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British author
John Michael Drinkrow Hardwick (10 September 1924 − 4 March 1991
[1] ), known as Michael Hardwick , was an English author who was best known for writing books and radio plays which featured
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 's creation
Sherlock Holmes . He adapted most of the episodes of the Sherlock Holmes
BBC radio series 1952–1969.
[2]
Personal life
Hardwick was born on 10 September 1924 in
Leeds , Yorkshire
[3] and married fellow author
Mollie Hardwick in 1961.
[1] Together they co-wrote numerous different books, not just on the subject of Sherlock Holmes, but also
Charles Dickens ,
Anthony Trollope ,
George Bernard Shaw and other giants of the literary landscape. Between them they also produced
novelisations from successful television series such as
Upstairs, Downstairs ,
The Cedar Tree ,
Bergerac ,
The Chinese Detective and
Tenko .
[4]
Sherlock Holmes
Hardwick penned a dramatisation of "
The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet " for the
BBC Light Programme in 1959,
[5] which starred
Carleton Hobbs as Sherlock Holmes and
Norman Shelley as Doctor Watson. With his wife he wrote a 1963 radio play The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes .
[6] The two also authored a novelization of
Billy Wilder 's film,
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes .
[7] In 1968, they dramatized
The Adventure of the Dancing Men and
The Sign of the Four for the BBC's
television adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, starring
Peter Cushing as Holmes and
Nigel Stock as Watson, but only the latter
exists in the BBC's archives.
In 1979, Hardwick wrote
The Prisoner of the Devil which features Holmes called in to solve the case of the
Dreyfus affair .
[8] The 1980s brought Hardwick's sequel to
The Hound of the Baskervilles , entitled
The Revenge of the Hound published by
Villard Books ,
[9]
[10] as well as The Private Life of Dr. Watson
[11] and Sherlock Holmes: My Life and Crimes .
[10]
[11]
List of works
Fiction
Sherlock Holmes Investigates (1963); with Mollie Hardwick, editors – selected from Conan Doyle's original stories & introduced for new readers
Four Sherlock Holmes Plays: One-Act Plays (1964); with Mollie Hardwick
The Game's Afoot: Sherlock Holmes Plays (1969); with Mollie Hardwick
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970); with Mollie Hardwick – from the original screenplay by
Billy Wilder and
I. A. L. Diamond
The
Pallisers (1973); introduction – abridged omnibus edition of Anthony Trollope's series of six novels
Mr. Hudson's Diary –
Upstairs, Downstairs (1973)
Mr. Bellamy's Story – Upstairs, Downstairs (1974)
The Inheritors (1974)
On With the Dance – Upstairs, Downstairs (1975)
Endings and Beginnings – Upstairs, Downstairs (1975)
The Upstairs Downstairs Omnibus (1975); with Mollie Hardwick
The Four Musketeers (The Revenge of Milady) (1975)
The Gaslight Boy (1976); with Mollie Hardwick
The Cedar Tree – vol. 1 (1976)
Autumn of an Age – The Cedar Tree, vol. 2 (1977)
A Bough Breaks – The Cedar Tree, vol. 3 (1978)
Regency Royal (1978)
Prisoner of the Devil (1979)
Regency Rake (1979)
Regency Revenge (1980)
The Chinese Detective (1981)
Bergerac . The Jersey Cop (1981)
The Barchester Chronicles (1982); editor – abridged omnibus edition of Trollope's series & based on the
TV series
The Private Life of Doctor Watson: Being the Personal Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. (1983)
Sherlock Holmes: My Life and Crimes (1984)
Last
Tenko (1984)
The Revenge of the Hound (1987)
Nightbone (1989)
Non-fiction
Emigrant in Motley: The Journey of
Charles and
Ellen Kean in Quest of a Theatrical Fortune in Australia and America, as told in their hitherto unpublished letters (1954); editor, with a foreword by
Anthony Quayle
The Verdict of the Court (1960); editor, with an introduction by
Lord Birkett – six famous
trials
The Jolly Toper: A Light-Hearted Social History of Drinking (1961); with Mollie Greenhalgh/Hardwick
Doctors on Trial (1961) – the trials of
Smethurst ,
Pritchard ,
Lamson ,
Crippen and
Ruxton
The Sherlock Holmes Companion (1962); with Mollie Hardwick
The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes (1964); with Mollie Hardwick
The Charles Dickens Companion (1965); with Mollie Hardwick
The
Plague and the
Fire of London (1966); with Mollie Hardwick
The World's Greatest Sea Mysteries (1967); with Mollie Hardwick
Alfred Deller : A Singularity of Voice (1968); with Mollie Hardwick
Writers' Houses: A Literary Journey in England (1968); with Mollie Hardwick – US edition: A Literary Journey: Visits to the Homes of Great Writers
Discovery of Japan (1969) –
Hamlyn All Colour book
The World's Greatest Air Mysteries (1970)
As They Saw Him: Charles Dickens (1970) – "the great novelist as seen through the eyes of his family, friends, and contemporaries"
Dickens' England: The Places in his Life and Works (1970); with Mollie Hardwick
The
Osprey Guide to
Gilbert and Sullivan (1972)
The Osprey Guide to
Oscar Wilde (1973)
The Osprey Guide to
Jane Austen (1973)
The Bernard Shaw Companion (1973); with Mollie Hardwick
The Charles Dickens Encyclopedia (1973); with Mollie Hardwick
A Literary Atlas and Gazetteer of the British Isles (1973)
The Osprey Guide to Anthony Trollope (1974)
The Charles Dickens Quiz Book (1974); with Mollie Hardwick
Cars of the Thirties and Forties (1979)
The Complete Guide to Sherlock Holmes (1986)
References
External links
International National Academics Artists Other