Desmond Skirrow

Desmond Skirrow was a British advertising executive and writer of thrillers.

Career

In the late 1960s he wrote three outstanding spy novels about a fictional British agent named John Brock. Like his creator, Brock works in advertising in London, but is also a part-time agent for an undercover department run by The Fat Man. The three novels, It Won't Get You Anywhere, I Was Following This Girl, and I'm Trying to Give It Up, are tough, irreverent, and witty. Punch called them "the Chandler formula, basically, but louder and funnier."

Desmond Skirrow also wrote a children's book, The Case of The Silver Egg , which was televised as The Queen Street Gang. It involves the adventures of a group of boys tracking down a gang of villains and is in the tradition of Emil and The Detectives with a dash of Roald Dahl thrown in.

Amongst Skirrow's other work is a poem, "Ode On A Grecian Urn Summarized",^[1] which was included in the New Oxford Book of Light Verse edited by Kingsley Amis.

In 1963 Desmond Skirrow met with Alida Haskins who showed him the macquette of Cowboy Kate and Other Stories by Sam Haskins. He then put words to the purely visual story devised by Sam and Alida. He was subsequently introduced, by Alida, to Sam's publisher, the Bodley Head in London, who went on to publish his thriller novels. Sam Haskins next book November Girl was published in 1966 and Desmond Skirrow once again provided text for the melancholic visual story.

He was the Creative Director of a major London advertising agency, Masius Wynne-Williams, but died prematurely in 1976 at the age of 53.

See also

Novels portal

• Skirrow - English name
• Raymond Chandler

References

1. ^ J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays, ed (2007). The Norton Introduction to Poetry (9th ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 400. ISBN 978-0-393-92857-0. 

External links

• The Name Skirrow - Genealogy site

Persondata
Name	Skirrow, Desmond
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death	1976
Place of death

This article about a novelist from the United Kingdom is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: British thriller writers British spy fiction writers 1976 deaths British novelist stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая? Horace Harmon Lurton Jaime Lusinchi Look at other dictionaries: Skirrow — is an English name, thought possibly to derive from the village of Sharrow in Yorkshire. Many Yorkshire words beginning with the letters sk are the result of Viking influence, though this does not necessarily mean that Skirrow s are of Viking… …   Wikipedia Sam Haskins — Sam Haskins, geboren als Samuel Joseph Haskins (* 11. November 1926 in Kroonstad, Oranje Freistaat; † 26. November 2009, in Bowral, Australien) war ein südafrikanischer Fotograf. Insbesondere sein Beitrag zur Aktfotografie, seine Fotomontagen und …   Deutsch Wikipedia Spy fiction — The genre of spy fiction sometimes called political thriller or spy thriller or sometimes shortened simply to spy fi arose before World War I at about the same time that the first modern intelligence agencies were formed. The Dreyfus Affair… …   Wikipedia List of thriller writers — This is a list of thriller or suspense novelists.Note that some of these may overlap with authors of crime, mystery or spy fiction.compactTOC NOTOC A * Edward S. Aarons * Jane Adams * Eric Ambler * Campbell Armstrong B *Desmond Bagley *David… …   Wikipedia Novela de espionaje — La novela de espionaje conocida a veces como thriller político surgió antes de la Primera guerra mundial más o menos al tiempo que los primeros servicios de inteligencia. Este campo apenas ha tenido apoyo de la crítica, a pesar de ser intuitivo,… …   Wikipedia Español John Brock — is a fictional British undercover agent created by Desmond Skirrow. He appeared in three fast paced, witty, and irreverent spy novels written in the late 1960s. Like his creator, he is an advertising executive in London but he is also a part time …   Wikipedia Brock — may mean: * Brock University, a comprehensive university located in St. Catharines, Ontario * Brockenhurst College, a six form college in Hampshire, UK * Brock High School, a high school in Brock, Ontario * Brock Badgers, the athletic teams that… …   Wikipedia Brock (surname) — Brock is a surname, and may refer to* Andrew C. Brock, Republican member of the North Carolina General Assembly * Bill Brock (born 1930), Republican United States senator * C. E. Brock (1870 1938), English line artist and illustrator * Calvin… …   Wikipedia CFZ Press — is a publishing company run in conjunction with the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ). They specialise in publishing non fiction books and magazines about cryptozoology and allied disciplines.Unlike most mainstream publishers, CFZ Press has a non… …   Wikipedia monometer — monometrical /mon euh me tri keuhl/, monometric, adj. /meuh nom i teuhr/, n. Pros. a line of verse of one measure or foot. [1840 50; < LL: composed in one meter < Gk monómetros, equiv. to mono MONO + métr(on) METER2 + os adj. suffix] * * * ▪… …   Universalium 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”