Sydney Horler was a prolific British novelist specialising in thrillers. Born in Leytonstone

Leytonstone

Leytonstone is an area of east London and part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is a high density suburban area, located seven miles north east of Charing Cross in the ceremonial county of Greater London and the historic county of Essex...

, 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...

 and was educated at Redcliffe School and Colston School in Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

.

His first job was with Western Daily Press and Allied Newspapers in Bristol started in 1905. This lasted until 1911 when he left to become a special writer on the staff of Edward Hulton and Co.

Edward Hulton

Edward Hulton was a British newspaper publisher and thoroughbred racehorse owner. He founded the Daily Sketch in 1909.-Biography:...

 in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

. 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...

 to work on the Daily Mail

Daily Mail

The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...

and Daily Citizen in Fleet Street

Fleet Street

Fleet Street is a street in central London, United Kingdom, named after the River Fleet, a stream that now flows underground. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s...

, although he also worked in the propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

 section of Air Intelligence towards the end of the First World War. When it ended he joined the editorial staff of George Newnes

George Newnes

Sir George Newnes, 1st Baronet was a publisher and editor in England.-Background and education:...

 as a sub editor of the John O'London's Weekly

John O'London's Weekly

John O'London's Weekly was a weekly literary magazine that was published by George Newnes of London between 1919 and 1954. Regarded as the leading literary magazine in the British Empire, at its height it had a circulation of 80,000, and it was popular among young and older readers alike.Founded in...

. He didn't see eye to eye with the editor and after a big row in 1919 his employment was terminated.

He decided to become a full-time writer. He became a popular author with the publication, in 1925

1925 in literature

The year 1925 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* April: F Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway meet in the Dingo Bar on rue Delambre, in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris, France shortly after the publication of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and shortly before...

, of his first crime novel

Crime fiction

Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...

, The Mystery of No.1, and with novels such as Checkmate

Checkmate (Sydney Horler)

Checkmate is one of the many popular novels written by Englishman Sydney Horler in the first half of the 20th century. Forgotten today, the book describes the exciting lifestyle of the wealthy social elite...

(1930

1930 in literature

The year 1930 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*January 6 - The first literary character licensing agreement is signed by A. A. Milne, granting Stephen Slesinger U.S...

).Horler's work was influenced by other popular thriller writers such as Edgar Wallace

Edgar Wallace

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was an English crime writer, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright, who wrote 175 novels, 24 plays, and numerous articles in newspapers and journals....

 and
"Sapper"

H. C. McNeile

Cyril McNeile MC was a British author, who published under the pen name Sapper.He was one of the most successful British popular authors of the Interwar period; his principal character was Bulldog Drummond.-Biography:Cyril McNeile was born in 1888 at Bodmin in Cornwall...

. His main hero was "Tiger" Standish, a character similar to Sapper's Bulldog Drummond

Bulldog Drummond

Bulldog Drummond is a British fictional character, created by "Sapper", a pseudonym of Herman Cyril McNeile , and the hero of a series of novels published from 1920 to 1954.- Drummond :...

. By the
1930s, Horler's books had sold an estimated two million copies.

Horler's novels have not been popular since his death. Critics have taken issue with Horler's plots, described by William L. DeAndrea

William L. DeAndrea

William L. DeAndrea was an American mystery writer and columnist. He won three Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, the first for his first novel, Killed in the Ratings. The majority of his novels made up several series. The Matt Cobb mysteries drew on DeAndrea's experience working...

 as "unbelievable" (Horler himself claimed to "give old man coincidence's arm a frightful twist") and characters seen as cliched. David Stafford describes Horler
as "among the worst" of British thriller writers.

Horler's works also incorporated his own prejudices. In addition to expressing sentiments about non-English peoples that
most modern readers would find deeply offensive (Horler's heroes, such as Tiger Standish, regular use derogatory terms like
"wogs" and "stinking Italianos"), Horler also expressed a dislike of sexuality

Human sexuality

Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...

, especially homosexuality

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

. He spent a large
amount of time emphasising how "virile" and "masculine" his heroes are. One of Horler's
characters, the gentleman thief "Nighthawk", only steals jewels from women he sees as sexually immoral, pausing in his work
to scrawl the word "Wanton" on their pillowcases. Writers such as Bill Pronzini

Bill Pronzini

Bill Pronzini is an American writer of detective fiction. He is also an active anthologist, having compiled more than 100 collections, most of which focus on mystery, western, and science fiction short stories....

  and Malcolm Turnbull have noted that Horler's novels regularly featured negative depictions of Jews

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

 as criminals and racketeers, and he made denigrating comments about the Jewish community in his memoirs, Excitement:An Impudent Autobiography. Not even the rise of Nazism

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 made any change to Horler's
anti-semitism

Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

; Turnbull points out Horler subscibes to "wartime slanders of Jew-Nazi collaboration and Jewish wartime profiteering in his 1940s titles". Horler's book Nighthawk Mops Up(1944) even features a Jewish villain, Wilfred Abrahams, who collaborates with the Nazis.

Works

Horler wrote some 157 novels.

• The Breed of the Beverleys (1921)
• The Mystery of No. 1 (1925)
• The Ball of Fortune (1926) - adapted into a film The Ball of Fortune
  The Ball of Fortune
  The Ball of Fortune is a 1926 British silent sports film directed by Hugh Croise and starring Billy Meredith, James Knight and Mabel Poulton. It was based on the 1925 novel The Ball of Fortune by Sydney Horler...
  
  in 1926
• False-Face (1926)
• The House of Secrets (1926)
• The Secret Service Man (1929)
• Checkmate (1930)
• Tiger Standish (1932)
• Tiger Standish Comes Back (1934)
• They Called Him Nighthawk (1937)

He also wrote a factual crime book 'London's Underworld', published by Hutchinson in 1934. He researched his material by spending a month in London's Underworld.

External links

• A Sydney Horler tribute site
• A complete bibliography (157 books)