Raymond John Hitchcock (9 February 1922 – 23 February 1992) was an English

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

, and

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

, He is best remembered for his novel '' Percy'', which was the basis for a 1971 film of the same name. Several of his earlier books were light-hearted sexual farces; his later titles included several thrillers. He was the father of English musician

Robyn Hitchcock Robyn Rowan Hitchcock (born 3 March 1953) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano, and bass guitar. After leading the Soft Boys in the late 1970s and releasing the ...

. His daughter Lal is a sculptor, and daughter Fleur is a children's author. Hitchcock was born in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

, India in 1922 to English parents. At age 22, his right knee was hit by shrapnel during the

Battle of Normandy Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the N ...

, leaving him unable to bend it for the rest of his life. He spent 9 months in hospital recovering, and very nearly had to have the leg amputated. He trained as an engineer, working in telecommunications, before abandoning this career to concentrate on creating cartoons. From there he drifted into writing, his first novel being successful enough to be turned into a film of the same title.Harris, W.
A chat with Robyn Hitchcock
" bullz-eye.com, 10 February 2006. Retrieved 9 February 2013. Apart from writing novels, he wrote the screenplays of several short plays which appeared in such series as ''

Play for Today ''Play for Today'' is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage ...

'' and ''

Thirty-Minute Theatre ''Thirty-Minute Theatre'' was a British anthology drama series of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, which was used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short running length, and which ...

''. Hitchcock died of cancer in

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

, England in 1992 shortly after his 70th birthday.

Books

*'' Percy'' (1969) *''The Gilt Edged Boy'' (1971) *''Percy's Progress'' (1972) *''There's a Girl in My Soup'' (1972) (novelisation of the film of the same name;) *''Venus 13: A Cautionary Space Tale'' (1972) *''Attack the Lusitania!'' (1979) (later retitled ''The Lusitania Plot'') *''The Canaris Legacy'' (1980) *''Sea Wrack'' (1982) *''Archangel 006'' (1983) *''The Tunnellers'' (1986) *''Checkmate Budapest'' (1988) *''Fighting Cancer: A Personal Story'' (1989) (memoir)

References

External links

* 1922 births 1992 deaths English male screenwriters 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English screenwriters 20th-century English male writers British people in colonial India British military personnel of World War II {{England-writer-stub