Name Elleston Trevor Role Novelist | Children Jean Pierre Trevor | |
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Movies The Flight of the Phoenix, Wings of Danger Spouse Chaille Anne Groom (m. 1987–1995), Jonquil Burgess (m. 1947–1986) Books The Flight of the Phoenix, Quiller KGB, The Tango briefing, The Striker Portfolio, The Ninth Directive Similar People Ian Bannen, Michael Anderson, Robert Aldrich, Harold Pinter, Kay Kendall | ||
The Flight of the Phoenix (Suite)
Elleston Trevor (17 February 1920 – 21 July 1995) was a British novelist and playwright who wrote under several pseudonyms. Born Trevor Dudley-Smith, he eventually changed his name to Elleston Trevor. Trevor worked in many genres, but is principally remembered for his 1964 adventure story The Flight of the Phoenix, written as Elleston Trevor, and for a series of Cold War thrillers featuring the British secret agent Quiller, written under the pseudonym Adam Hall.
Contents
- The Flight of the Phoenix Suite
- Private life
- Writing
- Quiller novels as by Adam Hall
- Quiller short fiction as by Adam Hall
- Non Quiller novels as by Adam Hall
- Novels as by Mansell Black
- Childrens books as by Trevor Burgess
- Novels as by Trevor Dudley Smith
- Childrens books as by Trevor Dudley Smith
- Novel as by Roger Fitzalan
- Novel as by Howard North
- Novels as by Simon Rattray
- Novels by Warwick Scott
- Novel as by Caesar Smith
- Novels as by Lesley Stone
- Novels as by Elleston Trevor
- Childrens books as by Elleston Trevor
- Stage plays as by Elleston Trevor
- Radio plays as by Elleston Trevor
- Short stories as by Elleston Trevor
- Journalism as by Elleston Trevor
- Other works as by Elleston Trevor
- Unfilmed screenplays as by Elleston Trevor
- References
He also wrote as Simon Rattray, Howard North, Roger Fitzalan, Mansell Black, Trevor Burgess, Warwick Scott, Caesar Smith and Lesley Stone.
Private life
Born Trevor-Dudley Smith in Bromley, Kent, he lived in Spain and France before moving in 1973 to the United States, where he lived in Phoenix, Arizona. He was married twice: in 1947 to Jonquil Burgess (died 1986) by whom he had one son, Jean Pierre Trevor, and in 1987 to Chaille Anne Groom. [1] He was proficient in karate.
Writing
The Quiller series focuses on a solitary, highly capable spy (named after Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch) who works (generally alone) for a government bureau that "doesn't exist" and narrates his own adventures. Quiller (not his real name) occupies a literary middle ground between James Bond and John le Carré. He is a skilled driver, pilot, diver, and linguist, but does not carry a gun. Regarded by his superiors as "reliable under torture", Quiller is often given dangerous disinformation missions where he is to be captured, tortured by the enemy, then reveal false information that will trick the other side into undermining their own scheme.
The series is very stylized, featuring intense depictions of spy tradecraft and professional relationships, surprising jump cuts between chapters, and deep, self-critical and incisive interior monologues. The first of the Quiller novels, The Berlin Memorandum (1965) (retitled The Quiller Memorandum in the US) won an Edgar Award, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Novel. It was filmed in 1966 under its US title with a screenplay by Harold Pinter and starred George Segal and Alec Guinness. It was also adapted into a 1975 British television series, featuring Michael Jayston.
As "Simon Rattray," he wrote mystery novels featuring Hugo Bishop, a brilliant man who, like Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, solved crimes as a kind of mental challenge. The first Bishop novel, Knight Sinister, appeared in 1951; five more followed, the last appearing in 1957. (These have later been republished under the Adam Hall byline.) That Trevor could also be very effective in the straight, non-mystery genre is shown by The Billboard Madonna (1961): the protagonist accidentally kills a beautiful woman in a car crash, and is obsessively compelled to memorialize her.
Under the name "Adam Hall," he also wrote "The Volcanoes of San Domingo" about a mysterious plane crash off the coast of San Domingo and the efforts to uncover what really happened. When alerted by a report indicating that one of the crew members had been seen alive, "Rayner," an employee of the airline, is sent to investigate.
He also wrote children's books about the character "Wumpus", a koala, and his friends, including Flip Flap, the penguin. Titles included Wumpus (published 1945, by Gerald G. Swan), and More about Wumpus (published 1947). Other children's books include Scamper-Foot the Pine Marten, Ripple-Swim the Otter, and the Woodlander series (Deep Wood, Green Glade, Sweethallow Valley, Badger's Moon, Badger's Beech, Badger's Wood, Mole's Castle and Panic in the Woodland).
His book "The Big Pick-Up" was one of the stories on which the 1958 film Dunkirk was based.
Trevor also wrote radio plays for the BBC.
Quiller novels as by Adam Hall
Quiller short fiction as by Adam Hall
Non-Quiller novels as by Adam Hall
Also see: