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Cyril Hare

Born

in Mickleham, Surrey, The United Kingdom

September 04, 1900

Died

August 25, 1958

Genre

Mystery & Thrillers, Children's Books, Short Stories

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Cyril Hare was the pseudonymn of Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark who was the third son of Henry Herbert Gordon Clark of Mickleham Hall, a merchant in the wine and spirit trade in the family firm of Matthew Clark & Sons.

Having spent most of his formative years in the country where he learned to hunt, shoot and fish, he was educated at St Aubyn's, Rottingdean and Rugby, where he won a prize for writing English verse, before reading history at New College, Oxford, where he gained a first class degree.

His family tradition indicated a legal career and he was duly called to the bar in 1924 and he joined the firm of famed lawyer Ronald Oliver and went on to practice in the civil and criminal courts in and around London.

He was 36 when he began his wr Cyril Hare was the pseudonymn of Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark who was the third son of Henry Herbert Gordon Clark of Mickleham Hall, a merchant in the wine and spirit trade in the family firm of Matthew Clark & Sons.

Having spent most of his formative years in the country where he learned to hunt, shoot and fish, he was educated at St Aubyn's, Rottingdean and Rugby, where he won a prize for writing English verse, before reading history at New College, Oxford, where he gained a first class degree.

His family tradition indicated a legal career and he was duly called to the bar in 1924 and he joined the firm of famed lawyer Ronald Oliver and went on to practice in the civil and criminal courts in and around London.

He was 36 when he began his writing career and he picked his pseudonymn from Hare Court, where he worked, and Cyril Mansions, Battersea, where he lived after he had married Mary Barbara Lawrence in 1933. The couple had one son and two daughters.

His first literary endeavours were short, flippant sketches for Punch magazine and he had articles published in the Illustrated London News and The Law Journal. His first detective novel, 'Tenant for Death' was published in 1937 and it was called 'an engaging debut'.

During the early years of World War II he toured as a judge's marshall and he used his experiences as the basis for his fourth novel 'Tragedy at Law', which was published in 1942. In that same year he became a civil servant with the Director of Public Prosecutions and in the latter stages of the war he worked in the Ministry of Economic Warfare, where his experiences proved invaluable when writing 'With a Bare Bodkin' in 1946.

He was appointed county court judge for Surrey in 1950 and he spent his time between travelling the circuit trying civil cases and writing his detective fiction.

In addition to these two strings to his bow, he was a noted public speaker and was often in demand by a wide variety of societies. But his workload did curtail his literary output, which was also hampered by the fact that he did not use a typewriter, and his reputation, very good as it is in the field of detective fiction, stands on nine novels and a host of short stories. He also wrote a children's book, 'The Magic Bottle' in 1946 and a play, 'The House of Warbeck' in 1955.

He has left two enduting characters in Inspector Mallett of Scotland Yard, who featured in three novels, and Francis Pettigrew, an amateur sleuth, who also featured in three novels. In addition the two appeared together in two other novels, 'Tragedy at Law' (1942) and 'He Should Have Died Hereafter' (1958).

Having suffered from tuberculosis for some time, he died at his home near Boxhill, Surrey on 25 August 1958, aged only 57. After his death Michael Gilbert introduced a fine collection of his short stories entitled 'The Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare', in which he paid due tribute to a fellow lawyer and mystery writer.

Gerry Wolstenholme
June 2011 ...more

Combine Editions
Cyril Hare’s books

Average rating: 3.77 · 12,861 ratings · 1,821 reviews · 80 distinct works • Similar authors

	An English Murder 3.67 avg rating — 4,886 ratings — published 1951 — 82 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tragedy at Law (Francis Pettigrew, #1) 3.80 avg rating — 906 ratings — published 1942 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	With a Bare Bodkin (Francis Pettigrew, #2) 3.98 avg rating — 782 ratings — published 1946 — 29 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	When the Wind Blows (Francis Pettigrew, #3) 4.01 avg rating — 606 ratings — published 1949 — 43 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tenant for Death (Inspector Mallett, #1) 3.86 avg rating — 614 ratings — published 1937 — 45 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Death Walks the Woods (Francis Pettigrew, #4) 4.01 avg rating — 571 ratings — published 1954 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Suicide Excepted (Inspector Mallett, #3) 3.90 avg rating — 441 ratings — published 1939 — 32 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Untimely Death (Francis Pettigrew, #5) 3.68 avg rating — 453 ratings — published 1958 — 48 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare 4.03 avg rating — 344 ratings — published 1959 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Death is No Sportsman (Inspector Mallett, #2) 3.82 avg rating — 213 ratings — published 1938 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Cyril Hare…

Series by Cyril Hare

Inspector Mallett (7 books)
by

Cyril Hare

3.87 avg rating — 3,753 ratings

Francis Pettigrew (5 books)
by

Cyril Hare

3.91 avg rating — 3,662 ratings

Quotes by Cyril Hare (?)

“That is all the money in the world at my disposition." She dropped the stilted words into the court like pebbles into a calm pool, wrapping her strange dignity around her like a cloak.”
― Cyril Hare, Death Walks the Woods

3 likes

“Sir Julius, vain gregarious soul that he was, had made his career by impressing other people. It was a cruel fate that had given him for guardian a man whom the warm rays of his personality impressed no more than if they had been the cold beams of the moon.”
― Cyril Hare, An English Murder

1 likes

“It is seldom that any judge really gets to the bottom of a case. The well of truth is usually too deep for the merely judicial plumb-line.”
― Cyril Hare, Death Walks the Woods

1 likes

See all Cyril Hare's quotes »

Polls

Which Golden Age Mystery would you like to read next with the group? This will be our Group Read in October.

The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes

21 votes, 33.9%

An English Murder by Cyril Hare

17 votes, 27.4%

Resorting to Murder: Holiday Mysteries by Martin Edwards

16 votes, 25.8%

Murder in Vienna by E.C.R. Lorac

8 votes, 12.9%

62 total votes

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Cyril Hare’s Followers (104)

Cyril Hare

Combine EditionsCyril Hare’s books

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Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Cyril Hare’s books