Ronald Harold Hardy was an English novelist and screenwriter. His first novel The Place of Jackals was published in 1954 to general acclaim. Hardy drew on his experiences as a liaison officer in Indochina during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 in the writing of this novel. A review in Time magazine claimed that the novel "establishes him as Graham Greene's No. 1 disciple."

Hardy won the 1962 James Tait Black Memorial Prize

James Tait Black Memorial Prize

Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...

 for his fifth novel Act of Destruction. Besides his seven works of fiction, he wrote one non-fiction book about the construction of the Uganda Railway

Uganda Railway

The Uganda Railway is a railway system and former railway company linking the interiors of Uganda and Kenya with the Indian Ocean at Mombasa in Kenya.-Origins:...

 entitled The Iron Snake

The Iron Snake

The Iron Snake is an ancient tribal prophecy attributed to both the Maasai and Kĩkũyũ tribes in Kenya in which a railway is described as an iron snake.The iron snake would someday cross their land and would be a bad omen creating trouble as it went....

.

Hardy was also a TV screenwriter, with Suspense and Armchair Theatre

Armchair Theatre

Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television after 1968....

among his credits. He qualified as a Certified Public Accountant

Certified Public Accountant

Certified Public Accountant is the statutory title of qualified accountants in the United States who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and have met additional state education and experience requirements for certification as a CPA...

before turning to writing. He married Joyce Cook and had two children.

Works

• The Place of Jackals, 1954
• A Name Like Herod, 1955
• Kampong, 1957
• The Men from the Bush, 1959
• Act of Destruction, 1962
• The Iron Snake, 1965 (non-fiction)
• Return to Arms, 1967
• The Savages, 1967

External links

• Time magazine review of The Place of Jackals http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,807141,00.html?iid=digg_share