Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark (4 September 1900 – 25 August 1958) was an English barrister, judge[1][2] and crime writer under the pseudonym Cyril Hare.[2][3]
Life and work
Gordon Clark was born in Mickleham, Surrey, the third son of Henry Herbert Gordon Clark of Mickleham Hall, Surrey, a merchant in the wine and spirit trade, Matthew Clark & Sons being the family firm. The socialist politician Susan Lawrence was his aunt. He was educated at St Aubyn's, Rottingdean and Rugby. He read History at New College, Oxford (where he heard William Archibald Spooner say in a sermon that 'now we see through a dark glassly' [sic]) and graduated with a First. He then studied law and was called to the Bar at Middle Temple in 1924.
Gordon Clark's pseudonym was a mixture of Hare Court, where he worked in the chambers of Roland Oliver, and Cyril Mansions, Battersea, where he lived after marrying Mary Barbara Lawrence (daughter of Sir William Lawrence, 3rd Baronet) in 1933. They had one son, Charles Philip Gordon Clark (1936-2018; clergyman, later dry stone waller), and two daughters, Alexandra Mary Gordon Clark (b. 1938) and Cecilia Mary Gordon Clark (1944-1999; wife of Roderick Snell).
As a young man and during the early days of the Second World War, Gordon Clark toured as a judge's marshal, an experience he used in Tragedy at Law. Between 1942 and 1945, he worked at the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. At the beginning of the war, he served a short time at the Ministry of Economic Warfare, and the wartime civil service with many temporary members appears in With a Bare Bodkin. In 1950, he was appointed county court judge in Surrey. His best-known novel is Tragedy at Law, in which he drew on his legal expertise and in which he introduced Francis Pettigrew, a not-very-successful barrister who in this and four other novels just happens to elucidate aspects of the crime. His professional detective (they appeared together in three novels, and only one has neither of them present) was a large and realistic police officer, Inspector Mallett, with a vast appetite.
Tragedy at Law has never been out of print, and Marcel Berlins described it in 1999 as "still among the best whodunnits set in the legal world."[4]P. D. James went further and wrote that it "is generally acknowledged to be the best detective story set in that fascinating world."[5] It appeared at no. 85 in The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time. Of his other full-length novels, Suicide Excepted shows a man committing an almost perfect murder, only to find that a quirk of the insurance laws deprives him of his hoped-for reward. He was a member of the Detection Club from 1946.
Cyril Hare's short stories were mostly written for the London Evening Standard. Among them, "The Story of Hermione", in which the eponymous character grows rich from the all-too-convenient deaths of several relatives, has been called one of the most chilling short stories ever written. "Sister Bessie" describes vividly the agonies of a blackmail victim and the desperate crimes he commits in the hope of freeing himself from his tormentor. "Miss Burnside's Dilemma" describes the predicament of a person who uncovers a piece of unscrupulous, but entirely legal, chicanery by someone she had previously admired. "A Life for a Life" explores the possibility of atonement for one's earthly sins after death.
Mickleham, St. Michael's Church
Having contracted tuberculosis shortly after the Second World War, Gordon Clark was never again in full health and died at his home near Box Hill, Surrey at age 57. His estate was valued at £29,106.[6]
He is buried at St. Michael's Church, Mickleham.
Works
Novels
The Magic Bottle, a children's book (1946)
An English Murder (1951), adapted from the radio play Murder at Warbeck Hall (Title of some US reprints The Christmas Murder, 1953)
Inspector Mallett series
Tenant for Death (1937), adapted from the stage play Murder in Daylesford Gardens
It Takes Two .... Evening Standard, 29 November 1949. Collected in Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare
Sister Bessie. Evening Standard, 23 December 1949. Collected in Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare as Sister Bessie or Your Old Leech. Reprinted as Sister Bessie or The Present in the Post. Queensland Times, 28 December 1950
I Never Forget a Face. Evening Standard, 27 April 1950. Collected in Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare
As the Inspector Said .... Evening Standard, 23 August 1950. Collected in Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare
The Euthanasia of Hilary's Aunt. Evening Standard, 9 December 1950
Spare the Rod and Spoil the Crime. Evening Standard, 24 January 1951
Death among Friends. Evening Standard, 28 March 1951. Collected in Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare
Murderers' Luck. This Week, 24 June 1951. Reprinted, Evening Standard, 17 July 1951 and collected in Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare. Also published as Mugs' Luck and Mug's Luck
Amazing Lady. This Week, 23 September 1951. Reprinted, Evening Standard, 4 October 1951 and collected in Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare as The Story of Hermione
The Ruling Passion. Evening Standard, 25 July 1956. Collected in Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare (Pettigrew)
Devil on the Island. This Week, 17 November 1957. Reprinted, Evening Standard, 9 October 1958 as Thursday's Child. Collected in Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare
The Double Take. This Week, 15 December 1957. Reprinted, Evening Standard, 6 October 1958 as Monday's Child. Collected in Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare
Wednesday's Child. Evening Standard, 8 October 1958. Collected in Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare
Friday's Child. Evening Standard, 10 October 1958. Collected in Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare
Saturday's Child. Evening Standard, 11 October 1958. Collected in Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare
Radio plays
Murder at Warbeck Hall BBC Light Programme, 27 January 1948 (Episode 2 in a series of plays by members of The Detection Club)
Stage plays
Murder In Daylesford Gardens (1929). Revised as The Noose Is Cut (1935)
The House of Warbeck (1955). Adapted from An English Murder
Reviews
Forensic Farce (Review of Friends at Court by Henry Cecil). Daily Telegraph, 16 March 1956
References
^‘GORDON CLARK, His Honour Judge Alfred Alexander’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012; online edn, Nov 2012 accessed 26 May 2013
^ abHis Honour A. A. Gordon Clark (Obituaries) The Times Tuesday, 26 August 1958; pg. 10; Issue 54239; col E
