Alan Brock is a Golden Age author who has long been forgotten. I think he deserves fresh attention, and I'm delving into his life and work at the moment. My Forgotten Book today is Further Evidence, which was first published in 1934, and earned enough acclaim to be paperbacked, in the days when many good novels never made it into paper covers. Dorothy L. Sayers heaped praise on the book in a review for the Sunday Times, and that can have done it no harm at all.
Brock's specialism was real life crime. He wrote non-fiction about crime investigation, and several of his books were based on actual cases. In a prefatory note to Further Evidence, he says that the plot was influenced by more than one murder trial of the previous forty or fifty years. I'm not absolutely sure which cases he's referring to. The Crippen case is an outside possibility, but the events there were very different from those in the book.
The story, soberly told, concerns the relationship between Robert Savage and Ethel Drew. Savage is married to a nice woman, but falls for attractive, flirty Ethel. Local gossip about them provokes an incident which sees him losing his job. He ends up working for his unpleasant, sanctimonious brother, but he can't get over Ethel. The narrative is rather doom-laden, and it's clear that Something Bad is going to happen. And so it does....
I enjoyed this story. I don't claim that Brock was a masterly prose stylist, but he builds the tension pretty well, and I am certainly looking forward to reading more of his work. My main criticism of the book is the ending, which is anti-climactic, and a weak point (Sayers too had reservations about it.) According to Al Hubin's indispensable bibliography,Brock was born in 1886 and published nine crime novels under his own name, plus one as Peter Dewdney. My understanding is that he is the Alan St Hill Brock who was an expert on pyrotechnics, and a member of the Brock family famous for fireworks over many generations; their company is still going strong today..
9 comments:
New writer to me. The only GAD era Brock I know is Lynn Brock. But that was a pseudonym. I guess this Brock is the only genuine "Golden Age" Brock.
I think so, John. As for Lynn Brock,I think that, for all his books' flaws, he was a rather interesting writer.
I can see why this one is forgotten ... it's just so rare. A worldcat search yields only five libraries that have a copy (four in the UK and one is the US).
Actually, according to the Library of Congress records, Alan Brock is a pseudonym for Stephen Zebrock (1909-1995), a stage, screen, and TV actor, actor’s agent, and author. Alan St. Hill Brock was born in 1886, date of death unknown. His brother, Frank Arthur Brock, was a war hero (see Wikipedia article on him). According to Wikipedia on Brocks Fireworks, the current Brocks Fireworks Company began in 2012 and is unrelated to its namesake -- they simply hoped to capitalize on the name.
(I bumped into this post in the course of trying to find out more about the pyrotechnics expert; thought you might appreciate the additional information.)
Hello, JJM. Thanks very much for this. As I understand it, Stephen Zebrock was American. The Alan Brock who wrote crime fiction and true crime was most definitely English.
In a book called ‘Not So Savage’ (1976) about the members, dinners and illustrated menus of the famous London ‘Savage Club’, reference is made to a portrait of club regular Alan Brock letting off fireworks on a menu dated 5th November 1949. Alan Wykes writes:
“Being king-pin of the famous firework firm of that name, he (Alan Brock) was never let off the Guy Fawkes Night celebrations. However, he was justly more proud of being an amateur criminologist and fingerprint expert, and of writing expertly and entertainingly on those subjects” (p.31).
Thanks, Ian T, that's a nice snippet.
Hello Martin
Just in case you are still 'on the trail' of Alan Brock, I can confirm that he is synonymous with Alan St Hill Brock - one time head of the famous British Firm Brocks Fireworks. You will find a great deal of information about the company on the internet; their origins go back to 1720. Alan was himself a famous pyrotechnist and author of classic books in the field, including 'A History of Fireworks'(Harrap, London 1949). In addition to being head of one of the largest fireworks companies in the world, he was a skilled historical and technical author and wrote crime fiction in his spare time - effectively as a hobby. There is a company still trading as 'Brocks Fireworks' but they have no connection with the original one, the full name of which was 'Brocks Crystal Palace Fireworks Ltd'. They later merged with Standard Fireworks of Huddersfield and no longer exist. Hope this helps - Chris Pearce (Jubilee Fireworks Ltd)
Thanks for this, Chris, glad to hear from you.
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