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21 Facts About John Creasey

1.

John Creasey was an English author known mostly for detective and crime novels but who wrote science fiction, romance and westerns.

2.

John Creasey wrote more than six hundred novels using twenty-eight different pseudonyms.

3.

John Creasey created several ongoing characters, such as The Toff, Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard, Inspector Roger West, The Baron, Doctor Emmanuel Cellini and Doctor Stanislaus Alexander Palfrey.

4.

John Creasey was born in Southfields, London Borough of Wandsworth, to a working-class family.

5.

John Creasey was the seventh of nine children of Ruth and Joseph Creasey, a poor coach maker.

6.

John Creasey was educated at Fulham Elementary School and Sloane School, both in London.

7.

In 1962, John Creasey won an Edgar Award for Best Novel, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Gideon's Fire, written under the pseudonym JJ Marric.

8.

John Creasey served one term as president of the organization in 1966, one of only three non-American writers to be so honoured.

9.

John Creasey died at his home New Hall, which is New Hall Hospital, Bodenham near Salisbury, Wiltshire in 1973.

10.

John's son Richard Creasey is an author and television producer, having served both in the private sector and at the BBC, and as the British producer of Patrick Watson's worldwide Canadian television documentary series The Struggle for Democracy.

11.

John Creasey has developed his father's "Doctor Palfrey" series by penning a new series of techno-thrillers around the character of Doctor Thomas Palfrey.

12.

In 1953, John Creasey founded the Crime Writers' Association in the UK.

13.

John Creasey was a longtime committed Liberal party member though he later became an independent.

14.

John Creasey said that he had been organising Liberal street-corner meetings from the age of 12.

15.

At the time of the 1945 general election John Creasey was Chairman of the local Liberal Association in Bournemouth where his publicity and writing skills were instrumental in helping the Liberals to an atypical second place.

16.

John Creasey was adopted as prospective parliamentary candidate for Bournemouth West in 1946 and appeared on the platform at the 1947 Liberal Assembly, which was held in Bournemouth.

17.

John Creasey fought Bournemouth West in the 1950 general election, coming third.

18.

John Creasey fought by-elections as an independent in support of this idea around 1967 at Nuneaton, Brierley Hill and Manchester Gorton.

19.

John Creasey fought Oldham West during the by-election of June 1968.

20.

John Creasey did well for an independent with the first-past-the-post system, having limited resources and often little time to campaign.

21.

John Creasey was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire for services in the United Kingdom's National Savings Movement during World War II.