become a teacher and, very briefly until a fall out with his headmaster, he did fulfil their wishes. But, at age 17, he became a reporter with the Western Daily Press in Bristol, a job he retained until 1911. He left in that year to become a special writer on the staff of Edward Hulton & Co in Manchester.<br /><br />He later moved to London to work for the Daily Mail and Daily Citizen and he also worked in the Propaganda Section of Air Intelligence towards the end of World War I. When the war ended he joined the editorial staff of George Newnes as a sub-editor on John o' London's weekly. He left the job in 1919. It was while at Newnes that his first novel was published by that firm, 'Standish of the Rangeland' (1916).<br /><br />It was then that he decided that he would write fiction on a full-time basis, having contributed short stories for several boys' weeklies previously. His work appears in such as Chums, Boys' Pictorial, Boys' Friend Weekly and Boys' Realm. He also wrote for Hendersons, earning 10 shillings per 1000 words, writing for Penny Comic, Merry Moments and Tubby Haigs.<br /><br />In the 1920s while his novel writing career was taking off he also contributed stories to the sporting libraries of the Aldine publishing Company and it seemed as though he was specialising in school-cum-sport stories.<br /><br />He had a passion for football, was a keen Bristol City fan and had six books with a football theme published. But the turning point in his career came when Hodder & Stoughton published 'The Mystery of No 1' (1925), his first crime novel. It had originally appeared as a serial in the News of the World and this made him realise the potential of serial publication, something that he did for quite some time thereafter. He even wrote a book, 'Writing for Money' (1932) telling aspiring young writers what to do and what not to do.<br /><br />Although he wanted to be known as a thriller writer, he also admired such as Bram Stoker, so he branched out into horror as well. He had a number of memorable characters such as Dr Paul Vivanti, his personal favourite, The Hon Timothy Overbury Standish and Nighthawk and Vivanti appeared in 'The Thriller' magazine for which he wrote 13 short stories in the 1930s.<br /><br />His work was published by a variety of publishers and he wrote two books under pseudonyms, 'Romeo and Julia' as Peter Cavendish and 'The House of Wingate' as Martin Heritage. In all he wrote more than 170 novels and also had eight works of non-fiction published.<br /><br />He suffered a stroke in August 1954 and died in a Bournemouth nursing home on 27 October 1954.<br /><br />Gerry Wolstenholme <br />November 2014

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