Gavin Lyall
Encyclopedia
Gavin Tudor Lyall was an English
author
of espionage thriller
s.
, Warwickshire
, England
, as the son of a local accountant, and educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham
. After completing his two years of National Service
, 1951 to 1953, as a Pilot Officer
in the Royal Air Force
, he went to Pembroke College
, Cambridge University
, graduating in 1956 with honours in English
.
While at Cambridge he wrote regularly for the undergraduate newspaper Varsity
and also created a strip cartoon whose hero, "Olly", reflected student life and became a cult figure. He became editor of Varsity in 1956.
After graduating he worked briefly as a reporter for the Birmingham Gazette
, Picture Post
and Sunday Graphic
newspapers and then as a film director
for the BBC
's Tonight
programme. In 1958, he married the author Katharine Whitehorn
, with whom he was to have two sons.
Lyall lived in Hampstead
and enjoyed sailing on the Thames
in his motor cruiser. From 1959 to 1962 he was a newspaper reporter
and the aviation correspondent for the Sunday Times
. His first novel
, The Wrong Side of the Sky, was published in 1961, drawing from his personal experiences in the Libyan Desert
and in Greece
. It was an immediate success; P.G. Wodehouse said of it, "Terrific: when better novels of suspense are written, lead me to them." Lyall then left journalism
in 1963 to become a full-time author.
Lyall's first seven novels in the 1960s and early 1970s were action thrillers with different settings around the world. The Most Dangerous Game (1963) was set in Finnish
Lapland, and was meticulously researched with local details. The film rights to Midnight Plus One (1965), in which an ex-spy is hired to drive a millionaire to Liechtenstein
were purchased by actor Steve McQueen
, who had planned to adapt it to the cinema
before he died. Shooting Script (1966) is about a former RAF
pilot hired to fly a camera plane for a filming company is set around the Caribbean
. The protagonists of Judas Country (1975) are again former RAF pilots, and the setting is now in Cyprus
and the Middle East
.
Lyall is credited as co-writer (together with Frank Hardman and Martin Davison) of the original story on which the screenplay of the 1969 science-fiction film Moon Zero Two
is based.
Gavin Lyall was also a wargamer and appeared in "Battleground", a Tyne Tees television series on miniature war gaming in 1978.http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_5RYJTG6MfW8/SbMLVrfRYwI/AAAAAAAAADY/vBLA00cXCV8/s1600-h/bg0_edited.JPG
Lyall won the British Crime Writers' Association
's Silver Dagger award
in both 1964 and 1965. In 1966-67 he was Chairman of the British Crime Writers Association. Lyall was not a prolific author, attributing his slow pace to obsession with technical accuracy. According to a British newspaper, “he spent many nights in his kitchen at Primrose Hill, north London, experimenting to see if one could, in fact, cast bullets from lead melted in a saucepan, or whether the muzzle flash of a revolver fired across a saucer of petrol really would ignite a fire”.
He eventually published the results of his research in a series of pamphlets for the Crime Writers' Association in the 1970s.
Lyall signed a contract in 1964 by the investments group Booker similar to one they had signed with Ian Fleming
. In return for a lump payment of £25,000 and an annual salary, they and Lyall subsequently split his royalties, 51-49.
Up to the publication in 1975 of Judas Country, Lyall's work falls into two groups. The aviation thrillers (The Wrong Side Of The Sky, The Most Dangerous Game, Shooting Script, and Judas Country), and what might be called "Euro-thrillers" revolving around international crime in Europe (Midnight Plus One, Venus With Pistol, and Blame The Dead). All these books were written in the first person, with a sardonic style reminiscent of the "hard-boiled private-eye" genre. Despite the commercial success of his work, Lyall began to feel that he was falling into a predicable pattern, and abandoned both his earlier genres, and the first-person narrative, for his “Harry Maxim" series of espionage thrillers beginning with The Secret Servant published in 1980. This book, originally developed for a proposed BBC
TV Series, featured Major Harry Maxim, an SAS
officer assigned as a security adviser to 10 Downing Street
, and was followed by three sequel
s with the same central cast of characters. In the 1990s Lyall changed literary direction once again, and wrote four semi-historical thrillers about the fledgling British secret service in the years leading up to World War I
.
Lyall died of cancer
in 2003.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
of espionage thriller
Spy fiction
Spy fiction, literature concerning the forms of espionage, was a sub-genre derived from the novel during the nineteenth century, which then evolved into a discrete genre before the First World War , when governments established modern intelligence agencies in the early twentieth century...
s.
Biography
Lyall was born in BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, as the son of a local accountant, and educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham
King Edward's School, Birmingham
King Edward's School is an independent secondary school in Birmingham, England, founded by King Edward VI in 1552. It is part of the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham, and is widely regarded as one of the most academically successful schools in the country, according to...
. After completing his two years of National Service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
, 1951 to 1953, as a Pilot Officer
Pilot Officer
Pilot officer is the lowest commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. It ranks immediately below flying officer...
in the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
, he went to Pembroke College
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
, Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, graduating in 1956 with honours in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.
While at Cambridge he wrote regularly for the undergraduate newspaper Varsity
Varsity (Cambridge)
Varsity is the oldest of Cambridge University's main student newspapers. It has been published continuously since 1947, and is one of only three fully independent student newspapers in the UK. It appears every Friday around Cambridge...
and also created a strip cartoon whose hero, "Olly", reflected student life and became a cult figure. He became editor of Varsity in 1956.
After graduating he worked briefly as a reporter for the Birmingham Gazette
Birmingham Gazette
The Birmingham Gazette, known for much of its existence as Aris's Birmingham Gazette, was a newspaper that was published and circulated in Birmingham, England from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries...
, Picture Post
Picture Post
Picture Post was a prominent photojournalistic magazine published in the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1957. It is considered a pioneering example of photojournalism and was an immediate success, selling 1,700,000 copies a week after only two months...
and Sunday Graphic
Sunday Graphic
The Sunday Graphic was an English tabloid newspaper published in Fleet Street.The newspaper was founded in 1915 as the Sunday Herald and was later renamed the Illustrated Sunday Herald. In 1927 it changed its name to the Sunday Graphic, becoming the sister paper of the Daily Graphic. In 1931 it...
newspapers and then as a film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Tonight
Tonight (1957 TV series)
Tonight was a BBC television current affairs programme presented by Cliff Michelmore and broadcast in Britain live on weekday evenings from February 1957 to 1965. The producers were the future Controller of BBC1 Donald Baverstock and the future Director-General of the BBC Alasdair Milne...
programme. In 1958, he married the author Katharine Whitehorn
Katharine Whitehorn
Katharine Elizabeth Whitehorn is a British journalist, writer, and columnist who was known for her wit and humour and as a keen observer of the changing role of women.-Early life:...
, with whom he was to have two sons.
Lyall lived in Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
and enjoyed sailing on the Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
in his motor cruiser. From 1959 to 1962 he was a newspaper reporter
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
and the aviation correspondent for the Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
. His first novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, The Wrong Side of the Sky, was published in 1961, drawing from his personal experiences in the Libyan Desert
Libyan Desert
The Libyan Desert covers an area of approximately 1,100,000 km2, it extends approximately 1100 km from east to west, and 1,000 km from north to south, in about the shape of a rectangle...
and in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. It was an immediate success; P.G. Wodehouse said of it, "Terrific: when better novels of suspense are written, lead me to them." Lyall then left journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
in 1963 to become a full-time author.
Lyall's first seven novels in the 1960s and early 1970s were action thrillers with different settings around the world. The Most Dangerous Game (1963) was set in Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
Lapland, and was meticulously researched with local details. The film rights to Midnight Plus One (1965), in which an ex-spy is hired to drive a millionaire to Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...
were purchased by actor Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen
Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...
, who had planned to adapt it to the cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
before he died. Shooting Script (1966) is about a former RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
pilot hired to fly a camera plane for a filming company is set around the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
. The protagonists of Judas Country (1975) are again former RAF pilots, and the setting is now in Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
.
Lyall is credited as co-writer (together with Frank Hardman and Martin Davison) of the original story on which the screenplay of the 1969 science-fiction film Moon Zero Two
Moon Zero Two
Moon Zero Two is a science fiction film produced by Hammer Films and released in 1969. It was billed as a 'space western' and followed shortly after the release of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968...
is based.
Gavin Lyall was also a wargamer and appeared in "Battleground", a Tyne Tees television series on miniature war gaming in 1978.http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_5RYJTG6MfW8/SbMLVrfRYwI/AAAAAAAAADY/vBLA00cXCV8/s1600-h/bg0_edited.JPG
Lyall won the British Crime Writers' Association
Crime Writers' Association
The Crime Writers Association is a writers' association in the United Kingdom. Founded by John Creasey in 1953, it is currently chaired by Peter James and claims 450+ members....
's Silver Dagger award
Gold Dagger
The Gold Dagger Award was an award given annually by the Crime Writers' Association for the best crime novel of the year.For its first five years, the organization's top honor was known as the Crossed Red Herring Award....
in both 1964 and 1965. In 1966-67 he was Chairman of the British Crime Writers Association. Lyall was not a prolific author, attributing his slow pace to obsession with technical accuracy. According to a British newspaper, “he spent many nights in his kitchen at Primrose Hill, north London, experimenting to see if one could, in fact, cast bullets from lead melted in a saucepan, or whether the muzzle flash of a revolver fired across a saucer of petrol really would ignite a fire”.
He eventually published the results of his research in a series of pamphlets for the Crime Writers' Association in the 1970s.
Lyall signed a contract in 1964 by the investments group Booker similar to one they had signed with Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
. In return for a lump payment of £25,000 and an annual salary, they and Lyall subsequently split his royalties, 51-49.
Up to the publication in 1975 of Judas Country, Lyall's work falls into two groups. The aviation thrillers (The Wrong Side Of The Sky, The Most Dangerous Game, Shooting Script, and Judas Country), and what might be called "Euro-thrillers" revolving around international crime in Europe (Midnight Plus One, Venus With Pistol, and Blame The Dead). All these books were written in the first person, with a sardonic style reminiscent of the "hard-boiled private-eye" genre. Despite the commercial success of his work, Lyall began to feel that he was falling into a predicable pattern, and abandoned both his earlier genres, and the first-person narrative, for his “Harry Maxim" series of espionage thrillers beginning with The Secret Servant published in 1980. This book, originally developed for a proposed BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
TV Series, featured Major Harry Maxim, an SAS
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
officer assigned as a security adviser to 10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street, colloquially known in the United Kingdom as "Number 10", is the headquarters of Her Majesty's Government and the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury, who is now always the Prime Minister....
, and was followed by three sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
s with the same central cast of characters. In the 1990s Lyall changed literary direction once again, and wrote four semi-historical thrillers about the fledgling British secret service in the years leading up to World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Lyall died of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
in 2003.
Works
- The Wrong Side of the SkyThe Wrong Side of the SkyThe Wrong Side of the Sky is the debut novel by English author Gavin Lyall, first published in 1961. It is written the in first person narrative.-Plot introduction:...
(1961) - The Most Dangerous GameThe Most Dangerous Game (Gavin Lyall novel)The Most Dangerous Game is a first person narrative novel by English author Gavin Lyall, first published in 1964. The plot of the novel is totally different from the Richard Connell short story The Most Dangerous Game.-Plot introduction:...
(1963) - Midnight Plus OneMidnight Plus OneMidnight Plus One is a first person narrative novel by English author Gavin Lyall, first published in 1965.-Plot introduction:Lewis Cane is an ex-SOE operative who worked with the French Resistance against Nazi Germany. He stayed in Paris after the end of World War II, making a somewhat precarious...
(1965) - Shooting ScriptShooting ScriptShooting Script is a first person narrative novel by English author Gavin Lyall, first published in 1966.-Plot introduction:Keith Carr, an ex-Royal Air Force fighter pilot with combat experience in the Korean War is now living in Jamaica, where he makes a threadbare living flying charter cargo...
(1966) - Venus With PistolVenus with PistolVenus With Pistol is a first person narrative novel by English author Gavin Lyall, first published in 1969.- Explanation of title :One of the artists mentioned towards the end of the novel is the Renaissance Venetian artist Giorgione, and the painting which is described in the novel is clearly...
(1969) - Freedom's Battle: The War in the Air 1939-1945 (1971)
- Blame the Dead (1973)
- Judas CountryJudas CountryJudas Country is a first person narrative novel by English author Gavin Lyall, first published in 1975.-Plot introduction:Roy Case, an ex-Royal Air Force military transport makes a threadbare living flying charter cargo flights around the Mediterranean in an old Beechcraft Queen Air...
(1975) - Operation Warboard: How to Fight World War II Battles in Miniature (1976) non-fiction, in collaboration with his son Bernard Lyall
- The Secret ServantThe Secret Servant (Gavin Lyall novel)The Secret Servant is a third person narrative novel by English author Gavin Lyall, first published in 1980, and the first of his series of novels with the character “Harry Maxim” as the main protagonist.-Plot introduction:...
(1980) - The Conduct of Major MaximThe Conduct of Major MaximThe Conduct of Major Maxim is a third person narrative novel by English author Gavin Lyall, first published in 1982, and the second of his series of novels with the character “Harry Maxim” as the main protagonist.-Plot introduction:...
(1982) - The Crocus ListThe Crocus ListCrocus List is a third person narrative novel by English author Gavin Lyall, first published in 1985, and the third of his series of novels with the character “Harry Maxim” as the main protagonist.-Plot introduction:...
(1985) - Uncle TargetUncle TargetUncle Target is a third person narrative novel by English author Gavin Lyall, first published in 1988, and the fourth and last in his series of novels with the character “Harry Maxim” as the main protagonist.-Plot introduction:...
(1988) - Spy's Honour (1993)
- Flight from Honour (1996)
- All Honourable Men (1997)
- Honourable Intentions (1999)