John Creasey

John Creasey was born in Southfields, London Borough of Wandsworth (formerly part of Surrey), to a working-class family. He was the seventh of nine children of Ruth and Joseph Creasey, a poor coach maker. Creasey was educated at Fulham Elementary School and Sloane School, both in London. From 1923 to 1935 he worked various clerical, factory, and sales jobs while trying to establish himself as a writer. After a number of rejections, Creasey's first book was published in 1930. His first crime novel, Seven Times Seven, about a gang of criminals, was published in January 1932 by Melrose. In 1935 he became a full-time writer. In 1937 alone, twenty-nine of his books were published. A phenomenally fast writer, he once suggested that he could be shut up in a glass-box and write there a whole book. He died at his home New Hall, which is now New Hall Hospital, Bodenham near Salisbury, Wiltshire in 1973. In March 2007, his family sold all of Creasey's copyrights to Fleming Literary Management. Adaptations • Several adaptations were made of Creasey's novels. On film these included: Salute the Toff (1952, also known as Brighthaven Express in the USA), Hammer the Toff (1952), John Ford's ''Gideon's Day (1958, also known as Gideon of Scotland Yard in the USA), released by Columbia Pictures, and Cat & Mouse (1958, also known as The Desperate Men'' in the USA), written as Michael Halliday. • On television, a series based on the Commander George Gideon character, ''Gideon's Way'', was produced from 1964 to 1965 by ITC Entertainment and starring John Gregson in the title rôle. ITC followed this with a version of Creasey's The Baron character (1965–66), starring Steve Forrest. • Between 1967 and 1971 the BBC produced a radio version of Creasey's Roger West stories with actor Patrick Allen in the title role as Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Roger "Handsome" West, with Allen's real-life wife Sarah Lawson playing the role of West's wife Janet. The Toff was also portrayed on Australian and BBC radio. Richard Creasey John's son Richard Creasey is an author and television producer, having served both in the private sector and at the BBC, and as the British producer of Patrick Watson's worldwide Canadian television documentary series The Struggle for Democracy. He has developed his father's "Doctor Palfrey" series by penning a new series of techno-thrillers around the character of Doctor Thomas Palfrey. ==Crime Writers' Association (CWA)==

In 1953, John Creasey founded the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) in the UK. The CWA New Blood Dagger is awarded in his memory, for first books by previously unpublished writers; sponsored by BBC Audiobooks, it includes a prize of £1000. This award was known previously as the John Creasey Memorial Dagger. ==Pseudonyms==

His pseudonyms include: • Gordon Ashe • Henry St. John Cooper • Credo • Norman Deane • Robert Caine Frazer • Patrick Gill • Michael Halliday • Charles Hogarth (with Ian Bowen) • Brian Hope • Colin Hughes • Kyle Hunt • Abel Mann • Peter Manton • J.J. Marric • James Marsden • Richard Martin • Rodney Mattheson • Anthony Morton • Henry St. John • Martin Richard • Jeremy York In addition, he wrote Westerns under the names of Ken Ranger, Tex Riley, William K. Reilly, and Jimmy Wilde. He also wrote Romantic novels under the names of Margaret Cooke, M.E. Cooke, and Elise Fecamps. ==Political career==

Creasey was a longtime committed Liberal party member though he later became an independent. He said that he had been organising Liberal street-corner meetings from the age of 12. At the time of the 1945 general election Creasey was Chairman of the local Liberal Association in Bournemouth where his publicity and writing skills were instrumental in helping the Liberals to an atypical second place. He was adopted as prospective parliamentary candidate for Bournemouth West in 1946 and appeared on the platform at the 1947 Liberal Assembly, which was held in Bournemouth. He fought Bournemouth West in the 1950 general election, coming third. He became increasingly unhappy with the party through the 1950s though and disagreed so much with the party's policy concerning the Suez Crisis he resigned his membership. However, after the Orpington by-election success of 1962 and impressed with Jo Grimond's leadership of the party he seemed to be reviving his Liberal activity. By January 1966 however, he had founded the All Party Alliance, a pressure group which sought to unite the best people from all parties. The platform of the All Party Alliance was based on running industry by councils made up of workers, managers, investors and government to avoid industrial action, with a mind to eventually eliminate income tax. John Creasey features in the Look At Life film I Protest! where he is seen collecting signatures for a petition to lobby the government to take action against the number of deaths due to road accidents. ==Honours==

Creasey was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services in the United Kingdom's National Savings Movement during World War II. ==Museum==

The Young Gallery in Salisbury holds a collection of books, personal effects, and objects relating to John Creasey as part of its collection. This was previously known as the John Creasey Museum, but now comes under the Young & Creasey Gallery Trust. ==Bibliography==