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BIOGRAPHY
Family Background and Early Life
Early Publications (1907 - 1910)
Breakthrough - The Iron Island Series (1910 - 1912)
Sexton Blake and Nelson Lee (1912 - 1916)
Nelson Lee and Sexton Blake (1915 - 1920) - Nelson Lee Library, Union Jack and Sexton Blake Library
Edwy and Frances
More of St. Franks' and Sexton Blake (1920 - 1933)
Boys Magazine and Falcon Swift (1927-1933)
The end of St. Franks' : Sexton Blake to the Fore (1933-1937)
First attempts to publish novels - Grouser Beeke and the Harrap's experience (1935).
Norman Conquest in The Thriller (1937-1940)
The Conquest Books - First Phase (1938-1941) - Stories taken from The Thriller
"Ironsides" Cromwell Makes an Entrance
Conquest and Cromwell - Phase Two (1942-1949) - Rewriting Sexton Blake
A Note about H Leonard Brooks
Conquest and Cromwell - Phase Three (1950 onwards) - Original Stories
Family Background and Early Life
Edwy Searles Brooks was born in Hackney, London on 11th November, 1889. His unusual Christian name is from Edwy the Fair, a Welsh king, and was said to be a celebration of the Edwy's remarkably fair hair.
Edwy's father was a Congregational minister, Reverend George Brooks, born in Morton, Lincolnshire in 1852. His mother, Hannah Searles Brooks (nee Ward), was born in London in 1851 although her family originated in Norfolk. Her father was Thomas Ward, a notable engineer who was said to have constructed one of Egypt’s biggest bridges. Hannah's mother was born Hannah Searles, the daughter of James Searles, the family origin of Edwy's middle name.
George Brooks was a remarkable and clever man with strong and often-radical views. He was a well-known political writer for The Times and leading magazines of the day. He also had great principles, and is said to have refused a prestigious post because of his beliefs. This decision greatly dismayed the rest of the family, for this was greatly sought-after position, and would have given them a more comfortable existence. But Brooks Snr. was not a man to settle for a comfortable family life. He was an activist. In aid of his religious evangelism he would hire halls to give lectures and talks on religious instruction, complete with illustrations. An example of his political activism is a pamphlet entitled “Why I became a Liberal Unionist” written in 1888 wherein Mr Brooks states his opposition to the Irish Union on the grounds that a united Ireland, separate to Great Britain, would be a place where enemies of Britain would be able to amass forces to attack. Brooks Snr. described how he had recently visited the United States and had been shocked at the anti-British feeling he experienced, on the basis of which he included the Americans among the threatening nations. Correspondence from the Hackney address to a Birmingham councillor suggested the matter was so important that consideration should be given to purchasing sufficient copies to deliver throughout the councillor’s Hagley Road constituency.
Being a Congregational minister he may have been required by the nature of his ministry to move himself and his family every few years. The variety of birthplaces of his six children demonstrate this - Driffield (Yorkshire), South Hornsey (London), Dulwich , Peterborough, Stamford Hill (London) and Hackney (London). At the time of Edwy's birth, his father was still minister of Robert Street Church, Grosvenor Square, but his radical views soon led to his departure, and the family moved to the village of Mells, in Suffolk where Edwy spent his first years..
Edwy was the youngest of six children, having four brothers, George, Arthur, Edward Oswald and Leonard, and a sister, Ethel Amy. By 1901, according to census records, he was in Deptford, where he, George, Edward Oswald and Ethel were living with Arthur. Arthur's profession is stated as Commisioner/Agent for a Printer while Edward Oswald is a theatre manager with George as theatre secretary. By 1905 Edward Oswald and George had moved to Swansea where they were managing the Grand Theatre
Meanwhile, Edwy's father and mother remained in Mells with Edwy's other brother, Leonard. At some stage, Edwy must have must have moved back to his parents home and became a pupil of Banham Grammar School. During these years he was an avid reader of The Magnet and The Gem, and an advertisement of his appeared in one of these papers.
Although as a youngster at school he excelled at English, it is clear from the outset that he was not driven to write by some inner spirit, but saw story-telling as fun, and as a way of earning some money. He did not write stories as a young child, indeed his first story was written when he was 16. This story, preserved in Brooks’ papers bore the title “The Rocky Island, or The Treasure of the Barnaby’s”. For the story he chose the pseudonym of Merrick Maynard, but the story remained unpublished. The manuscript has a remarkable end-note which reads “Started Friday, July 6th, 1906. Finished Tuesday, July 10th, 1906.” and “My first story - M.M. - E. S. Brooks. Worked 3 hours Friday, 3 hrs. Saturday, 6 hrs. Sun. 4 hrs. Monday, 1 hr. Tues.” This demonstrates clearly from the outset that Edwy regarded writing as a craft and a business, and it is the exemplary quality of his craftsmanship which sustained him throughout his career. It was his proud claim in later years that he had never earned a penny of his living other than by writing.
Early Publications (1907 - 1910)
His first published story appeared in the magazine Yes and No published by Shurey’s in July 1907, when he was still only seventeen years old. The 3,000 word story , “Mr Dorien’s Missing £2000”, owed a lot to Edgar Allen Poe in its style, but it earned its author the princely sum of 30 shillings, being paid at the rate of ten shillings per thousand words. During the next few years he struggled to establish himself, managing to get only a handful of stories published. When Edwy managed to get a story, “Jim Goodwin’s Homecoming”, published in The Novel Magazine in June 1909, he felt he had arrived, for this monthly featured regular contributions from Conan Doyle, Richard Marsh, J S Fletcher, J S Winter and others. As time went by, however, Edwy realised success did not come so easily. Nothing more appeared in The Novel Magazine, and Edwy’s efforts with other editors must have sorely tried his patience.
Edward Oswald's position as manager of the Grand Theatre gave Edwy an opportunity to stay in print. From around 1909, Arthur, who, it will be remembered, was a printer's agent, edited a 16 page theatre magazine The Magazine Programme .. This proved to be a fortunate circumstance for the young writer, for he was able to make weekly contributions to the magazine, including serials and short stories. These began in April 1909 and continued until July 1911.
During this time Edwy was making a determined effort find outlets for his stories. Surviving correspondence demonstrates how much effort was expended in submitting story outlines, writing and rewriting stories before they were either accepted or rejected. Exchanges of correspondence with editors of Chums, Penny Magazine, and Nugget Library show Edwy producing a string of stories without success. That he would later be able to use these stories elsewhere would not have been known to him at that time. Some of his rare successes were in the more unlikely papers such as, for example, the Cycling magazine.
Breakthrough - The Iron Island Series (1910 - 1912)
The breakthrough came, according to Brooks, when, after some initial submission of manuscripts, and exchange of correspondence, the editor of the Boys Friend, Arthur C Marshall, asked to see him. This auspicious meeting took place on 11 July 1910. Marshall, surprised by the youthfulness of his visitor, (a young looking seventeen-year-old, according to Brooks, although he must actually have been twenty) nevertheless told him to go away and write a ten-thousand word story. This first story was rejected, but Marshall encouraged him to write another one, which was published. The first publication recorded for the Amalgamated Press was “Billy Flip’s Benefit” in October 1910.
From this, Marshall introduced him to the editor of The Gem, Percy Griffith,who wanted some St. Jim’s stories. Edwy immediately set about writing these school stories. At the same time, however, Griffith asked Edwy if he would write a 16,000 words a week serial for The Gem. Brooks describes the meeting.
The editor of the Gem was a most peculiar man named Griffith - I shall never forget him - bit of an eccentric. He wouldn’t light a cigarette unless he had the name of the cigarette burn first. If he happened to light a cigarette the wrong way round he’d throw it away - most peculiar - and he was smoking constantly all the time and doodling all the time. He had writing pads in front of him all the time and he was making doodles all the time. Pictures, scrawls, all sorts of things. And he said to me one day “I’ve got an idea for a serial for the Gem about a man placed on an island somewhere in the Pacific marooned there by a gang of crooks and he’s left there for ten years - alone on this island which is mostly made of iron and everything is iron and he’s going to call the thing “The Iron Island”. The strength of the island gets into him and makes him a tremendously strong man and he escapes and comes back to England and gets his revenge on all those who placed him there.
The “Iron Island” serial, the St. Jim’s stories in the Gem and the first Boy’s Friend Weekly story all appeared later in November 1910.
The "Iron Island" serial began in Gem 144 (12-Nov-1910). Here we are introduced to Philip Graydon, marooned on a desert island. Graydon is a castaway, but one who displays astonishing powers. He has a well-developed physique, with a walk which makes light of the toughest terrain, is unaffected by the tropical sun and has extraordinary strength. We learn that eight years previously Graydon became a member of the council of a society, The Brotherhood of Iron. Having done so he discovered that the Brotherhood was in fact an organisation of criminals and threatened to expose the whole concern to the police. The Brotherhood usually dealt with such threats by death, but wanting to capitalise on his propects of wealth they took the alternative measure of transporting him to the Iron Island, where the Brotherhood stored their ill-gotten gains, until such time as he agreed to return to marry and to sign over his wife's wealth to the Brotherhood. So Graydon is marooned alone on the island with no hope of rescue.
A hurricane drives a ship way off the normal shipping routes and a man is washed up onto the Iron Island. His name is Frank Kingston. Graydon does his best to restore him to health but, too badly injured, he dies and Kingston conceives of the idea of taking his identity to protect himself from the Brotherhood should he manage to escape.
The scene switches to Paris where an actress, Dolores de las Mercedes, is claiming she is the rightful Queen of France. This is not going down well with the Republican Government, particularly as Dolores is gaining a following. We learn that Dolores is not French, but is a British actress who has hit upon a novel publicity stunt. However, her royalist claims are causing unrest in the country and, after she escapes an attack from an Anarchist bomb, the French government try to persuade her to drop her claims. Dolores refuses to do so and is kidnapped by government agents and, like Graydon, is taken to the Iron Island. Graydon discovers her existence and the two escape.
Reading this story, it is easy to recognise that the first two episodes do not read like a typical Brooks story. There are features of the Paris episode which sit uneasily with his style. The writing has the feel of an older, more cynical, more streetwise writer. The heroines featured in Brooks' pre-war stories are always portrayed as gentle and well-mannered. He would not portray a female who is manipulating the public by such misrepresentation and is expressing no concern that she is causing political unrest. Nor does Brooks tend to use politics in his plots. The conclusion, therefore, is that this story, so influential on Brooks' career, was taken on only after the foundations laid and characters defined. The author may have been A. M. Burrages, suggests Bill Lofts, an authority on authorship of the Amalagamated Press publications.
Picking up characters created by another author would not have been a problem since Brooks was already doing so with the substitute St. Jim stories. However, character of Dolores may have been something of a challenge. Here, at the outset of his career Brooks, is having to portray a female with more maturity and worldliness that he would have wished. His heroines at this time tend to be ones possessing a kind of fresh, open innocence. While Dolores is undoubtedly beautiful, she is not characterised in this way. She is a woman, while all other Brooks females are girls. It was with his transition to more adult stories that ESB began to introduce “blonde bombshell”-type characters such as Nadina Borodin (in Dare Devil Conquest). This was about forty years after the appearance of Dolores de las Mercedes.
In the ensuing serial episodes, a weekly instalment of 16,000 words, Kingston and Dolores take on the task of unmasking and bringing to justice the eminent figures of public life who are secretly members of the “inner council” of the Brotherhood.
In this, Brooks’ first major piece of writing, then, we already have the idea of the superhuman hero, a man endowed with extraordinary gifts. The ideas was not Brooks’ own, it seems, but it is a theme which persists throughout his work in ever developing form.
While they are, of course, framed in the formal approach found at that time, and do not yet have the lighter touch allowable in a later period, the stories are nevertheless absorbing and readable. As the series develops, so does the circle of allies who join Kingston in his battle against the Brotherhood of Iron.
These are remarkably competent stories for a new and youthful writer. Among the stories are some original ideas. One such was a topical story relates to the death of Edward VII. He had reigned for ten years and died in May 1910. This was an important moment for the British nation as preparations were made for the coronation of the new king, George V. Edwy, in common with other Amalgamated Press writers, supplied his Coronation Day yarn. There have been many stories which feature plans to break into the Tower of London to steal the Crown Jewels. What is different about Brooks' story is that they are to be stolen so that the nation can be held to ransom, for how can there be a coronation without a crown?
Sexton Blake and Nelson Lee (1912 - 1916)
The onerous nature of the task of maintaining the “Iron Island” serial, inventing adventures for the avenging Frank Kingston week in and week out for over a period of two years was a wonderful apprenticeship for a new writer, and laid the foundation for his future career. ESB tells us that Griffith had promoted this serial against the wishes of his sub-editor, and when Griffith was suddenly removed from the editor’s chair the serial ceased immediately. The last of the regular Frank Kingston stories appeared in June 1912, although the occasional substitute St. Jim’s story continued to appear for several years.
Brooks was now having to look for a new market. He had spent a great deal of effort trying to woo the editor of The Boy’s Herald, Horace Phillips, but only managed to sell three stories, the last appearing in December 1911. He also made great efforts to sell his stories to Rex Haydon, editor of Pluck, but only sold one story. The mainstay of his income during 1912 was in Cheer Boys Cheer, where he contributed weekly Clive Derring detective stories, from June to August. 1912 was the year ESB contributed his first two Sexton Blake stories to the Union Jack, “The Motor Bus Mystery” and “The Coffee Stall Mystery”. Also in August 1912 he appeared for the first time in Boys Friend Library with “Canvas and Caravan” written as R W Comrade and introducing members of the Capelli Circus.
Times were hectic, and rather difficult for Edwy’s family during the next few years. From correspondence it is clear that the Brooks family moved frequently. For example, correspondence between 1909 to 1912 shows Edwy at the following addresses: Bacton-On-Sea, Norfolk (April 1909), Four Elms, Stonham Parva, Suffolk (January- June 1910), Brockley Road, London (July 1910 - February 1911), Stonham Parva again (July - August 1911), Bures House, Bures, Suffolk (January - October 1912), Talbot Lodge, South Norwood - sometimes referred to as "The Hut" - (May-August 1913). He seems also to have spent some time at Kenninghall in Norfolk.
Then, late in 1913, the Brooks family acquired a cinema, the New Standard Cinema (changed by them to the Standard Playhouse Cinema) in Croydon, which opened its doors under new management in January 1914. Arthur, Leonard and George were the mainstays of the business. Edwy had some involvement, but does not appear to have played a significant role in management. The cinema seemed to be the main source of income for the Brooks’s for the years 1914-15, and, in order to increase this income, they decided to open the theatre on Sundays. As a consequence the family received a summons for contravening the licensing laws. When the application for a licence to include opening on a Sunday was refused, this signalled the end of the family’s involvement with theatre management. Reverend Mr Brooks was reported by Edwy to be still “hale and hearty as ever” at this time, but his name is not included in the report of the proceedings in the Croydon Observer which states “Mr Brooks, the applicant, his mother, a married brother and family and two or three other persons had been trying to eke a living out of the theatre.”
The cinema was providing something of a distraction. Edward Oswald had given up the management of the Grand Theatre and was in America, acting as an agent for various film companies, including Gaumont and Hepworth. This, and the family’s involvement with the cinema triggered Edwy into trying to break into the screenplay market. A film producer, suitably named Mr J Wallett Waller, showed interest in one of the Yes or No contributions “Snake in the Grass” published in November 1914. Waller wanted to submit it as a scenario to Cunard films, but unfortunately Edwy had not reserved the film rights and Shurey’s, the publishers of Yes and No,refused to co-operate. Edwy produced a different scenario, “Unfit”, for Mr Waller, and sought advice from his brother on good practice, but after a number of delaying letters from Wallett, the idea fizzled out, and with it Edwy’s early attempts to get into films.
During 1913-14 ESB made contributions to Boy’s Friend Weekly, Boy’s Journal, The Dreadnought (including a Sexton Blake serial), The Scout and Yes or No. He also contributed the “Yellow Terror” series to Cheer Boys Cheer, substitute St. Jim’s stories to The Gem, and at this time also began to write substitute Greyfriars stories to The Magnet.
Nelson Lee and Sexton Blake (1915 - 1920) - Nelson Lee Library, Union Jack and Sexton Blake Library
It was in June 1915 that The Nelson Lee Library was launched with W B Home-Gall as editor and W H (Willie) Back as controlling Director. Edwy immediately saw this as a new market for his stories. Oddly enough, after his initial entry into the Sexton Blake field, no more of his stories had appeared in Union Jack, but he now re-entered the detective field with a vengeance with stories of Nelson Lee the detective, and his young assistant Nipper in The Nelson Lee Library. The first of these stories “Twenty Fathoms Deep” appeared in September 1915, and by the end of the year he was writing the majority of the stories for the paper, sharing the contributions with G H Teed.
Now at last, ESB had found his regular market, and produced 34 of the Nelson Lee yarns appearing in 1916. From March 1917, Brooks produced all the stories. The Nelson Lee detective stories gave scope for Edwy to develop some of his own remarkable characters and series. In November 1915 he introduced readers to The League of the Green Triangle.
His apprenticeship writing the "Iron Island" stories came to his assistance here. Recapturing a basic plot idea is one thing; lifting a whole scenario is another. In this new serial we are introduced to Douglas Clifford. Clifford has become a member of the council of a society, The League of the Green Triangle. Having
done so he has discovered that the League is in fact an organisation of criminals. He visits the house of Professor Zingrave, the leader of the League and requests release from his oath. Although Zingrave appears to agree with his wish, in fact he arranges for Clifford to be captured and imprisoned in Strathrie Castle, situated in the remotest part of northern Scotland.
In this retelling of the story, it is Nelson Lee who rescues him five years later. Clifford vows to take his revenge on the League and Lee pledges his support. Clifford changes his appearance to look much older and the fight against Professor Zingrave begins.
There is, not surprisingly, not counterpart of Dolores de las Mercedes in these stories. The female interest comes with a typical Brooks heroine. Instead of Dolores, we have Vera Zingrave, the innocent step daughter of the Professor and with whom Clifford is in love.
One feature that is not carried forward from the previous scenario is that the super hero characteristics of Frank Kingston are not carried into the Douglas Clifford character. Clifford has no special powers. Brooks puts these into storage for a few months until he dusts them off for the first appearance of Waldo the Wonderman.
From what has been said, one may have expected Brooks simply adapt the earlier stories to the Nelson Lee format. In fact, to Brooks' credit, he did not.
The League’s leader, Professor Cyrus Zingrave, making his first appearance in this series, featured intermittently throughout the career of Nelson Lee, and also led the later Circle of Terror .
Another notable character created for these early Nelson Lee stories was Jim the Penman, first appearing in March 1916. He was a man possessing a natural gift for imitating immediately and undetectably any handwriting he saw.
As the first Green Triangle series drew to a close in July 1916, Brooks introduced Eileen Dare, a gentle, but remarkably agile, clever and courageous girl who was assisted by Nelson Lee and Nipper in her avowed quest to destroy The Combine, a gang of financial villains who had been responsible for the death of her father.
When the Eileen Dare series was nearing its final curtain, Willie Back decided to try a series which combined school and detective stories and asked Edwy to create a new school for the purpose. ESB did so in July 1917, naming the school “St. Frank’s” after his wife to be Frances (Franky), to whom he was engaged, and who had already begun to type his stories. This school series was initially written as a “reminiscence” of a six-month period which had happened some time previously in the lives of Nelson Lee and Nipper, when Lee and Nipper had sought refuge from the deadly Fu Chang Tong, and in fact some of the storylines were borrowed from earlier Magnet sub stories.
The first stories, written in first-person as if by Nipper, feature his chums of Study C, Monty Tregellis-West, his most loyal companion, and Tommy Watson. We are also introduced to the kind-hearted but stubborn and quick-tempered Edward Oswald Handforth (obviously from the name, a character cherished by ESB) together with Church and McClure his Study D chums, and the bounders of Study I led by Ralph Leslie Fullwood. Nipper initially takes the name of Dick Bennett and Lee poses as “Mr Alvington” to maintain their anonymity from the Fu Chang Tong. The popularity of the school was immediate and was such that this restrictive six-month time-frame was glossed over and Nelson Lee stays on at St. Frank’s. The real identity of the pair, which was already known to the Study C chums, is revealed to the rest of the school during St. Frank’s first foreign adventure aboard the steamship of Lord Dorriemore. “Dorrie” and his friend, the tribal chief Umlosi had appeared previously, and now return for the first of a number of escapades over the years which take St. Frank’s to exotic locations, the detail for most of which Brooks researched in the National Geographic Magazine. In this first foreign adventure we meet again with Eileen Dare, who accompanies them to Umlosi’s homeland.
In addition to the increasing St. Frank’s commitment, ESB contributed regularly to Union Jack, and wrote several stories for The Sexton Blake Library. In June 1918, readers of Union Jack were entertained by the combined talents of Sexton Blake, Nelson Lee, Tinker and Nipper in “The Mount Stonham Murder Mystery”. Brooks used this joint detective approach in several more stories, including one in December 1918, a special Christmas number in which he reintroduced the characters of Cappelli’s Circus, now featuring a new strong-man Rupert Waldo - the Wonder Man. ESB could not have realised when he created Waldo the long-lasting importance this inspiration was to have for his career. In the opening story some of the unusual qualities of Waldo are revealed, for he has the strength of six men, is impervious to pain, is shot, burned in a fire, but is able to shrug off his injuries and elude capture. In this story, however, Waldo is nothing short of a scoundrel. He is a murderer, the motive being to rid himself of a blackmailer threatening to reveal some evil deed of Waldo’s past. Worse than this, however, he has framed a completely innocent man in order to get him arrested for the murder by planting evidence in the innocent man’s caravan. These are the actions not of a gentleman crook but of an out and out bounder. The way in which Brooks remoulded the Waldo character over the years is discussed later, but suffice for now to note his entry onto the Brooks stage of players.
Edwy and Frances
Brooks had now reached that phenomenal level of output which he was to sustain for the next twenty years or so. But the stories were produced in partnership with his wife, Frances. Frances Goldstein was born in Whitechapel in 1898. Her father was Abraham Goldstein, a Jewish master tailor living at Buckleigh Road, Streatham. She had a sister, Dora who later moved to California.
Because of Frances' Jewish background, she and Edwy were first married by civil ceremony in 1918 when he was 29 and she was 20. Two years later, on 6th June 1920, they married in a synagogue, where Frances signed the Jewish marriage certificate with her maiden name. According to Frances, she had known and loved Edwy from the age of 16 and they always worked together, before marriage and after.
In order to marry Frances as she wanted it, in the synagogue, Edwy converted to Judaism. This must have been a contentious issue in both families with Edwy's father's Methodist background and the Goldstein's preference for a Jewish husband for their daughter. Significantly, when admitted to hospital, shortly before his death, and when asked to state his religion, Edwy said, to the anguish of Frances, but probably without thinking, "Church of England". This would seem to show that Edwy's conversion to Judaism was a declaration of his love for Frances rather than a declaration of his true faith.
The bond was a happy and lifelong partnership. Soon after the marriage, the couple paid a visit to and, possibly on their honeymoon, spending almost a year in America, both on the East Coast, staying with Edwy's brother, Edward Oswald, and in Los Angeles where Frances's sister Dora lived . Edward Oswald had furthered his career in the film industry and by now was living in some style in a fashionable part of New York. and Edwy and Frances gave serious consideration to settling permanently in America, but decided against it. Instead they returned to settle at Barton House, Halstead, where they lived for many years.
All his life Edwy paid unstinting tribute to Frances for the great help she had given him in the typing of the stories, and the suggestions regarding them. In the early years Frances would type stories from a dictating machine, but later, as their mutual understanding and proficiency developed, she would type direct from his dictation. Frances paid a crucial role in maintaining the quality of the work.
Edwy and Frances prided themselves on producing clean copy for publication, and delivered to predetermined deadlines. Surviving carbons of manuscripts show very few amendments. Compositors and artists would have had great regard for a contributor who gave them time to do their jobs well, without the panics caused through last-minute copy. Brooks once wrote a St. Frank’s story in three hours, and a series of six in one week, when he was going abroad. In order to keep to schedule with their stories, whenever they were going away for a longish holiday abroad they would work almost day and night for a week with Edwy dictating to Frances. This intensity of work sometimes had unusual consequences. On one occasion when on a bus on the way to Victoria Station to catch a boat train, Edwy asked for “two sixpenny fares full stop”. This, was repeated again later to another astonished bus conductor. One wonders how, when their son Lionel was born, around 1930, they managed to cope with parenthood in such a busy working partnership.
Brooks was a methodical worker. All his stories, even the earlier ones where he was under tremendous pressure of production, were meticulously plotted beforehand. He would create a detailed synopsis, and then using this would dictate the narrative. In his study bookshelves he kept railway timetables, medical books - particularly works on poisons - and all the Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories. He also kept notebooks in which he most carefully wrote down the details of all his characters, so that he would be sure to be exact in future references to them.
Frances was also a writer in a minor way, and there is some evidence that she had romance stories published in Answers Library in the 1920’s. Frances had an extensive education, had attended college, and was well-versed in many subjects. Probably no man and wife worked so closely as a team - there was a sort of telepathy between them, for they seemed to know what was in each other’s mind. It is clear that the phenomenal output represented in this bibliography could not have been achieved without the support of Frances Brooks.
More of St. Frank's and Sexton Blake (1920 - 1933)
The 1920’s saw ESB steadily engaged in producing Nelson Lee and Sexton Blake stories. From 1917 onwards into the mid-’twenties was the age of St. Frank’s. New series introduced notable characters. Reggie Pitt causes a great deal of upset before he redeems himself to become a regular character. Titus Oates makes a brief appearance, and causes a major catastrophe by burning down the school. St. Frank’s is temporarily relocated in London, in itself creating an adventure, and returns to a rebuilt site which has been expanded from two to four houses to make room for the swelling cast of ESB’s characters. The Honourable Douglas Singleton arrives with so much money to spend he too causes problems, followed by Dick Goodwin, Jerry Dodd the Australian cricketing phenomenon, and Archie Glenthorne.
Brooks gave his readers one series after another of remarkably entertaining stories. Characters introduced in these series often stayed on, and added to the interest of later stories. St. Frank’s spread from The Nelson Lee Library into other papers. From April 1919, in addition to the Nelson Lee Library, St. Frank’s stories also appeared in Boy’s Realm, and from July 1920 in the first number of Nugget Weekly. A St. Frank’s series appeared in Pluck in April 1923.
A series in Boy’s Realm of Sport and Adventure in September 1928 brought together the pupils of St. Frank’s and the Blue Crusaders football team, and related stories appeared concurrently in Boy’s Realm and Nelson Lee Library. The Blue Crusaders were an invention of another Amalgamated Press author, Arthur S Hardy, but ESB was able to adopt the characters and develop them further. During one of the series in Boy’s Realm members of the Crusaders team tangled with Professor Cyrus Zingrave, making one of his many return appearances.
This mingling of characters between series is a feature of the Brooks stories. Examples abound throughout his Amalgamated Press contributions. Cappelli’s Circus moves from Boy’s Friend Library to Union Jack and features Waldo; Nelson Lee and Nipper visit Union Jack and Tinker visits St. Frank’s; Waldo appears in Boy’s Friend Library; and Handforth of St. Frank’s visits St. Jim’s. This may have been a marketing ploy to try to get readers to buy other Amalgamated Press papers, but for whatever reason it is an endearing trait which draws us more closely into ESB’s fictional world.
The St. Frank’s stories were reprinted several times in various forms, in Schoolboy’s Own Library and The Popular. A notable series of reprints were the Monster Library editions which ran from November 1925 to May 1927, and reproduced the best-loved series as continuous stories which, at one-shilling for the equivalent of a 400 page novel, were possibly the finest value in a boys’ paper. Monster Library ceased after 19 editions owing to Schoolboy’s Own Library taking priority in reprinting the old series.
There are so many notable characters and memorable series that it is impossible to summarise ESB’s achievement in giving us St. Frank’s. Debates rage over which of the series was the best, and in truth everyone has their own favourite. Was it the Ezra Quirke series? In this remarkably sustained eight-issue mystery ESB presented a series of mysterious, seemingly inexplicable “occult” phenomena, and then in the last episode explained every one rationally. Or perhaps the expulsion of Nipper, and his remakable adventures in proving his innocence? Or the adventures of St. Frank’s among a lost civilisation, the New Anglians, frozen in time? Or perhaps a foreign adventure, in the Wild West or chasing treasure in Africa?
After W B Home-Gall’s departure, editorship had passed to Harold May in 1921, and it was May who was in charge through much of the successful period in the early ’twenties. Brooks was very happy with Harold May because he gave ESB a free hand. However, May was the butt of fellow editors’ ridicule, being far too easy-going. It was not only ESB who was given a free hand, but also some of the less self-disciplined writers and staff.
When Willie Back went abroad discipline relaxed even more, with staff reputedly playing shove-halfpenny on desk tops, appearing for work when they felt like it, and taking days off at will. In 1926 Willie Back died suddenly whilst still abroad, and Monty Haydon replaced him. Haydon felt things had become too slack, and May was moved to the administration department leaving eventually in 1932. The new editor, Alfred Edgar, under Haydon’s direction, wanted to introduce changes, and, Brooks says, it was the beginning of the paper’s decline. The paper was re-launched with a new format in 1926, and Edgar insisted on promoting as the central character in the later stories, on the basis that if Bunter as a comic character could sell The Magnet Handforth could do the same for The Nelson Lee Library. Readers, Brooks says, gradually became sick of Handforth and the paper. A second re-launch in 1930 had St. Frank’s destroyed again and some of the pupils moving to Gray’s Inn Road as “cub-detectives” combining detective training with their school work. When St. Frank’s opened again, some pupils stayed as cub detectives while others, notably Handforth, returned to St. Frank’s. Separate detective and school stories ran side by side for a while until the characters were united again in later series. The popularity of the paper dwindled completely during the early ’thirties, and after yet another new series in February 1933 which launched reprints of the very first St. Frank’s stories, The Nelson Lee Library was amalgamated with The Gem in August 1933.
Boys Magazine and Falcon Swift (1927-1933)
Brooks also found time to contribute to Boys Magazine published by Allied Newspapers. His contributions to this paper were, in the main, more in the realms of science fiction. The Planet Schoolboys explored the solar system, while the Terrorland and Doctor Devil episodes were scientific horror stories.
However, included among his contributions were a number of Falcon Swift detective stories. Falcon Swift had featured in Boys Magazine since 1922 and Brooks was a later contributor to the canon. His serial, "The Shooting Sleuth" saw Sift as the "Sporting Detective" and featured him playing as a centre forward. In addition he provided eight other complete stories between 1931 and 1933.
Ross MacDonald, creator of the Lew Archer detective series, cites Falcon Swift, the Monacled Manhunter, as the favourite detective of his boyhood, although he stories he read would probably have predated the ones written by Brooks.
The end of St. Franks' : Sexton Blake to the Fore (1933-1937)
When St. Frank’s disappeared from centre-stage in ESB’s career, he began to look for other outlets. His interest in non-school detective stories had not dwindled, and in Nugget Weekly in 1920 he had pitted Sexton Blake against The Crescent of Dread, rewriting Circle of Terror plots. Zingrave could not lead the Crescent, being otherwise engaged in the same paper leading The League of the Green Triangle, so Jim the Penman took on the role of mastermind. At one point Jim the Penman and Zingrave combined forces in the pages of Nugget Weekly.
Some quite excellent Sexton Blake stories from ESB’s pen had graced the Union Jack and Sexton Blake Library in the ’twenties. In addition to stories of Rupert Waldo, whose career was steadily developing, Brooks also introduced us in the pages of Union Jack to Honourable “Useful” Eustace Cavendish, a nobleman in the mould of Lord Peter Wimsey who provided assistance to Blake in a number of his escapades. Union Jack, like The Nelson Lee Library, folded in 1933, but continued as Detective Weekly. In the pages of Detective Weekly it was business as usual for a while for Blake, Waldo and Cavendish, and ESB’s contributions to this paper were well up to the standard of the Union Jack yarns.
With a dwindling market for his stories, Brooks looked outside Amalgamated Press. During 1933 he made weekly contributions to Boy’s Magazine, published by Allied Newspapers. However, although in period between February 1932 and January 1934 he introduced stories of the detective Falcon Swift, the Terrorland series, the Bulldog Hamilton series, and the Corsair series, this market dried up in January 1934.
First attempts to publish novels - Grouser Beeke and the Harrap's experience (1935).
ESB now tried to get into the adult hardback novel market. For this assault on “respectable” detective fiction, he combined an entirely new character with an old favourite. This team was Inspector William “Grouser” Beeke and Sergeant Eustace Cavendish. The first novel featuring these two, “The Strange Case of the Antlered Man”, appeared in February 1935. The second, “The Grouser Investigates”, appeared in April 1936. But there were problems with Harrap’s, the publishers, and Brooks has since related how in “The Grouser Investigates” he had to make major revisions to his character Warren Clinton, who was thought to be “too facetious”, before Harrap’s would publish. This level of interference was too much for him, and instead of the third story of the series, “Mr Nemesis”, appearing as a novel, ESB gave up with Harrap’s and sold it to Detective Weekly in which it ran as a serial in 1937. He persisted with the Beeke & Cavendish combination in a number of short stories, also in Detective Weekly. Brooks’ instinct for the market was sound, as we shall see, but his unfortunate first choice of publisher kept him out of the adult detective thriller novel market for several years. The other attempt to enter the adult hardback fiction market concerned a Western, “Ghost Gold”, published as R W Comrade in September 1935. The publishers Rich & Cowan were obviously not impressed, for no further Brooks stories appeared from this publisher.
Around this time Edwy and Frances moved from Halstead, Essex to 26, Briar Road, Pollards Hill, Norbury, London, SW16. One result of this move was disastrous. Edwy had in his old library at Halstead all the stories he ever wrote in bound volumes. During the move to London the packing case which contained them, plus all the personal letters he had received from readers, went astray and was never recovered. Edwy also suffered a personal loss in 1937 when his brother, Arthur, who had given Edwy the valuable early opportunity in The Magazine Programme, maintaining his interest in his writing and later suggesting the formation of the St. Frank’s League, died tragically in a car crash.
This period of his career, having to seek out new markets for his stories, must have been reminiscent of earlier struggles.
D C Thomson : Dixon Hawke and Marko the Miracle Man (1923 -1937)
As English publishers were struggling, Brooks may have switched his attention to D C Thomson Ltd, who were the major rivals of Amalgamated Press. Based in Dundee, they were less afflicted by paper shortages and other problems which eventually brought so many of the southern-based story papers to an end, and they have dominated the market since that time. Brooks already had a relationship with Thomson through his Marco stories.
In the period between 1923 to 1937 Brooks twenty-six Dixon Hawke Library stories, most of them featuring Marco the Miracle Man, a clone of Waldo. Although the characters a Sexton Blake copies, the stories are original.
In addition, he contributed a serial in The Rover from December 1936 to March 1937.
Brooks’ Marco the Miracle Man character appeared again in the Dixon Hawke stories in The Adventure, but the character is significantly altered and it is impossible to tell whether Brooks had any hand in their production, although it does seem unlikely. Bill Lofts recounts a meeting with Frances Brooks, after Edwy’s death, during which she showed him a copy of The Skipper in which she said there was an ESB story; but she could not identify this story. The difficulty faced when tracking down any Thomson contributor is that the stories were published anonymously and were subject to significant editorial re-writing. They were also recycled and changed by editors without reference to the original author. Thus it is impossible to be certain of Brooks’ total contribution to D C Thomson, and his association with them remains, as with most of the Thomson writers, a mystery.
Norman Conquest in The Thriller (1937-1940)
ESB was too good a writer to be out of the limelight for long. In January 1937 he made his debut in the new flagship of Amalgamated Press, The Thriller, with his latest hero, Norman Conquest. Brooks acknowledged his debt to Monty Haydon for the inspiration of Norman Conquest. Haydon was, it will be recalled, the instigator of Harold May’s departure from Nelson Lee Library, a move Brooks deplored. As the controlling director of The Thriller, however, Haydon redeemed himself, for he had gathered together a team of young new writers and in recruiting ESB, an old hand, he paid him the compliment of recognising his adaptability and lasting power.
The Conquest stories were an immediate and outstanding success. It was as if Brooks wanted to prove he was as good as any of these new writers; and to prove to Haydon his faith was justified. All the frustration of the dwindling market, all the pent-up energy of a his natural vitality, burst out onto the page in a breath-taking tour-de-force of sheer action. If the inspiration of Norman Conquest was Haydon’s, undoubtedly the character was essentially Brooks’ own, and was distilled over a long period of time, the end product of a process we saw commencing nearly twenty years earlier. Norman Conquest is the metamorphosed Waldo the Wonder Man, and it is fascinating to see the evolution of the Waldo character since his debut in 1918.
When Waldo entered the scene, as has already been said, he was a murderer and a bounder. Brooks could not at this time have had the future Waldo in mind at all. In the early stories Waldo thinks only of himself and his own criminal ends, and is not particular who gets hurt in the process. Gradually, however, Waldo’s character softens. In June 1919 we find him risking his life and freedom to rescue a girl from a watery death, albeit that he had kidnapped the girl himself to help swindle her out of her inheritance. By 1922 Waldo declares: “I am opening no campaign against honest citizens and it is not my desire to bring ruin on any family.” Thereafter his target is those rich enough to be robbed, particularly where the wealth has been earned by unscrupulous means.
Waldo is now a gentleman-crook, a man of honour. In 1924 he chooses to save the life of Sexton Blake rather than make his escape with his boodle, and saving Blake’s life thereafter becomes fairly routine. A further change comes in 1927 when Waldo accepts legitimate work, and styles himself “The Peril Expert”. He gains the respect and pardon of the law and works alongside Blake. By 1929 the new Waldo is respectable enough to acknowledge the existence of his son Stanley, who becomes a new boy at St. Frank’s. It is in the pages of The Nelson Lee Library that there is a rewriting of history worthy of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth when Brooks writes: “Rupert Waldo had been a master crook in the old days. He had been a thorn in the side of Scotland Yard...[but]...in almost every instance Rupert Waldo had robbed men who were crooked themselves, but beyond the reach of the law. Never had the Wonder Man committed any act of ruthless violence; never had he played dirty.”
Waldo returned to his crooked ways in 1932 but maintained his honourable and gentlemanly character until his last, and remarkably subdued, appearance in “The Midnight Lorry Crime” in January 1937 (Waldo stories appearing after 1937 were reprints). In the background for most of this story, there are no last minute, death defying stunts, no rescuing Blake from the jaws of death, and just a cheery wave of the hand as Waldo overtakes Blake’s car at the end of the story and disappears into history.
Norman Conquest made his first appearance in The Thriller in January 1937, the same month that Waldo disappeared, and the character is so readily identified as that of Waldo that the link is obvious. And yet the subtlety of the difference between the two characters is the key to ESB’s success from 1937 to the end of his life. What he did was to strip away the excesses of Waldo. Conquest is strong - but it is the strength of an athletic and normal being - not the strength of six men. He is not impervious to pain, and certainly not to bullet wounds. Conquest tackles only those men whose crookedness is beyond the law and who can stand to be robbed by their ill-gotten gains. The innocent never suffer at the hands of Conquest. Moreover, Conquest is not hunted by the police - he is not so blatantly crooked as his forerunner. After the initial story written under his own name, all subsequent Conquest stories and novels were written under the pen-name of Berkeley Gray.
Larry Cromwell, The Invisible Speedman (1937-1938)
When the publisher Newnes launched their new weekly story paper the Buzzer on 17 October 1937, Edwy was ready with a new series of stories. Larry Cromwell, the Invisible Speedman, was introduced to readers in the very first number of the Buzzer, and appeared in every episode of the paper. Unfortunately for Brooks, the paper had a short run, lasting only 36 weeks.
The stories are relatively short - about 6,000 words - but the plots are fully developed and detailed. Indeed they are worthy of a lengthier format. They were written at the time when the Norman Conquest episodes were gaining great popularity in the Thriller and were poised to take off in novel form. The tone of the Invisible Speedman stories and to some extent the characterising of Larry Cromwell is influenced by the Conquest yarns, but with some of the less believable excesses of previous super heroes thrown in. It is interesting to compare the characterisations of Larry Cromwell - the Invisible Speedman and Norman Conquest - the Gay Desperado.
Larry and his friend Ray Somers were in the fortunate position that they “had as much money as they knew what to do with”. Cromwell, therefore, is no desperado. Unlike Conquest he does not rob his victims or antagonise the constabulary.
The passion of Larry and Ray was for fast cars and so, with the help of Nelson, a talented mechanic who also acted as Cromwell’s butler, the pair built a revolutionary road racer, Flash, which runs so swiftly and silently that it cannot easily be seen, hence giving rise to the legend of an Invisible Speedman. The car was garaged in a secret underground workshop at Sunrise Cottage where Nelson, whose physical description bears a similarity to Conquest’s Mandeville Livingstone, tends to the car as if it were a baby. In fact Nelson, we are told, is one of the most brilliant motor mechanics in the world, and had been the chief mechanic of Larry’s father, the famous Sir Wentworth Cromwell, who had been killed while beating the world’s land speed record on Bonneville Flats.
Although loving fast cars, Larry declined to follow in his father’s footsteps. Rejecting the idea of adventure of the normal type - track racing and so on - he and Ray had planned a new type of adventure which gave them all the thrills they could wish for. Their aim in life was the championing of folks who couldn’t fight their own battles and the righting of other people’s wrongs.
To this adventurous role Larry brought some extraordinary gifts beyond those of a racing driver. He was a gifted ventriloquist, particularly adept in the art of throwing his voice - a skill which no real ventriloquist can exercise in the way it is portrayed in these stories but which was always popular in the old story papers. In addition to throwing his voice he was also an artful mimic so that the thrown voice could in fact sound like that of another character in the story. In toning down of the super hero into the more adult-oriented Norman Conquest character, Brooks retained the art of mimicry while ditching the more extravagant voice throwing ventriloquism. In contrast, Larry Cromwell, because he is resident in the more credulous world of boys’ adventure stories, is still allowed to exercise the doubtful art of throwing his voice.
The Invisible Speedman also had the power to mesmerise his victims. This power is one which Brooks had first provided for his first super hero, Frank Kingston, nearly thirty years earlier. Kingston had gained the power to mesmerise others as a result of his lengthy exposure to the iron content of the Iron Island where he was held prisoner. Conquest, of course, exercises a less direct form of hypnosis which is called personal magnetism - or as Conquest himself says on one occasion : “I switched on the full force of my electric personality, and practically hypnotised him into agreeing”.
Like Conquest, Larry is an athletic young man and uses acrobatic skills to climb walls and scale buildings. He also thrives on gadgets, an example being an ingenious hidden contraption worn on his back which opens into a pair of wings. This allows him to leap into space from high windows and to seem to disappear into mid-air. In the gadget field Cromwell has an advantage over Conquest, for he has the assistance of Professor Sylvester Storm, a brilliant scientist and inventor who is always happy to allow Larry to try out his latest invention. While having an inventor as an ally is another feature shared with the original super hero Frank Kingston, it is not one which is carried forward into the Conquest adventures.
All the powers exhibited by Larry tend to have a common feature: combined, they create an air of mystery to the perception of the Invisible Speedman and to give the impression to his victims that he is some kind of mythical avenger. He reduces his prey to a state where they will agree to make recompense to the unfortunates whom the Invisible Speedman is championing.
The Conquest Books - First Phase (1938-1941) - Stories taken from The Thriller
It was through the Conquest stories that Brooks finally made a sustained entry into the adult hardback fiction market. Brooks had served a long apprenticeship, via Waldo, and his new character was ready to stand alongside the more illustrious desperadoes of hardback fiction. The stories which appeared in The Thriller between January 1937 to December 1939 were reproduced, linking together several episodes, by Collins as hardback novels from August 1938 onwards.
In these early adventures Conquest arrives from India, where he had spent his childhood, and where his father had had a successful tea business: successful, that is, until a swindling Geoffrey Mortimer had become a partner in the firm. Conquest had left India as a result of his dislike of Mortimer and had travelled the world, but now returned to England to revenge his father’s ruin and death through Mortimer’s trickery (“Mr. Mortimer Gets The Jitters”) His first visit to Mortimer’s home has a significant result, for it is here that he meets Joy “Pixie” Everard, Mortimer’s secretary, a tiny dark-haired elfin-faced girl who promptly resigns her job to side with Conquest. Soon the pair encounter the law in the shape of Inspector William “Sweet William” Williams, and Williams’ long-running love/hate relationship with Conquest and Joy begins.
After seeing off Mortimer, and his partners Glanford and Glibley, Conquest takes on Rurik Voegler, who becomes the nearest the Conquest saga has to an arch-enemy (“Vultures Ltd.”). Williams is promoted to Chief-Inspector and Conquest moves into his first home, “Underneath the Arches”, a converted railway viaduct, which Voegler fails to destroy with a bomb. For all his fondness for Joy, Norman almost comes a cropper when he encounters the beautiful Penelope Trevor (“Miss Dynamite”). He neglects Joy shamefully and is almost led to his death by the evil Miss Trevor. It is Joy’s loyalty and bravery, almost at the expense of her own life, which saves him, and bonds their friendship unbreakably. During this adventure, another bond is made, that between Conquest and a tramp he befriends and saves from accusations of murder. Mandeville Livingstone is a man who, having lost his wife and child, has taken to the road, earning a living by making wooden toys. After his encounter with Conquest, he becomes his Man Friday, and part of the team.
And so Conquest, Joy Everard, and Mandeville Livingstone go from strength to strength. In the Brooks tradition of The Green Triangle, The Circle of Terror and the Crescent of Dread, Conquest next take on The Black Ring (“Conquest Marches On”). A succession of evil doers are given their just desserts: Humphrey Piggott, whose inhuman mining operation is uncovered when Norman, Joy and Livingstone take a holiday in Wales (“Leave It To Conquest”); night-club-owner Paul “Steve the Croat” Stefanovich, whose battle with Conquest climaxed in the ancient walls of Roxenham Castle (“Conquest Takes All”); the savage aboriginal son of the Duke of Chalston “Towoomba Dick”, who tried to turned his victims into life-size wax effigies (“Six to Kill”); The Gas Men and a second encounter with Rurik Voegler (“Meet The Don”); the defence of Leo Hurst, escaping from wrongful imprisonment for murder instead of the villainous Humphrey Casson (“Convict 1066”); and gangster “Mayfair” Tony Crawford and his mob (“Thank You Mr Conquest”).
War-time brought significant changes to Conquest’s life. A stricken German bomber crashes onto and destroys “Underneath The Arches”, destroying Conquest’s beautiful Hispano roadster and almost killing Joy in the process. This precipitates Conquest into a single-handed invasion of Germany. (“Six Feet of Dynamite”).
A feature of Brooks’ writing from this time forward is the obvious influence of P G Wodehouse. ESB is not averse to stealing some of the famous Wodehouse similes. For instance, in “Vultures Ltd” we find: “Mr Williams looked rather like a man who, strolling along the railway, has just caught the up-express in the small of his back”, reminiscent of Wodehouse’s “The Inimitable Jeeves” wherein Wooster’s Aunt Agatha’s demeanour “was now rather like that of one who, picking daisies on the railway, has just caught the down express in the small of the back”. Certainly the early Conquest stories are have a Wodehousian buoyancy which is not so evident in the early work.
"Ironsides" Cromwell Makes an Entrance
Norman Conquest was not the only new character to pave the way to the future. Equally important to ESB in the late thirties was the advent of “Ironsides” Cromwell of Scotland Yard. For these stories, Brooks used the pseudonym of Victor Gunn.
The history of the early Cromwell is gloriously confusing. In September 1939 a series of the Ironsides Cromwell stories appeared in The Thriller. These were war-time stories, with Cromwell pitted against Nazi spies. Cromwell’s character was lifted directly from that of “Grouser” Beeke, but Cromwell’s assistant, Sergeant Potter, owed much to Bunter and nothing at all to Eustace Cavendish. True there was a Cavendish-type figure called Johnny Lister sharing the action with Cromwell in the first three stories, but Lister was a diplomat on holiday, not a policeman.
To complicate matters, however, also in September 1939, the first of a series of hardback novels of Cromwell also appeared. For this novel, “Footsteps of Death”, ESB had reworked a “Grouser” Beeke and Cavendish story, “Mr Nemesis”, originally in Detective Weekly in 1937. The problem with adapting the Beeke and Cavendich stories, of course, was the fact that while Beeke became Cromwell, who would play the part of Cavendish? Brooks chose Johnny Lister for that role, here a police sergeant, a product of Hendon college, and not a diplomat.
Now came a problem. For the second novel in the series, “Ironsides of the Yard”, ESB re-used the first three of the Thriller episodes. To escape from the tangle of roles created for Johnny Lister, Brooks simply declared in “Ironsides of the Yard” that Lister had left the police force and joined the diplomatic service, and thus Lister was able to take part in the previous diplomat-on-holiday role, and Potter had become Cromwell’s sergeant. The third novel, “Ironsides Smashes Through”, also a war-time story partly taken from The Thriller, featured Potter with Lister absent. In the fourth, “Ironsides’ Lone Hand”, rewritten from a Sexton Blake story from 1933, Potter has disappeared and Lister is reinstated. From that time onwards the Cromwell and Lister partnership remained firm.
Reginald Browne, Edward Thornton, Carlton Ross and Rex Madison
As well as novels for Collins, Brooks also established a relationship with the publishers Gerald G. Swan, and created a new gallery of characters. He invented two new schools, Whitelands (written as Reginald Browne) and Westchester (written as Edward Thornton), and several stories appeared in the early 1940’s, all rewritten from St. Frank's stories..
Also for Swan, in “The Black Skull Murders” (1942, as Carlton Ross), based on a Sexton Blake story, he introduced Bill Morrow and Jacqueline “Pinky” Pinker, reporters, with McGuinnis the editor, and “Fishface” Haddock of Scotland Yard. This seemed to be the beginning of a series, but no further stories appeared. As Carlton Ross, he also wrote "Racketeers of the Turf" (1947) rewritten from a Boy's Friend Library story.
As Rex Madison, for Mellifont Publications he wrote “The Black Inquisitor” (1943), introducing Dr Endicott the medico-legal expert, Tubs his assistant and Chief Inspector Wills. Again this could have been the beginning of a series but no further tales appeared. Brooks used this story many years later as the Cromwell novel "Next One to Die".
As Rex Madison, he also contributed a western, "Ghost Riders of Hoodoo Ranch" (1943).
Conquest and Cromwell - Phase Two (1942-1949) - Rewriting Sexton Blake
Meanwhile the Conquest saga continued undaunted.
The war saw the end of The Thriller stories, and when these were exhausted as hardback editions, Brooks revisited the old Sexton Blake/Waldo stories and rewrote them as Conquest novels. In the first of these adaptations (“Blonde For Danger”, based on the Sexton Blake Library story “The Midnight Lorry Crime”), Conquest finds a replacement for the destroyed Hispano when he persuades the racing drive J J Pace to part with his “Pace Special”, a beautiful cream and chromium racer. Norman and Joy moved into their new home (acceptably chaperoned by Livingstone and Joy’s former nurse Miss Susan Bliss) in the penthouse of Conquest Court, their own block of apartments in Park Lane. The manager of the building, George Barrow, and the porter Fred Freeman join the cast, and when Norman and Joy marry, and encounter Rurik Voegler for the third and last time on their honeymoon (“Mr Ball Of Fire”), the stage is set for the rest of their many adventures. Williams is promoted to Superintendent and Sergeant “Mac” Davidson replaces the earlier Sergeant Woodhouse as Sweet William’s regular assistant.
During the 1940’s ESB produced very little, if any, original work. Every Conquest and Cromwell novel was a reprint or a reworking of an earlier story. All the Swan stories were re-workings of old material. Indeed, over his whole career, and more than any other writer, perhaps, Brooks used and reused old stories. Nelson Lee Library, Union Jack, Detective Weekly, Sexton Blake Library and other papers were plundered for material.
This reworking took several forms. Sometimes the story was lifted directly from the earlier version. This happened with the conversion of the Detective Weekly Beeke and Cavendish stories into Cromwell stories. The words of the story, even the names of the supporting characters, are unchanged. Sometimes the plot and sequence of events were retold, expanded or contracted, and new characters used. Brooks retold many of the original Waldo stories in D C Thomson’s Dixon Hawke Library as Marco the Miracle Man stories. The character was, of course, Waldo simply given another name. Or we may find, for instance, an old Sexton Blake story retold as a Cromwell story, with Cromwell taking Blake’s role and Lister taking Tinker’s role. Converting the Blake/Waldo stories to Conquest stories is a more complicated task, and here Brooks has to use his ingenuity to the full since Conquest often takes both the Waldo and Blake roles at the same time. Sometimes this can lead to inconsistencies in the stories, for example where in one story Conquest declares (taking the former Waldo role) that he takes no interest in old criminal cases, while in another story (taking the former Blake role) he reaches from his bookshelf an index of cuttings of criminal cases. Some of the Waldo/Blake plots are successfully converted while others are stretched to incredulity. One of the treasures of the London Old Boys’ Book Club Nelson Lee Library collection is a copy of Detective Weekly which belonged to Brooks and in which he has scribbled the amendments to a Waldo story (“The Ten-Minute Trap”) in order to rewrite it as a Conquest story (“The Spot Marked X - part two”). Reading the old and new versions of stories is an entertainment in itself, and it is not unusual for a story to appear in three or more versions. For instance, an early Union Jack story “The Wager of Death” appears expanded as a Dixon Hawke Library tale “The Circle of Silence”, shortened again for Nelson Lee Library as “The Fateful Wager”, and reworked as the Victor Gunn novel “Nice Day For a Murder”.
A Note about H Leonard Brooks
Edwy’s brother Leonard, after his involvement with the family cinema, also tried his hand at writing. Thus it is that from 1920 onwards we find him contributing to The Sexton Blake Library. However, Leonard did not show the same ability as Edwy in this field, and could not make his characters ‘live’. Indeed it had long been suspected, and was at last confirmed by Frances Brooks, H W Twyman, editor of Union Jack, and Leonard Pratt, editor of Sexton Blake Library, that in truth Edwy wrote these stories himself, with only minor involvement of his brother, in order to help Leonard out of his recurrent financial difficulties.
In 1950 Leonard died in tragic circumstances. The cause of death was gas poisoning, under his own hand, in Blackburn, Lancashire. A strange circumstance in Edwy’s writing at that time is that three of his plots written at that time have, as a major part of the plot, murder, or attempted murder by gas poisoning.
Conquest and Cromwell - Phase Three (1950 onwards) - Original Stories
Apart from this tragedy, which obviously had a deep effect on Brooks, his writing career settled down. From 1950 the writing pattern changed. The Brooks partnership moved to a less strenuous writing pattern, producing two or three Conquest and two or three Cromwell stories every year. The stories now were mainly originals, although the odd reworked story appeared up until as late as 1959, and were plotted and structured as full-length novels. “Dare-Devil Conquest”, written in 1950, was the first Conquest story with a plot which had not had a previous existence outside the hardback form. It was made into the 1954 film “Park Plaza 605” starring Tom Conway, and featuring stalwarts of British cinema such as Sid James (as Bill Williams) and Richard Wattis. ESB was now achieving a degree of wealth and fame. After a lifetime of incredibly hard work, Edwy and Frances Brooks were able to take things a little easier - producing a mere five novels a year! And Brooks began to achieve recognition abroad, most notably in Germany where his Cromwell novels not only sold well, but were made into films, and radio and television productions.
Conquest continued his adventures unabated. Steve The Croat makes a return appearance, this time on home ground in the Yugoslavian mountains (“Follow the Lady”), and we are introduced to Norman’s previously-unsuspected relations when he visits the home of his ancestors, Altonmere Hall in Cumberland, to face the old family enemy “Black Roger” Gaunt (“Conquest Goes Home”). And some fine Cromwell mysteries appeared, from the light-hearted, almost tongue-in-cheek “Alias the Hangman” to the atmospheric and chilling “The Body Vanishes”.
There were great hopes that the Brooks’ son Lionel would follow in his father’s footsteps, but after showing distinct promise and having a science fiction story published he went into Public Relations. He did, after his father’s death, assist in the brief extension of the Conquest saga by collaborating with Frances Brooks on a story, and contributing another himself.
Outside of his fictional world of action, heroics, battle, murder and sudden death, ESB was a quiet, home loving man. He enjoyed motoring, and had driven for over fifty years without a single accident. He belonged to the select band of veteran motorists, and his love of motoring is apparent in the loving descriptions of motor cars, particularly the more luxurious and racing varieties, and in the number of adventures which have their beginning in an incident on the road. He developed a knowledge of electricity and mechanics which was amazing for a untutored person. His skills and inventiveness in this and in carpentry and gadgetry may have been “inherited” from his grandfather. ESB was a keen golfer, played snooker better than average, and could also paint and draw exceedingly well.
“Curtains for Conquest?” was published in 1966 and proved to be ESB’s final novel. Of this last Conquest book it is known that Brooks resisted persuasion by Collins to change the title, almost as if he had some inkling that this was indeed the end.
Edwy died suddenly on 2nd December 1965 at the age of seventy-six. It is indicative of the closeness of this remarkably happy couple that Frances’ death followed closely in 1968.
If literary greatness were measured in terms of hours of pure pleasure per person achieved by an author’s work, or measured by the quality of craftsmanship - the ability to produce endless carefully plotted, clever and entertaining stories cleanly and on time - then E S Brooks would rank with the greatest. Perhaps literature will one day recognise that the ability to entertain and capture the reader is one of its more fundamental values, and that a body of work as extensive and as entertaining as that contained in this bibliography deserves to be recognised in the history of English literature.
Whether this recognition comes or not, it is the gift of any writer that they remain alive for as long as there are those who wish to read their words. E S Brooks’ stories continue to be treasured by his many followers for their freshness, simplicity and openness of emotion. Through the longer running series, and particularly in the St. Frank’s stories, we come to know his fictional world more and more intimately, and recognise it as one where the old values of honour and decency are valued. It is a world which can be trusted, and in which the true human spirit is at home. ESB has many loyal followers, and for these he will remain alive for many years to come.
Additional sources:
Mrs Margaret Brooks
Biographical information supplied by W O G Lofts
Recording of Marjorie Norris’s interview with E S Brooks in 1965
Bob Blythe articles in Story Paper Collector’s Digest and Collector’s Digest Annual, 1968 onwards