John Buxton Hilton
John Buxton Hilton, born on June 8, 1921, in Buxton, England, was an accomplished educator and novelist known for his detective fiction. Educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, Hilton had a diverse career that included serving in the Royal Artillery and the Intelligence Corps during World War II. After the war, he dedicated his professional life to education, working as a language teacher and ultimately serving as a headmaster and inspector of schools.
Hilton's literary career flourished after his retirement in 1970, during which he published nearly thirty novels, predominantly featuring Scotland Yard Chief Superintendent Simon Kenworthy. Kenworthy, characterized by his diligence and a strong moral compass, navigates the complexities of crime and corruption. In addition to his serious detective novels, Hilton also wrote under the pseudonym John Greenwood, creating a comic series featuring Inspector Mosley, a rural police officer who faces unique challenges in investigating crimes in a close-knit community. Through his works, Hilton explored themes of justice and the human condition, reflecting on both historical and contemporary issues. He passed away on June 19, 1986, leaving behind a rich legacy in the genre of detective fiction.
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John Buxton Hilton
Writer
- Born: June 8, 1921
- Birthplace: Buxton, England
- Died: June 19, 1986
Biography
John Buxton Hilton, who also wrote as John Greenwood, was born in Buxton, England, on June 8, 1921, son of John and F.M. Buxton Hilton. He was educated at The College, Buxton, and attended Pembroke College, Cambridge, receiving bachelors and master’s degrees in modern and medieval languages and an education certificate. During World War II, Hilton served in the Royal Artillery (1941-1943) and in the Intelligence Corps (1943-1946). In 1943, he married Mary Skitmore; they had three daughters. She died in 1968. In 1969, he married Rebecca Adams.
Most of Hilton’s professional life was spent in education. He was a language teacher in Yorkshire from 1946 to 1947, and, from 1947 to 1953, at Chatham House School, Ramsgate, Kent, England. In 1953, he became head of the languages department of King Edward VI School, Chelmsford, Essex, and, from 1957 to 1964, was headmaster of Chorley Grammar School, Lancashire. From 1964 to 1970, he was inspector of schools for the Department of Education and Science, London. After his 1970 retirement, he remained a part-time tutor and counselor in the Open University in Buckinghamshire while actively pursuing a second career as writer of detective fiction.
Hilton published before his retirement. His early publications included two educational works (The Language Laboratory in School, 1964, and Language Teaching: A Systems Approach, 1973). Twenty-seven of his twenty-nine novels, however, were written between his 1970 retirement and his death on June 19, 1986. Most of his detective novels feature Scotland Yard Chief Superintendent Simon Kenworthy, who, as the novels continue, is forced into early retirement and begins private investigations. Hard-working, conscientious, and sometimes impatient and intimidating, Kenworthy is deeply aware of the corruption with which he is surrounded, whether among his peers and other government employees (Corridors of Guilt, 1984) or schoolchildren (The Innocents at Home, 1987), but he remains committed to the rule of law.
Hilton’s background in intelligence informs Displaced Persons (1987), in which a current murder forces Kenworthy to recall his days in an intelligence unit during the chaotic period when the Germans were driven from France. Six of Hilton’s novels are set in hill country during Victorian and Edwardian England and feature ugly Inspector Thomas Brunt. Nostalgia plays no part in these stories, which illumine the drudgery and isolation of traditional farm life. In Mr. Fred (1983), the first-person female narrator struggles to understand what actually happened when, decades before, Brunt accused an adored family friend of child abuse and murder.
Among the most original of Hilton’s works are the comic novels, written under the name John Greenwood, that feature Inspector Mosley. Mosley, a one-man police force in the rural and sparsely populated Lancashire-Yorkshire border country, is despised by his distant superiors, but, in the first Mosley novel, he is finally allowed to investigate a murder case after more than three decades on the force because no conventional police officer can get the country people to talk. Mosley continues to solve crimes in his own way and administers justice as he sees fit, to the despair of the bureaucracy and the delight of the people he is committed to serve.