Saturday, March 16, 2013

Anton Lind

Another ghost writer who trod the sandy trails of the foreign legion was Anton Lind. Nothing is known about Lind – he earns himself an entry in Men Behind Boys' Fiction and The Encyclopedia of Boys' School Stories, where each entry admits defeat.

Lind's earliest known books relate to the foreign legion. One is a collaboration with Ex-Légionnaire 1384, whom we have covered previously. Legion of the Lost was advertised as "A truly astonishing account of the author's experiences in the Central Espionage Organisation of the Foreign Legion." Another is Penal Battalion, described as "an authentic record of a living death in a French Military Penal Settlement." Heat, Hell and Humour was the autobiography of Captain James H. Freebody and his adventures as a merchant captain in Central Africa.

Lind then made the switch to writing books for boys, most of them set in the school of Altonbury where the character include Dingy and Pips, the Three Angels (Sid West, Stan Arnold and Jack Garner), Andrew Locking and the inevitable fat lad, Beacon. A second series was set at Orreyford School and featured Rags – Edward Raggett – whose exploits always led to fun and trouble. Lind's books have been described as having a general atmosphere of the knockabout: "unsubtle and plebian, but the yarns are enjoyable enough in a simple way, with plenty of amusing sequences." Two of the books were reprinted in 1961 by Purnell.

As for author, it seems likely that he is the Anton Lind who, according to the 'phone book, lived in London at 7 Grove Park Lodge, Grove Park Road, W.4 in 1938-39. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to track down Electoral Roll records for the area for those dates. In 1931, George Workman lived at the Lodge adjacent to the Grove Park Hotel in Grove Park Road; in 1933 that address was the home of  Frederick and Florence Mary Shaunghnessy. Whether this is "Grove Park Lodge" is questionable, as others (including one C. J. Burnett Knight) lived at Grove Park Lodge in the same period as Lind.

PUBLICATIONS

Novels
Six Tough Fellows. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1935.
Dingy and Pips Ltd., Detectives. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1936; abridged, Paulson, Purnell & Sons, 1961.
Super Term, You Chaps!. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1936.
Win Through, Altonbury!. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1936.
Rags the Invincible. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1937.
Rags, the Airman. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1937.
Riot at Altonbury. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1937.
Secret Service at Altonbury. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1937; abridged, Paulson, Purnell & Sons, 1961.
Tony Hits Out. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1937.
Tony Beats the Band. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1938.
Dingy and Pips in Trouble. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1939.
Leave It to Rags. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1939.
Trouble for Tony. London, Sampson Low & Co., n.d.

Non-fiction
Legion of the Lost by Ex-Légionnaire 1384, in collaboration with Anton Lind. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1934.
Penal Battalion by Roy Baker, as told to Anton Lind. London, Sampson Low & Co., Oct 1934
Heat, Hell and Humour. 231/2º N. -Oº-231/2ºS. By Captain J. H. Freebody, in collaboration with Anton Lind. London, Sampson Low & Co., 1935.

4 comments:

  1. It's a shame that he isn't better known. 'Leave it to Rags' I think is still the best school story I have ever read; marveloous stuff, and very funny.

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  2. I believe that he may actually be Anthony Robinson (A.H.S. Robinson). I have a copy of "Leave it to Rags" with a signed dedication from Robinson to the celebrated cricket book collector Geoffrey Copinger, dated November 1958.

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  3. Hi Magnus, Thanks for the info. The only Anthony H. S. Robinson I can find in birth, marriage & death records for England & Wales was born in 1935. Mind you, there's still no sign of any other good suspects.

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    1. Hi Steve,
      This Anthony Robinson would have been much older - the dedication to Copinger states "in the hope that this may add my generation's antiquity to your museum". Copinger was born in 1910 and had one of the the finest cricket libraries, which he was only just establishing at that time - the book has a cricket scene to the front (on the dust-wrapper) which would have been its main appeal to Copinger. He lived most (if not all) of his life in the Hampstead Heath area. Of course, Robinson may just have been the owner of the book, but Copinger was always thorough about getting signed copies (wherever possible) and often approached authors directly. Maybe one day the mystery will be solved beyond doubt. Magnus

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