Lynn Brock Explained

Lynn Brock
Birth Date:4 July 1877
Birth Place:Dublin, Ireland, United Kingdom
Death Date:6 April 1943
Death Place:Dorchester, Dorset, England, United Kingdom
Occupation:Novelist

Irish writer Alister McAllister [1877-1943] (birth name: Alexander Patrick McAllister) wrote several plays under the pseudonym Anthony Wharton and later, after moving to England, wrote a series of mystery novels using the pseudonym Lynn Brock.

He was educated at the National University of Ireland (NUI), where he served as librarian/clerk/chief clerk between 1903 and 1914. After his first success with the play 'Irene Wycherly' in London in 1906 he wrote a series of plays though remained based in Dublin.

During the First World War he served with the British Army in British Intelligence[1] and in the Machine Gun Corps being wounded twice in France.[2]

After retiring from the NUI he moved to London and later to Ferndown in Dorset. He continued writing and turned his hand to fiction, producing short stories, serious fiction and the series of Colonel Gore detective novels under the name Lynn Brock,[3] which enjoyed popularity in the 1920s and 1930s during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. His novels employ a complexity of style and are generally set in rural locations.[4]

He died aged 65 in Dorchester, Dorset and was buried in the Dorchester (Weymouth Road) Cemetery.[5]

Main works

Plays

Colonel Gore Novels

Other Novels

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Great War Theatre https://www.greatwartheatre.org.uk/db/person/364/
  2. Reilly p.197
  3. Dictionary of Irish Biography https://www.dib.ie/biography/mcallister-alexander-patrick-anthony-wharton-a5546
  4. Reilly p.198
  5. FindaGrave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/269243069/alexander_patrick-mcallister