Victor Bridges Explained

Victor Bridges (real name Victor George de Freyne, 14 March 1878 – 29 November 1972) was a prolific English author of detective and fantasy fiction, and also a playwright and occasional poet.^[1]

Life

Born on 14 March 1878 at Clifton, Bristol, Victor George de Freyne may have been connected with a propertied family in County Sligo, Ireland.^[2] He was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College. He worked as a bank employee and as an actor in repertory theatre before becoming a full-time writer.

Bridges began to publish crime and mystery stories and novels regularly in 1909.^[3] He was an early signing by the new London publishing firm of Mills & Boon, which was initially a light fiction publisher in a wide range of genres.^[4] Many of his stories were set in Essex and East Anglia. He also had two volumes of poetry published.

He married in 1920 Margaret Lindsay Mackay, who died in 1957. He himself died on 29 November 1972.^[5]

External links

• Victor Bridges - Fantastic Fiction
• Serial part of I Did Not Kill Osborne from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 10 December 1934.

Notes and References

1. Catalogue 200 (London: Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers, 2012). . The cover of the catalogue is based on the striking anonymous wrapper design of a 1934 reissue of The Red Lodge.
2. Return of advances made under the Irish Land Act 1903. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
3. The FictionMags Index. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
4. ODNB entry for Charles Boon by Joseph McAleer. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
5. Detectionary (in Dutch). Retrieved 13 November 2012. This includes a list of Bridges's books that were translated into Dutch. His work appeared in most major European languages.