John Evan Weston-Davies (25 February 1909 – 7 April 1996), known as Berkely Mather, was a British writer who wrote fifteen published novels and a book of short stories. He also wrote for radio, television and film.

Biography

Shortly before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Mather's family emigrated to Australia, where he received his education. He studied medicine, the family profession at

Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's six ...

. Finding himself in England without prospects at the height of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, he enlisted in the

Royal Horse Artillery The Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) was formed in 1793 as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery (commonly termed Royal Artillery) to provide horse artillery support to the cavalry units of the British Army. (Although the cavalry link r ...

, but failed to gain a commission. He therefore applied to join the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the Land warfare, land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Arm ...

, in which he rose through the ranks, becoming a

sergeant Sergeant ( abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other ...

at the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in 1939. He served in the Iraq campaign under

Slim Slim or SLIM may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Slim Goodbody, a fictional character who teaches about anatomy * Slim, one of the alien antagonists of the 1988 film '' Killer Klowns from Outer Space'' * Slim, the Pixl fro ...

, and ended the war as an acting

lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

. After India gained independence in 1947, he rejoined the British Army, serving in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

until he retired in 1959.Jack Adrian
"Obituary: Berkely Mather"
''The Independent'', 15 April 1996. He scripted his first TV series, ''Tales From Soho'' in the mid-1950s. Produced by

Tony Richardson Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson (5 June 1928 – 14 November 1991) was an English theatre and film director and producer whose career spanned five decades. In 1964, he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film ''Tom Jones''. Early ...

, it featured his detective Inspector Charlesworth (played by John Welsh), who was used again in later productions. Other TV work included ''

African Patrol ''African Patrol'' is a 39-episode syndicated adventure television series created, directed and produced by George Breakston in conjunction with Jack J. Gross and Philip N. Krasne. It was filmed on location in Kenya for a period of 15 months b ...

'', '' Z Cars'', '' The Avengers'' and the American series ''

I Spy I spy is a guessing game where one player (the ''spy'' or ''it'') chooses an object within sight and announces to the other players that "I spy with my little eye something beginning with...", naming the first letter of the object. Other players a ...

''. Mather's first novel, ''The Achilles Affair'' (1959), was a minor best-seller, and his second, ''The Pass Beyond Kashmir'' (1960), which received glowing reviews from

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., an ...

and

Erle Stanley Gardner Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 – March 11, 1970) was an American lawyer and author. He is best known for the Perry Mason series of detective stories, but he wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces and also a series of nonfiction b ...

, did even better.

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...

owned copies of both these novels. Mather's espionage thrillers can be read separately, but are linked to each other by recurring characters, in particular the sardonic and resourceful British agent Idwal Rees, who appears in ''The Pass Beyond Kashmir'', ''The Terminators'' and ''Snowline''. The author's military experience and years spent abroad give his work richness and depth. His last three novels were an ambitious trilogy that followed the fortunes of the Stafford family in the Near and Far East from the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. Two of Mather's early books stand somewhat apart from the rest in that they are spin-offs from his work in other media. ''Geth Straker'' (1962) started out as a radio serial, hence the tag on the front cover: "Further daring exploits from the log of radio's trouble hunting mariner". The book contains four stories. ''Genghis Khan'' (1965) is a

novelisation A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the adve ...

of the 1965 film of the same name, for which he had written the original story. Mather's other

motion picture credits Two types of credits are traditionally used in films, television programs, and video games, all of which provide attribution to the staff involved in their productions. While opening credits will usually display only the major positions in a ...

include ''

The Long Ships ''The Long Ships'' or ''Red Orm'' (original Swedish: ''Röde Orm'' meaning ''Red Serpent'' or ''Red Snake'') is an adventure novel by the Swedish writer Frans G. Bengtsson. The narrative is set in the late 10th century and follows the advent ...

'' and '' Dr. No'' with Mather borrowing a copy of Fleming's original novel from his son. Mather also provided uncredited rewrites of the screenplays for '' From Russia with Love'' and '' Goldfinger''.

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors hav ...

film producers

Albert R. Broccoli Albert Romolo Broccoli ( ; April 5, 1909 – June 27, 1996), nicknamed "Cubby", was an American film producer who made more than 40 motion pictures throughout his career. Most of the films were made in the United Kingdom and often filmed at Pi ...

and

Harry Saltzman Herschel Saltzman (; – ), known as Harry Saltzman, was a Canadian theatre and film producer. He is best remembered for co-producing the first nine of the ''James Bond'' film series with Albert R. Broccoli. He lived most of his life in Den ...

purchased the film rights to ''The Pass Beyond Kashmir'' for

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

in 1963.

Sean Connery Sir Sean Connery (born Thomas Connery; 25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Origina ...

and

Honor Blackman Honor Blackman (22 August 1925 – 5 April 2020) was an English actress, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in '' The Avengers''Aaker, Everett (2006). ''Encyclopedia of Early Television Crime Fighters''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 58. (1962 ...

were to star. Production was to have begun in late 1964 in Britain and on location in the Far East.

Bibliography

Novels

*''The Achilles Affair'' (1959) *''The Pass Beyond Kashmir'' (1960) *''Genghis Khan'' (1965) *''The Road and the Star'' (1965) *'' The Gold of Malabar'' (1967) *''The Springers'' (US title: ''A Spy for a Spy'') (1968) *''The Break in the Line'' (US title: ''The Break'') (1971) *''The Terminators'' (1971) *''Snowline'' (1973) *''The White Dacoit'' (1974) *''With Extreme Prejudice'' (1975) *''The Memsahib'' (1977) *''The Pagoda Tree'' (1979) (''Far Eastern Trilogy'', Book 1) *''The Midnight Gun'' (1981) (''Far Eastern Trilogy'', Book 2) *''The Hour of the Dog'' (1982) (''Far Eastern Trilogy'', Book 3)

Short fiction collection

*''Geth Straker'' (1962) (contains "Rim of the Wheel", "Alpecchi Reach", "Weed" and "Special Currency")

Uncollected short fiction

* "Dual Control", in ''Argosy'' (UK), March 1957 * "Nylon Mask", in ''Argosy'' (UK), May 1957 * "Pagoda Well", in ''Argosy'' (UK), September 1958 * "Laumoto Incident", in ''Argosy'' (UK), June 1959 * "Ski Test", in ''Argosy'' (UK), January 1960 * "Returned without Thanks", in ''Argosy'' (UK), October 1960; republished as "Cri de Coeur" in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', August 1961 * "The Fish of My Uncle's Cat", in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', November 1961 * "Blood Feud", in ''The Saturday Evening Post'', 25 August 1962 * "Necklace for a Warrior", in ''Argosy'' (UK), December 1962 * "The Diamond Watch", in ''The Saturday Evening Post'', 8 April 1967 * "Ma Tante Always Done Her Best", in ''The Saturday Evening Post'', December 1968 * "For the Want of a Nail", in ''Argosy'' (UK), February 1968; republished as "For Want of a Nail" in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', April 1968 * "Terror Ride", in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', April 1970 * "There's a Moral in it Somewhere", in ''Argosy'' (UK), May 1970 * "The Big Bite", in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', December 1970 * "The Rajah's Emeralds", in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', April 1971 * "Treasure Trove", in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', July 1971 * "No Questions Asked", in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', April 1972

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mather, Berkely 1909 births 1996 deaths British male screenwriters 20th-century British novelists British male novelists 20th-century British male writers 20th-century British screenwriters Royal Horse Artillery soldiers Indian Army personnel of World War II British Indian Army officers Royal Artillery officers Military personnel from Gloucestershire