Richard Whittington-Egan

Richard Whittington-Egan is a Liverpool-born writer and criminologist, the author of "Liverpool Colonnade" and "Liverpool Roundabout", two colourful chronicles of Liverpool's historical characters, crimes and mysteries. He is acknowledged also as an expert on Jack the Ripper. Whittington-Egan was one of the writers who inspired Liverpool author Tom Slemen to write.

Early Biography

Born in Liverpool in 1924 and grew up spending half the year there and half the year in his other family home in South Kensington, London. He is, on his mother's side, the great-grandson of Jakob Zeugheer-Herrmann, the first conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, who conducted for Paganini and Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale, composer of several symphonies and of an opera, "Angela of Venice". Another maternal ancestor is Sir Jonah Barrington, the Irish High Court Judge, who was also a writer and author of several classic volumes of Irish history and local chatter and colour. On his father's side he is descended from Dr. Richard Whittington-Egan, his great-grandfather, who was Crown pathologist for Ireland.

Educated by a private tutor and at Stonyhurst College, the Roman Catholic English Jesuit public school near Clitheroe, Lancashire. Whittington-Egan originally read medicine in the family's traditional medico-legal tradition and was also to qualify for the Bar. During the Second World War, he served in the army, in France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Italy, where he broadcasted to the Allied Forces. Illness while in Italy forced him to curtail his medical studies and concentrate on writing. As a freelance journalist, he contributed to many newspapers and periodicals, including "The Times", "The Daily Telegraph", "The Guardian", "Contemporary Review", "Books and Bookmen", "Chambers's Journal", the "Daily Mail", the "Daily Express", the "Liverpool Daily Post", and the "Liverpool Echo" as well as the "New York Times". He spent 30 years on Fleet Street with Associated Newspapers. He also served as a director of "Contemporary Review".

Later Biography

For some years, Whittington-Egan has lived in Worcestershire with his wife, Molly, also a writer. During the last decade, Whittington-Egan has been working on a book entitled "The Quest for Jack the Ripper" first announced to be imminent from Rupert Books in 1998 but it has yet to appear. Whittington-Egan is a member of the Medico-Legal Society, The Crime Writers Association, and the Society for Psychical Research. In the field of psychical research, he has been involved in reports that involved a Ghost, a Haunting, or a Poltergeist.Fact|date=February 2008

Bibliography

* "Liverpool Colonnade" (1955)
* "Liverpool Roundabout" (1957)
* "Murder, Mayhem and Mystery"
* "Liverpool Characters and Eccentrics"
* "Liverpool Soundings" (1969)
* "Liverpool - This Is My City" published in UK by Gallery Press (1972)
* "Liverpool Dossier" series (1985)
* "Liverpool Shadows"(2001)
* "Quest of the Golden Boy" (1960)
* "Life and Letters of Richard Le Gallienne" (co-authored with G TSmerdon)
* "The Ordeal of Philip Yale Drew" published in UK by Harrap (1972)
* "A Casebook on Jack the Ripper" published in UK by Wildy (1975)
* "The Weekend Book of Ghosts and Horror (5 vols. 1975-1985)
* "The Riddle of Birdhurst Rise" (1975)
* "William Roughead's Chronicles of Murder" (1991)
* "The Oscar Slater Murder Story" (2001)
* "The Great British Torso Mystery" (2002)
* "Speaking Volumes" (2004)
* "Stephen Phillips: a Biography" (2006)

Edited, with his wife Molly, who is a lawyer:-
* "The Story of Mr. George Edalji" (1985)

...and collaborated with her on:-
* "The Bedside Book of Murder" (1988)
* "The Murder Almanac" (1992)
* "Murder on File" (2005)

Forthcoming books:-
* "The Quest for Jack the Ripper"
* "Lionel Johnson: a Biography"
* "The Devil in Bootle: A Life of Teresa Helena Higginson"