John Sherwood
John Herman Mulso Sherwood was an English author and former educator, born on May 14, 1913, in Cheltenham. He pursued his education at Marlborough College and Oriel College, Oxford, earning a degree in humanities in 1935. After teaching classics for several years, Sherwood served as a major in the British Army's Intelligence Corps during World War II. Following the war, he worked with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) from 1946 to 1973, where he ultimately became the head of the French language services.
Sherwood began his writing career while at the BBC, publishing his first mystery novel, *The Disappearance of Dr. Bruderstein*, in 1949. He created the character Charles Blessington, who featured in a series of light-hearted adventures. Later, Sherwood introduced a second mystery series centered around Celia Grant, an amateur sleuth and horticulturist, starting with *Green Trigger Fingers* in 1984. Throughout his career, he published several standalone novels and a biography, and received accolades including a radio documentary prize. Sherwood passed away in 2002, leaving behind a legacy of engaging mystery literature.
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John Sherwood
Author
- Born: May 14, 1913
- Birthplace: Cheltenham, England
- Died: 2002
Biography
John Herman Mulso Sherwood was born May 14, 1913, in Cheltenham, England, the son of Charles Edward and Claire (Flecker) Sherwood. He attended Marlborough College before earning a bachelor’s degree in humanities in 1935 from Oriel College, Oxford. After graduation, he taught classics for four years at Curcher’s College, Petersfield, and at Blackwood Grammar School.
At the outbreak of World War II, Sherwood enlisted in the British army, and he rose to the rank of major while serving from 1940 to 1945 in the Intelligence Corps. Following the war, he served from 1945 to 1946 as a member of the control commission for Germany. Returning to England, he went to work for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), where from 1946 to 1963 he held a variety of positions, including scriptwriter, and from 1963 until his retirement in 1973 was head of the BBC’s French language services. He married Joan Mary Yorke in 1953, and they had one daughter, Mary Claire.
It was while employed at the BBC that Sherwood began writing mysteries. His first novel, The Disappearance of Dr. Bruderstein (1949; known in the United States as Dr. Bruderstein Vanishes), introduced the character Charles Blessington, a mild-mannered British civil servant in the treasury department who, in five books (the last was Vote Against Poison, 1956), becomes involved in a series of light- hearted, wildly improbably melodramatic adventures involving kidnapping, racketeering, and blackmail.
Between the late 1950’s and early 1980’s, Sherwood published a handful of stand-alone suspense and mystery novels such as Half Hunter (1961; known in the United States as The Sleuth and the Liar), Honesty Will Get You Nowhere (1977), Hour of the Hyenas (1979), and A Shot in the Arm (1982; known in the United States as Death at the BBC, 1983). He also published a full-length nonfiction work, No Golden Journey: A Biography of James Elroy Flecker (1973).
In 1984, Sherwood embarked on a second mystery series with the publication of Green Trigger Fingers, which signaled the debut of the character Celia Grant, an elderly, Miss Marple-like amateur sleuth and professional horticulturist. Gardening—one of Sherwood’s primary hobbies—figured prominently throughout the eleven-book series in which Grant becomes entangled in murder mysteries and criminal conspiracies across the English countryside. In titles such as The Mantrap Garden (1986), A Bouquet of Thorns (1989), Creeping Jenny (1993), and the final entry, Shady Borders (1996), the intrepid heroine finds mayhem in historical gardens and other unlikely places.
A member of the Crime Writers Association, John Herman Mulso Sherwood was honored with a radio documentary prize and a 1961 Italia Competition Prize during his career. After the release of his final Celia Grant title, he lived with his wife in Kent, England, until his death in 2002.