Charles Chilton (1917 - 2013)

Charles Chilton, MBE

Charles (Frederick William) Chilton, MBE, the renowned BBC radio producer and writer, best known to Eagle readers as the scriptwriter of ‘Riders of the Range’ and the author and producer of the BBC radio serial Journey into Space, died on 2nd January, 2013, aged 95.

Charles was born into poverty on 15th June, 1917 and was raised by his grandmother in King's Cross, London. He joined the BBC as a messenger at the age of 15, soon becoming an assistant (or as he described it in his autobiography, "assistant to the assistant"!) in the BBC’s gramophone library. By the age of 18 he had moved into radio presentation and production. He developed a passion for jazz and presented many music programmes including ‘Swing Time’ and ‘Radio Rhythm Club’. His first major radio production was Alastair Cook’s ‘I Hear America Singing’.

During the Second World War, he served with the RAF as a radio instructor before being transferred to Armed Forces radio. In Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) he ran the forces radio station with David Jacobs. After the war he returned to London and (following his divorce from an earlier unsuccessful marriage) he married Penny, a BBC secretary. In 1949 he created and produced a popular weekly BBC radio show called Riders of the Range, which was described as "a musical Western drama". 

When in 1950 the Editor of Eagle, Marcus Morris, obtained permission from the BBC for a comic-strip version of Riders of the Range, Charles took on the writing of the weekly strip, too. He continued to write and produce the radio show until 1953 and to write the scripts for Eagle’s ‘Riders of the Range’ strip and scripts and stories for numerous Riders of the Range and Eagle annuals, into the early 1960s. He also wrote the script for ‘Flying Cloud’, a western strip that appeared in Girl. As the comic strip ‘Riders of the Range’ developed, Charles became an expert on the Wild West and introduced authentic historic western stories into the series. He also wrote historical accounts of the West, such as The Book of the West (Odhams, 1961) which, after publication in America, earned him The Western Heritage Award for Juvenile Books in 1963.

When Riders of the Range finished on radio (1953) Charles was tasked by the BBC with creating a science fiction series, though he then new nothing of the subject. The result was the hugely successful Journey into Space, featuring spaceman Jet Morgan and his crew (Doc, Mitch and Lemmy), which ran to three series (totalling 58 episodes) all of which he wrote and produced between 1953 and 1955. Journey into Space was among the last radio programmes to attract audiences greater in number than television. The series' subsequent transformation to book and comic strip form under his own authorship assured Chilton’s international recognition. His research for the series led to him becoming a keen amateur astronomer. Among his other radio production credits in the fifties are a several editions of The Goon Show in 1953, 1957 and 1958.

In 1962 Charles Chilton wrote and produced a radio musical based on World War 1 songs, called The Long, Long Road. In 1963 this was transformed through his collaboration with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop into the stage production: Oh! What a Lovely War, which then (in 1969) was turned into a film by writer Len Deighton and director Richard Attenborough.

In 1976 Charles was awarded the MBE, which was presented to him by the Queen Mother. Although he retired from the BBC soon after, he continued to write and for many years was a Guide for London Walks. In the 1980s he wrote a sequel Journey into Space radio play, The Return from Mars, and two science fiction serials in the Journey into Space vein: Space Force and Space Force II. He later wrote a further Journey into Space radio play, Frozen in Time, which was broadcast by the BBC in 2008. The  Journey into Space serials are often re-broadcast on the BBC's Radio 4 Extra station and are available as audio-CD collections and audio-downloads.

Charles Chilton's autobiography, Auntie's Charlie, was published by Fantom Press in 2011 along with a new edition of his first Journey into Space novel, Operation Luna. The second and third Journey into Space novels, The Red Planet and The World in Peril, followed from the same publisher in 2012.

The books were published as limited edition hardbacks but are now available in paperback.

Eagle writers - Geoffrey Bond (1920 - 2009) aka Alan Jason

Geoffrey Bond, who died after a long illness on 27th December, 2009, is best known to Eagle readers as the writer for nearly ten years of the successful picture strip ‘Luck of the Legion’, but his career was far more adventurous than that might infer.

Geoffrey was born in Eltham (in what was the metropolitan borough of Woolwich), in 1920. His father was a bank manager who took an interest in show business and entertainment, and, as Geoffrey took an early interest in music, his father bought him a saxophone. At school he did well at both English and Art. After his father was transferred to Epsom, Surrey, Geoffrey attended the City of London Freeman’s School, Ashstead, where at the age of 15 he had an article, ‘The History of Tiger Rag’, published in the school magazine.

On leaving school at 17, Geoffrey found work in a band and for the next couple of years they toured the country, until the Second World War broke out. He joined the Army, but was invalided out and returned to being a musician with the Sandy Powell Roadshow. As well as playing with the band, he wrote and played in sketches.

In 1947 he went to South Africa where he worked with Alan Dell at the South African Broadcasting Corporation in Durban. He appeared in an Edgar Wallace play, The Ringer. Other acting parts followed, and in 1948 he was asked to take the lead role in a film called The Snake Skin Belt, which was filmed in Rhodesia and showed in UK as a serial at the Saturday morning children’s clubs.

Returning to England in 1949, Geoffrey joined the BBC Drama Repertory Company. He made appearances in radio dramas such as PC49 and Paul Temple. He also wrote radio plays, features and adaptations. His BBC writing credits include a nine month stint on Mrs Dale’s Diary. In 1950 he played the role of a Walsham Bay police sergeant in the Rank/Independent Artists’ film The Dark Man. In another film,The Lady with the Lamp he played an army sergeant.

In 1950 or 1951, his agent, Max Kester, told him the editors of Eagle were looking for ideas for a new strip. After much consideration, he came up with the idea for a French Foreign Legion story and its lead character Sergeant ‘Tough’ Luck. An artist friend produced a dummy of the first episode of ‘Luck of the Legion’. Eagle’s Editor, Marcus Morris, liked it but Geoffrey heard nothing for some time - the dummy was lost in a drawer at Hulton House. When it was rediscovered plans were made to bring ‘Luck of the Legion’ to Eagle’s centre pages for a trial period, which began in the issue dated 9th May, 1952, drawn by Martin Aitchison. The strip was a big success, and it was soon running second to 'Dan Dare' in a Hulton readers’ poll. Other stories soon followed, and the strip ran for nearly ten years: 16 stories comprising 482 weekly episodes. The strip also featured in Eagle Annual and briefly in 1952 as single-page stories in ABC Film Review, all scripted by Geoffrey and drawn by Martin. In 1953 Geoffrey wrote the Eagle Playlet ‘Salem Raschid’s Revenge’, which was offered to Eagle readers at 6d a copy in time for them to put on a play for Christmas. In 1954 he wrote a six-episode 'Luck of the Legion' story which went out as part of Hulton/Eagle’s Spread Your Wings programme on Radio Luxembourg , narrated by Norman Shelley.

Geoffrey suggested writing 'The Baden Powell Story', about the founder of the Boy Scout movement for Eagle’s back page. To avoid the same author’s name appearing twice per issue he wrote it under the pseudonym Alan Jason. It was drawn by Norman Williams. He also collaborated with Cyril Holloway on ‘For Bravery’. The same year, 1954, he played Spada, the evil Vultan leader in the Radio Luxembourg science fiction serial Dan Dare, sponsored by Horlicks and based on Eagle’s by then established front-page feature. After 'The Baden Powell Story', Geoffrey was asked to write the story of 'Lincoln of America', which appeared on Eagle’s back page in 1955, again under the pseudonym Alan Jason, and again drawn by Norman Williams.

Geoffrey wrote three 'Luck of the Legion' novels which were published by Hutchinson (illustrated by Cyril Holloway) and later, two further 'Luck of the Legion' novels for Hulton’s Eagle Novels series. The latter were illustrated by Martin Aitchison. Later, Max Parish published another: The Return of Sergeant Luck.

Beginning in 1957 Geoffrey wrote ‘Claudia of the Circus’, a strip that appeared on the centre pages of Eagle’s sister paper Girl, drawn by T. S. La Fontaine. Later, for the same magazine he collaborated with the artist C. L. Doughty on ‘The Untold Arabian Nights’. He also wrote a number of strips for Girl Annual, and a ‘Claudia of the Circus’ book in the Girl Novels series. For Swift, Eagle’s younger brother paper, he teamed again with Martin Aitchison for a comedy strip ‘Arty and Crafty’.

Geoffrey wrote numerous books for other publishers, including two on Baden Powell, published by Staples, a number of books on historical characters, including Ned Kelly, Geronimo, Kit Carson, Lawrence of Arabia, Evans of the Broke and Chaka the Terrible, all published by Arco, and The Ship’s Little Secret for Max Parish. His book on the Lancastria disaster was published by the Daily Express under their Oldbourne imprint and was serialised in John Bull, beginning in September, 1959, where it was illustrated by John Worsley. Another maritme disaster was Lakonia. He also wrote a novel, Arena, which was published by Macdonald.

In 1965 Geoffrey and his wife Stella emigrated to Rhodesia. He spent three years as a Provincial Information Officer and did some freelance broadcasting, before joining the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation full-time as a producer and announcer. For a year he wrote and often played in the first Rhodesian soap opera The Jacaranda People. After a brief stint in New Zealand with the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, where he had his own programme, Focus, he and Stella returned to to a politically troubled Rhodesia. He wrote a number of scripts for the Rhodesian Ministry of Education, which were sent out on tape to schools across the country, and for a while he joined the army as Public Relations Officer. While in Rhodesia he wrote two books relating to Rhodesian military history, and two series of religious educational books for Longmans.

In 1989 Geoffrey and Stella returned to England. In 1995, after reading an article in the Daily Telegraph about Eagle and the Eagle Society, Geoffrey wrote to Eagle Times. Consequently he was approached for an interview and was invited, along with Martin Aitchison, to the Eagle Society’s Annual Dinner at Sparsholt (1996).

In 1998, Geoffrey, teamed again with artist Martin Aitchison, created a new comic strip called 'Justin Tyme - ye Hapless Highwayman'. 'Justin Tyme' appeared in Eagle Times for over five years, scripted for 3 years by Geoffrey, and latterly by his son, Jim.

Eagle strips (writer)

• Luck of the Legion (Vol 3 No 5 - Vol 12 No 37)
• The Baden Powell Story (Vol 5 No 17 - Vol 5 No 45)
• For Bravery (Vol 5 No 50)
• Lincoln of America (Vol 6 No 24 - Vol 6 No 52)

Eagle Annual strips (writer)

• Luck of the Legion Eagle Annual No 4 - No 11/1962

Links

• Luck of the Legion info at Dan Dare info.com

ET Refs

• Harpole, Harold. 'Geoffrey Bond, Part 1 The Early Years' (Eagle Times Vol 9 No1 pp 2-5 & 11)
• Harpole, Harold. 'Geoffrey Bond, Part 2 Luck of the Legion' (Eagle Times Vol 9 No 2 pp 16-19)
• Harpole, Harold. 'Geoffrey Bond, Part 3 Salem Raschid’s Return - Eagle playlet' (Eagle Times Vol 9 No 3 pp 18-24)
• Harpole, Harold. 'Geoffrey Bond, Part 4 Express Weekly, Girl and the Novels' (Eagle Times Vol 9 No 4 pp 30-34)
• Harpole, Harold. 'Geoffrey Bond, Part 5 Rhodesia and Back' (Eagle Times Vol 10 No 1 pp8-12)

The picture shows Geoffrey Bond at the Eagle Times Dinner/Weekend at Sparsholt in 1996

Eagle writers - J.H.G. Freeman (1903 - 1972) aka Gordon Grinstead

John Henry Gordon ("Don") Freeman was born in Croydon, Surrey, and attended St. Joseph’s College, Streatham. The youngest of three children, all of whom developed an early interest in writing stories and compiling "magazines" from their efforts, he was the only one to actually go into publishing. When he did, the majority of his lifetime output was as a staff writer for the Daily Mirror, which he joined in 1918 at around the age of 15.

Initially taken on by the Daily Mirror as an office boy, his first published work in the Mirror is believed to have appeared on the children’s page in January 1922, although he also worked on the sports page around that time. He became assistant to Bertram. J. Lamb, who as "Uncle Dick" was the editor of the Mirror’s children’s pages, and he provided story lines and many of the rhymed adventures of ‘Pip, Squeak and Wilfred’ in the Mirror and in the cartoon characters’ associated annuals published between 1923 and 1940. Following, or shortly before, Lamb’s death in 1938, he took over as "Uncle Dick". His contributions included stories credited to himself (as J.H.G. Freeman), and other pieces credited to "Uncle Dick" or other pseudonyms. His poems were published daily for at least five, possibly ten, years in the Daily Mirror. In 1930 a collection of his verses, The Rhymes of Merry Andrew was published. Also in the early 1930s a school story by J.H.G. Freeman, entitled Plain Smith IV: the Story of a Fortune was published as part of the Nelson "Red Star" series, reprinted later as part of the same publisher’s "Captain" series.

Gradually the Daily Mirror’s cartoon page became more adult. In 1936, "Don" Freeman (as he was known) adapted Edgar Wallace’s Terror Keep into a comic strip (drawn by Jack Monk). When that strip was "pulled" for copyright reasons he developed a new character, ‘Buck Ryan’, again with Monk as artist. The strip ran from 1937 to 1962. The number of strips he was scripting increased. From 1938 he began to write ‘Jane’ (“the strip that won the war”) for Jane’s creator, the artist Norman Pett, and when Michael Hubbard took over the drawing, Don continued scripting ‘Jane’ until 1953. In 1943 Don also took on ‘Belinda Blue Eyes’ (created by Steve Dowling), recasting it as simply ‘Belinda’ with its new artist Tony Royle. ‘Belinda’ folded in 1959. In the meantime, from 1944 until 1952 he also wrote ‘Garth’, which since its debut the year before had been written and drawn entirely by its creator Steve Dowling, who continued to draw it. Don was responsible for developing many of the characters and plot devices in Garth, including Garth's origin story.

While Don "wrote" many strips, his technique involved more than that might imply, and his contributions were more collaborative. Rather than typing out his scripts, his technique was to "rough" out the story, sketching it in pencil as he visualised it, for the artist to use as a guide.

In 1941 he had married and in 1945 the family, which by then included a son and daughter, moved to East Grinstead in Sussex, where a second son was born in 1946. Shortly after moving to East Grinstead, Don began using the pen-name "Gordon Grinstead", possibly so that he could take on non-Mirror work. Under his new pen-name, he produced a novel, Angela Darling, which was published by Rylee in 1949. Between 1959 and 1963 he wrote seven children’s educational books for Cassell & Co Ltd under their “for Silver Circle readers” banner. His other freelance work included that for Hulton Press: firstly ‘Sally of the South Seas’ which appeared in Girl and then ‘Knights of the Road’ for Eagle.

‘Knights of the Road’, the adventures of “Sir” Ted Knight, a lorry driver and his younger brother Frank, who were partners in a road haulage business (“Go Anywhere – Carry Anything” was their motto), appeared weekly in Eagle for two years from 19th March 1960 until 7th March 1962, drawn throughout by artist Gerald Haylock. It was no coincidence that the character “Lofty” in the ‘Knights of the Road’ story ‘The Grange Street Gang’ looked remarkably like the younger of Don Freeman’s sons. 'Knights of the Road’ also made a couple of appearances in Eagle Annual, once as a text story, and then in comic strip form.

Don was well read, and largely self-educated. All his stories drew on history and geography, which he researched thoroughly, often taking his family on holidays to research the places he wrote about.

In the early 1960s Don moved with his family to Bexhill on Sea. He continued his historical research joining associations in pursuit of his interests, but gradually he wrote less, though he continued with some editing work. It had been his ambition to write a Great Novel, but this remained unfulfilled when he died at Bexhill on 8th July, 1972.

Eagle Strips (writer): 'Knights of the Road'

• First story (untitled) (Vol 11 No 12 – Vol 11 No 27)
• 'The Hoodoo Run' (Vol 11 No 28 – Vol 11 No 47)
• 'The Grange Street Gang' (Vol 11 No 48 – Vol 12 No 14)
• 'Pilgrimage of Peril' (Vol 12 No 15 – Vol 12 No 32)
• 'Carnival of Death' (Vol 12 No 33 – Vol 12 No 51)
• 'Dutch Courage' (Vol 12 No 52 – Vol 13 No 9)

Eagle Annual (writer):

• 'Snowbound! But the Knights of the Road get through' (text story) Eagle Annual No 11, 1962
• 'Knights of the Road in ‘Treat her Rough!’' (strip story) Eagle Annual No 12, 1963

Note: The text story in Eagle Annual No 11 is credited to “George Grinstead”. The strip in Eagle Annual No 12 is uncredited. Illustrations are by Gerald Haylock.

Links:

• Pip Squeak and Wilfred Wikipedia
• Jane Wikipedia
• Jane Toonpedia
• Jane Bear Alley
• Belinda Wikipedia
• Garth Wikipedia

ET Refs:

• Gould, David. Eagle Scriptwriters No 4: J. H. G. Freeman (Gordon Grinstead) Eagle Times Vol 2 No 2 pp 16 - 18.
• Sheaf, Richard. A Weekend at Ely: The Society’s 15th Annual Dinner Eagle Times Vol 14 No 2, pp 32 – 35.
• Gittens, John Mortlock Biography of John Henry Gordon Freeman - dictated to Tom Rawlinson. Eagle Times Vol 15 No 3 pp 2 - 4.
• Gould, David. Recollections of J.H.G. Freeman (aka Gordon Grinstead) - as told by his sons Richard and Nick in April 2002. Eagle Times Vol 15 No 3, pp 5 – 9.

Eagle Writers - Charles Chilton (1917 - )

Charles (Frederick William) Chilton, MBE, is best known to Eagle readers as the scriptwriter of ‘Riders of the Range’ and the author and producer of the classic 1950s BBC radio serial ‘Journey into Space’.

Charles’ father was killed, at the age of 18, at Arras in the so-called Great War, so Charles never knew him, and he was born into poverty in Sandwich Street, King’s Cross, London. His mother died in the post-war flu epidemic when he was about 6, and afterwards he was raised by his grandmother. He left school at the age of 14 and, after an unrewarding “apprenticeship” with an electrical sign-maker, at 15 he joined the BBC as a messenger. The BBC sponsored day and evening classes, and he developed a life-time appetite for self-education. At 16, he became an assistant in the BBC’s gramophone library. By the age of 18 he had moved into radio presentation and production. He developed a passion for jazz, forming the BBC Boys’ Jazz Band in 1937. He presented many music programmes including ‘Swing Time’, and ‘Radio Rhythm Club’. His first major production was Alastair Cook’s ‘I Hear America Singing’.

During the Second World War, although initially a conscientious objector, he enlisted with the RAF, and served three years as a radio trainer before being transferred to Armed Forces radio. In Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) he ran the forces radio station with David Jacobs. After the war he returned to the BBC in London and met and married Penny, a secretary at the BBC. In 1949 he created and produced a popular weekly radio show called ‘Riders of the Range’.

In 1950 the Editor of Eagle, Marcus Morris, sought and obtained permission from the BBC for a comic-strip version of ‘Riders of the Range’. In October that year Morris sponsored a trip by Chilton to Arizona. Chilton’s account of the trip was published in Eagle as a series of articles called ‘Ticket to Tombstone’. His third article was followed the next week by the appearance of ‘Riders of the Range’ (featuring Jeff Arnold and the 6T6 Outfit) in comic-strip format, drawn initially by Jack Daniel. Chilton continued to write and produce the radio show until its demise in 1953, and to write the scripts for Eagle’s ‘Riders of the Range’ strip and the scripts and stories for numerous ‘Riders of the Range’ and Eagle annuals, into the early 1960s. He also wrote the script for ‘Flying Cloud’, a western strip that appeared in Girl and he is credited with some writing for Swift Annual. As the comic strip ‘Riders of the Range’ developed, helped by Penny with the research, he became an expert on the Wild West and introduced authentic historic western stories into the series. He also wrote historical accounts of the West, such as The Book of the West (Odhams, 1961) which, after publication in America, earned him The Western Heritage Award for Juvenile Books in 1963.

When ‘Riders of the Range’ finished on radio Charles Chilton was tasked by the BBC with creating a science fiction series. The result was the hugely successful ‘Journey into Space”, and he wrote and produced three series (58 episodes) between 1953 and 1955 with a repeat production of the first story ‘Operation Luna’ broadcast in 1958. The hugely successful radio serials and their subsequent translation to book and comic strip form under his own authorship assured Chilton’s international recognition. Among his other radio production credits in the fifties are a several editions of ‘The Goon Show’ in 1953, 1957 and 1958.

In 1962 Charles Chilton wrote and produced a radio musical based on World War 1 songs, called ‘The Long, Long Road’. In 1963 this was transformed through his collaboration with Joan Littlewood and the Theatre Workshop into the stage production: ‘Oh! What a Lovely War’, and in 1969 was turned into a film by writer Len Deighton and director Richard Attenborough.

In 1976(?) Charles Chilton was awarded the MBE, which was presented to him by the Queen Mother. Although he retired from the BBC soon after, he has continued to write and for many years he has been a Guide for London Walks. In the 1980s he wrote a sequel radio play ‘Journey into Space: The Return from Mars’ and two science fiction serials in the ‘Journey into Space’ vein: ‘Space Force’ and ‘Space Force II’. More recently, he wrote a further ‘Journey into Space' radio play ‘Frozen in Time’, which was broadcast by the BBC on 12th April 2008.

The picture shows Charles as an honoured guest of the Eagle Society at Bath, in 1995. Also present for the weekend was the first Eagle 'Riders of the Range' artist, Jack Daniel.

Eagle articles:

• ‘Ticket to Tombstone’ (Vol 1 Nos 33, 35 and 36)

Eagle strips (writer):

• ‘Riders of the Range’ (Vol 1 No 37 – Vol 13 No 9)

Note: In Eagle 'Riders of the Range' consists of 23 stories, which are told over 576 episodes.The vast majority are written by Chilton, although some episodes may be by another, as they are not credited.

Eagle Annual strips (writer):

• 'Riders of the Range' Eagle Annual No 1 - No 10 (1961)

Note: In addition to the above, from 1951 Juvenile Productions Ltd published a series of Charles Chilton's Riders of the Range Annual. Juvenile also published a Jeff Arnold in The Bozeman Trail picture strip book. When the Juvenile annuals finished, Hulton Press followed on with six Eagle Riders of the Range Annuals, the last being for 1962. All were written by Charles Chilton, who also wrote a serial 'Jeff Arnold and the Battle of Quitman Creek', which appeared monthly in the ABC Film Review in 1953.

Links:

• Wikipedia biography of Charles Chilton
• Bear Alley post on Charles Chilton
  
• Camden New Journal (Charles Tries to keep the Past Alive)
• Kings Cross Voices (Hear Charles Chilton)
• Journey into Space
• The Goon Show

ET Refs:

• Smyth, Bob. Eagle Scriptwriters No 1: Charles Chilton. Eagle Times Vol 1 No 2 pp 18 - 24.
  
• Evans-Gunther, Charles. Goon ... but not forgotten. Eagle Times Vol 1 No 3 p 15.
  
• Howard, James. Charles Chilton and Riders of the Range. Eagle Times Vol 4 No 3 pp 30 - 31.
• Chilton, Charles. A tribute to Frank Humphris (1911 - 1994) Eagle Times Vol 7 No 1 pp 2 - 4.
• Horn, Cowhand. Besides Jeff Arnold ... Eagle Times Vol 7 No 1 pp 40 - 41.
• Horn, Cowhand. Yipp-e-ee! An afternoon with Mr and Mrs Charles Chilton. Eagle Times Vol 7 No 4 pp 34 - 38.

Index of Eagle Writers (Fiction)

The following writers' works appeared in Eagle magazine, 1950 - 1969. The list includes strip scriptwriters (where known), as well as the authors of text serial and short stories.

• Margery Allingham
• Adrian Alington
• George Beardmore
• C. Bell
• Ambrose Bierce
• H. E. Blyth
• Ben Bolt
• A. C. Bolton
• Geoffrey Bond
• Sydney J. Bounds
• Anthony Buckeridge
• Michael Carreck
• Arthur Catherall
• A. B. Channel
• Charles Chilton
• Arthur C. Clarke (Charles Willis)
• Guy Daniel
• Basil Dawson (Don Riley)
• Michael Dawson
• Charles Dickens
• Max Dunstone
• Edward J. Dutton
• Eric Eden
• E. G. Evans
• J. Jefferson Fargeon
• Bernard F. Farmer
• Leonard Fincham (Steve Alen)
• C. S. Forrester
• J.H.G. Freeman (Gordon Grinstead)
• Kelman Frost
• R. A. Garland
• E. Garnett
• Michael Gibson
• John Graves
• Duncan Hall
• Frank Hampson
• E. Harper
• Alan Hastings
• O. Henry
• William Hepburn
• E. W. Hildick
• Gary Hogg
• Peter J. Hollard
• Stephan Hopkinson
• John Hornby
• Laurence Houseman
• Lewis Jackson
• Alan Jason (see Geoffrey Bond)
• Richard Jennings
• Capt. W. E. Johns
• Harold Johns
• Doris Lessing
• Tony Lethbridge
• Eric Leyland
• Peter Ling
• Chesney MacGuire
• John Marsh
• James Massey
• Lee Mayne
• Ken Mennal
• Clarence Mitchell
• Guy Morgan (Edward Trice)
• Marcus Morris
• David Motton
• Martin O'Connor
• William Patterson
• Lt-Col. Oreste Pinto
• John Pritchard
• Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
• Moore Raymond
• George Remi (Herge)
• Rex Rientis
• D. E. Roberts
• John Ryan
• Rafael Sabatini
• Adrian Seligman
• John Stenhouse
• Alan Stranks
• Ronald Syme
• Ted Ted Cowan
• Norman Thelwell
• Greta Tomlinson
• Richard Tracy
• Tom Tully
• Chad Varah
• Ellen Vincent
• Bill Wellings
• Valentine Williams

Please let eagle times know if you can add to, or think there may be errors in, this index.

I/we intend (gradually) to provide information on individual writers via separate posts, with hotlinks from this list, which will eventually form a comprehensive Index of Eagle Writers. The intention, as with the Index of Eagle Artists is to provide 'potted biographies' covering the artists' careers, but focussing on their Eagle work, with pointers (ie links and references) to where further information may be found. There will be a separate list of non-fiction writers.