Manning O'Brine
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Paddy Manning O'Brine was an Irish writer of thrillers and television screenplays about whom surprisingly little is known. His date of birth is uncertain: at least one authoritative source gives it as 1915; the dust jacket of his last American publication, however, says that he was born in
Connemara Connemara ( ; ) is a region on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of western County Galway, in the west of Ireland. The area has a strong association with traditional Irish culture and contains much of the Connacht Irish-speaking Gaeltacht, ...
,
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, in 1913 with dual Irish and Italian citizenship.
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booksellers frequently give his date of death as 1977. All of his novels concern espionage and/or secret agents and often feature sadistic
Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
who have survived
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and are hunted down and killed. ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' review of ''No Earth for Foxes'' closes with these lines: "The jacket copy has a sentence about O'Brine that is a real stopper. 'He killed his first Nazi in Heidelberg in 1937 and his last one in Madagascar in 1950.' Try to top that one." The backcover blurb for the 1976 American paperback edition says in addition that O'Brine was a former British secret agent.
During World War II, he was parachuted into Occupied France, was captured by the
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
, escaped from a train taking him to
Buchenwald Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territori ...
, and served in Algeria, Yugoslavia and Italy. He has been awarded medals from many nations.''No Earth for Foxes'' (American paperback edition), Dell, 1976,
The dust jacket of ''Pale Moon Rising'' is somewhat more restrained in its biographical details, although certainly testifying to an unusually varied, and perilous, life:
He studied art and architecture at Rome University and became a scenic designer. He was a Commando during the War, carrying out many missions in France, North Africa and Yugoslavia. He then fought in Palestine with the Israelis against Glubb Pasha and the Arab Legion, and subsequently arrived in Cairo where he took on the job of managing a stranded Opera company. He returned to Italy and, whilst working in Rome Film Studios, wrote the story for Fellini's first film "Rome:Open City". Manning O'Brine lived in Sussex with his wife and four sons.
Manning O'Brine is not credited on "Rome:Open City". Screenplay credits are by Sergio Amidei and Federico Fellini from a story by Sergio Amidei. Roberto Rossellini was the director. O'Brine began with a series of seven books about
Michael the O'Kelly Paddy Manning O'Brine was an Irish writer of thrillers and television screenplays about whom surprisingly little is known. His date of birth is uncertain: at least one authoritative source gives it as 1915; the dust jacket of his last American pub ...
that were somewhat light-hearted in tone. He then wrote four novels that were grimmer and more realistic in nature and for which he received a certain amount of critical praise. These books are: ''Crambo'', ''Mills'', ''No Earth for Foxes'', and ''Pale Moon Rising'', the latter being set in wartime France. A number of common characters appear throughout these books, such as Pavane and Crambo, but the most important one is generally Mills, who is obsessed, as apparently O'Brine himself was, with tracking down and killing Nazi war criminals. His last novel, ''Pale Moon Rising'', is apparently based on his own experiences as a 30-year-old in wartime France. Of it, the ''New York Times'' wrote, " tis well-written and is an exciting adventure story. But transcending all is Mr. O'Brine's loathing for Nazi Germany, the ''ubermenschen'' and all they represented. He uses his book as a not very subtle tract to condemn the system." He also wrote the screenplays for films including ''
Man from Tangier ''Man from Tangier'' (U.S. title: ''Thunder over Tangier'') is a 1957 British second feature crime film directed by Lance Comfort and starring Robert Hutton, Lisa Gastoni and Martin Benson. It was written by Paddy Manning O'Brine. Plot A cr ...
'' (1957) and '' The Long Shadow'' (1961) and episodes of television series including ''
No Hiding Place ''No Hiding Place'' is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV (TV network), ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967. It was the sequel to the series ''Murder Bag'' ...
'' and '' The Saint''. His novel ''Passport to Treason'' was filmed in 1956 by producer-director
Robert S. Baker Robert Sidney Baker (1916 – 30 September 2009) was a British film and television producer. At times, he was also a cinematographer and director. Born in London and serving as an artillery man in the British Army, he was posted to North Africa ...
, starring Rod Cameron. In a bitterly worded and ironic forward to ''No Earth for Foxes'' called "A Note from the Author", O'Brine writes in 1973 or 1974 that:
...it remains a nightmare reality that, in 1965, ex-Nazis held 21 ministerial and state secretarial appointments in West Germany alone; 128 were generals of the Bundeswehr; 828 were high judges, court counselors, public prosecutors; 245 were with embassies and consulates of the Bonn Foreign Service; 297 were in key positions in the police and secret services.... If facts are interpreted by some as prejudice, then I stand a prejudiced man; if knowledge can be termed bigotry, I am truly a bigot."
Of Mills, the hero of the eponymously named 1969 novel, a man "who came out of World War II with a blinding obsession: the eradication of Nazi butchers," the ''New York Times'' wrote, "You won't always like Mills, you'll find his story drags a bit in spots, but you'll discover both subtly compelling all the same."Review by Allen J. Hubin, ''The New York Times'', September 14, 1969. See the full review a

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Novels

British publisher first, followed by American publisher, hardback editions only ''Killers Must Eat'', Hammond, 1951
''Corpse to Cairo'', Hammond, 1952
''Dodos Don't Duck'', Hammond, 1953
''Deadly Interlude'', Hammond, 1954
''Passport to Treason'', Hammond, 1955
''The Hungry Killer'', Hammond, 1955
''Dagger before Me'', Hammond, 1957
''Mills'', Jenkins, 1969; Lippincott, 1969
''Crambo'', Joseph, 1970
''No Earth for Foxes'', Barrie and Jenkins, 1974; Delacorte Press, 1975,
'' Pale Moon Rising'', Futura, 1978; St. Martin's Press, 1978,


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:OBrine, Manning 1910s births 1974 deaths Spy fiction writers Irish thriller writers Screenwriters of Sexton Blake