Gordon Holmes Landsborough, (1913–1983), English publisher, author and bookseller, was in the forefront of change in the paperback publishing and bookselling industries in England during the 1950s to 1980s. Considered a “maverick publishing genius”, he was noted for his phenomenal drive and energy, his innovative business ideas and also for his prolific output as an author.

Early life

Born in 1913 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England, Gordon Landsborough left school at 14 to help support his family. In the evenings he went to night classes, eventually becoming a chemist

Chemist

A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...

 with the research department of ICI. Continuing his studies, he turned to journalism and worked on a number of papers and journals in the north of England. In 1938, he started up ARP News, a magazine promoting air raid precautions to a war-nervous England.

He moved to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1939, where, among other business ventures, in 1940 he started Reveille

Reveille

"Reveille" is a bugle call, trumpet call or pipes call most often associated with the military or summer camp; it is chiefly used to wake military personnel at sunrise...

, which was originally the official newspaper of the Ex-Services' Allied Association.

In 1940 he joined up with the London Scottish Regiment, serving for a time in the deserts of North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

. His experiences there provide the material for several of his best selling novels.

When Gordon joined-up, he was required to state his religion. Gordon answered 'Atheist', since 'Atheist' wasn't a religion, his religion as recorded by the army was 'Atheist / C. of E.'

Post Second World War book publishing and writing

In 1949, Gordon Landsborough was hired by publishers Hamilton & Co as production editor for their entire range of books. As part of his contract with Hamilton, he negotiated a deal with them to buy one novel a month from him. He soon made sweeping changes to their lists of science fiction, crime, and romance and expanded them to include foreign legion.

By the start of 1951, Hamilton’s science fiction titles were being published every two weeks and eventually evolved into the science fiction magazine, Authentic Science Fiction

Authentic Science Fiction

Authentic Science Fiction was a British science fiction magazine published in the 1950s that ran for 85 issues under three editors: Gordon Landsborough, H.J. Campbell, and E.C. Tubb...

. With Landsborough as its first editor, it ran for 85 issues.

Landsborough left Hamilton in mid-1951 to pursue his own career as a writer and publisher. His publishing expertise was much sought after, and he was employed as an advisor to three companies in the paperback publishing industry during the next few years.

His next business venture, in 1953, was an innovation for British publishing: Weekend Novels. Published every Wednesday, they contained a complete and unabridged best selling novel in a 24-page newspaper format with some advertising and were sold for sixpence through newsagents. In these: "He bought reprint rights in existing printed novels and published them each week in tabloid newspaper format without any form of binding or stapling and with line drawings as illustrations... His venture was under-capitalised and had to close after some twenty or so issues had appeared."

In 1954, after Weekend Novels closed, Landsborough returned to Hamilton’s as editor of their Panther Books

Panther (publisher)

Panther Books Ltd was a British publishing house especially active in the 1950s and 1960s, specialising in paperback fiction. It was established in May 1952 by Hamilton's Ltd and titles carried the line "A Panther Book" or "Panther Science Fiction" on the cover...

 imprint, which would go on to become one of the leading British paperback publishing houses.

In 1957, Landsborough left Panther Books to start up Four Square Books, backed by Godfrey Phillips, the tobacco company. Michael Geare, who was employed by him in 1957 as sales manager, said of him: "He was a gifted, clever, likeable chap, and really knew everything about book publishing. On one occasion when we were a book short on the list, he took five days off and wrote the book himself - 'Return Via Benghazi' or something. It wasn't half a bad paperback, either."

Landsborough left Four Square Books in the late 1950s to establish Mayfair Books and also one of England’s first children's paperback companies, Armada Books. The Armada Books list included, somewhat controversially, Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton was an English children's writer also known as Mary Pollock.Noted for numerous series of books based on recurring characters and designed for different age groups,her books have enjoyed huge success in many parts of the world, and have sold over 600 million copies.One of Blyton's most...

, whose books at that time were frowned on by libraries and academics but still sold in their hundreds of thousands. The list also included W.E. John's immensely popular Biggles

Biggles

"Biggles" , a pilot and adventurer, is the title character and main hero of the Biggles series of youth-oriented adventure books written by W. E. Johns....

 series and stories he wrote for children based on the popular television series Bonanza

Bonanza

Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...

. Armada Books were sold to Collins Books

HarperCollins

HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...

 in 1963.

In 1965 he started up another children’s publishing company, Dragon Books. His list included his own abridgements for children of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan

Tarzan

Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...

 books and PC Wren's Beau Geste

Beau Geste

Beau Geste is a 1924 adventure novel by P. C. Wren. It has been adapted for the screen several times.-Plot summary:Michael "Beau" Geste is the protagonist. The main narrator , by contrast, is his younger brother John...

. Dragon Books was later acquired by Granada Publishing Ltd.

In 1950, initially as part of his contract with Hamilton's, Landsborough started writing novels, prolifically producing around 90 books over the next 35 years. In 1953 he told newspapers that in a period of just 3 years from 1950 to 1953 he wrote 51 novels (at least 49 of which were accepted) at a rate of a million words a year. Like many well-known authors during those economically tough post war years, he wrote genre novels under pseudonyms for the rapidly growing paperback

Paperback

Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...

 market, to augment his income. Most of these were westerns and crime novels, “mass produced” using a tape recorder at a rate of about one a month.

He wrote 13 books under his own name, including, in 1956, the best selling Tobruk Commando. Also in 1956 were published The Battle of the River Plate (with sales revenue going to the survivors’ fund), the book of the film Storm Center

Storm Center

Storm Center is an American drama film directed by Daniel Taradash. The screenplay by Taradash and Elick Moll focuses on what were at the time two very controversial subjects, Communism and book banning, and took a strong stance against censorship....

, starring Bette Davis

Bette Davis

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...

, and the book of the film The Bold and the Brave

The Bold and the Brave

The Bold and the Brave is a 1956 Hollywood World War II movie written by Robert Lewin and directed by Lewis R. Foster, starring Wendell Corey, Mickey Rooney, and Don Taylor. The movie was produced by Filmmakers Production Organization and released by RKO....

, starring Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...

. In the 1970s he continued to write, producing another five books including the popular Glasshouse Gang series.

A short story, Something in the Air, one of two commissioned in 1970 by Philip Harbottle, editor of the short-lived science fiction magazine, Vision of Tomorrow, was published in Fantasy Adventures No 4, edited by Philip Harbottle.

A number of his early westerns, written under pseudonyms, have been republished since 2003 by Robert Hale Publishing.

Magazine publishing and remainder bookselling in the 1970s and 1980s

In 1971-73 he worked on freelance publishing ventures involving tourism and travel in Hong Kong and Australia, including the establishment of LookEast magazine. During his time in Australia he researched and wrote a book (as yet unpublished) about a distant relative, explorer William Landsborough.

In 1973 he returned to England and turned his hand to book selling, opening up a remainder book selling business, Bargain Books. This mushroomed into a highly successful business, with four stores.

Gordon Landsborough died in 1983, aged 70. He had five children by his marriage to Louvain (Peggy) Hussey: Drew, Stuart (proprietor of Puzzling World in Wanaka, New Zealand), Diana, Bonny and Euan.

Novels

• Tobruk Commando (1956)
• The Battle of the River Plate (1956)
• The Bold and the Brave (novelisation of the film script The Bold and the Brave by Robert Lewin) (1956)
• Storm Center (novelisation of the film script Storm Center by Daniel Tardash and Elick Moll) (1956)
• Battery from Hellfire (published in the USA as Desert Fury) (1958)
• Patrol to Benghazi (1959)
• The Violent People (1960)
• The Gulf of Pain (1962)
• Long Run to Tobruk (1975)
• The Glasshouse Gang (1976)
• Benghazi Breakout (1966)
• Desert Marauders (1976)
• The Dead Commando (1976)
• Tombstone’s Goldmine (2003) (first published 1951 as Hombre from Tombstone by Mike M’Cracken)
• Battle at Broken Knee (2003) (first published 1953 as Careless O’Connor by Mike M’Cracken)
• Stampede County (2003) (first published 1953 as Kiowa Man by Mike M’Cracken)
• Railroad Saboteurs (2003) (first published 1954 as War Dust in Dakota by Mike M’Cracken)
• Secret of the Cannon (2003) (first published 1954 as O’Connor Rides In by Mike M’Cracken)

Short stories

• Something in the Air (2003), published in Fantasy Adventures No 4, edited by Philip Harbottle

Mike M'Cracken

• Blood on His Gloves (1950)
• Black Death (1951)
• Black Hammer (1951)
• Flaming Frontier (1951) (republished 2003 as by Brian Park)
• Fortress El Zeeb (1951)
• Hombre from Tombstone (1951) (republished 2003 as Tombstone’s Goldmine by Gordon Landsborough)
• Killer in Canvas Jeans (1951)
• Lynch Law (1951)
• Again, the Pony Express (1952) (republished 2003 as Riders of the Pony Express by LG Holmes)
• Brand of the Big L (1952)
• Cheyenne Joe (1952) (republished 2003 as The Stolen Bounty by Ian James Bonney)
• Legionnaire From Texas (1952)
• Renegade Legionnaire (1952)
• The Dog Men (1952) (republished 2003 as by John Battle)
• The Pony Express (1952) (republished 2003 as Iron Jack Rides by LG Holmes)
• Back to the Legion (1953)
• Careless O’Connor (1953) (republished 2003 as Battle at Broken Knee by Gordon Landsborough)
• Death Smells of Cordite (1953)
• Kiowa Man (1953) (republished 2003 as Stampede County by Gordon Landsborough)
• Law of the Lariat (1953)
• Lone Cherokee (1953) (republished 2003 as Fortress Santa Maria by Philip Cornwell)
• Protection Agent (1953)
• Purple Bonanza (1953)
• Red Man's Mesa (1953
• The Bounty Man (1953)
• The Spahis (1953)
• Apache Manhunt (1954)
• O’Connor Rides In (1954) (republished 2003 as Secret of the Cannon by Gordon Landsborough)
• On to Virginia City (1954)
• The Bandaged Riders (1954)
• The War Trail (1954) (republished 2003 as by Drew Mara)
• Union Soldier (1954)
• War Dust in Dakota (1954) (republished 2003 as Railroad Saboteurs by Gordon Landsborough)
• Storm Apache (1955)

G-Man Greer

• Call In The Feds (1951)
• FBI Showdown (1952)
• FBI Special Agent (1952)
• Federal Agent (1952)

Alan Holmes

• Quick on the Draw (1953)
• Gunsmoke among the Cactus (1954)
• Outlaw's Mesa (1957)
• Mesa Feud (1960)
• The Mormon Kid (1960)
• The Rebel (1961)
• Hidden Guns (1961)
• Manhunt (1961) (Reprinted 1968 as Wanted Dead or Alive)
• Manbuster (1962)
• Bonanza (1965) (produced under licence)
• Hoss of Bonanza (1965) (produced under licence)
• Little Joe of Bonanza (1966) (produced under licence)
• Boss of the Diamond-O (1961)
• The Long Trail (1961)

LG Holmes

• Riders of the Pony Express (2003) (first published 1952 as Again, the Pony Express by Mike M’Cracken)

Joe P Heggy (House name)

• The Grab (1953)
• Make It Nylons (1953)
• Poison Ivy (1953)

Other pseudonyms known to have been used in his writing

• Lan Holmes (LookEast magazine pseudonym, 1972)
• Gregory M Warren (LookEast magazine pseudonym, 1972)