John Creasey
English writer (1908–1973)
John Creasey (17 September 1908 – 9 June 1973) was an English author known mostly for detective and crime novels but who also wrote science fiction, romance and westerns. He wrote more than six hundred novels using twenty-eight different pseudonyms.
He created several ongoing characters, such as The Toff (The Honourable Richard Rollison), Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard (starting with Gideon's Day in 1955), Inspector Roger West, The Baron (John Mannering), Doctor Emmanuel Cellini, and Doctor Stanislaus Alexander Palfrey. Gideon of Scotland Yard was the basis for the John Ford movie Gideon's Day (1958) and for the television series Gideon's Way (1964–66). The Baron character was made into a TV series starring Steve Forrest as The Baron (1966–67).
Life and career
John Creasey was born in Southfields, London Borough of Wandsworth (formerly part of Surrey), to a working-class family. He was the seventh of nine children of Ruth and Joseph Creasey, a poor coach maker. Creasey was educated at Fulham Elementary School and Sloane School, both in London. From 1923 to 1935 he worked various clerical, factory, and sales jobs while trying to establish himself as a writer. After a number of rejections, Creasey's first book was published in 1930.
The public source identifies “John Creasey” as english writer (1908–1973). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around John, Creasey and English.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1699682. VIAF identifies the subject as 70225892. The Library of Congress control number is n80057230. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1908, 1973, 1955 and 1958.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Creasey” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.