Jon Cleary

This article is about the author. For the musician, see Jon Cleary (musician).

Jon Stephen Cleary (22 November 1917 – 19 July 2010) was an Australian author.

Biography

Cleary was born in Erskineville, Sydney. He wrote many books, among them The Sundowners (1951), a portrait of a rural family in the 1920s as they move from one job to the next, and The High Commissioner (1966), the first of a long series of popular detective fiction works featuring Sydney Police Inspector Scobie Malone. A number of Cleary's works have been the subject of film or television adaptations.

Cleary enlisted in the Australian army on 27 May 1940 and was discharged on 10 October 1945 with the rank of lieutenant. His first novel was the 1947 work, You Can't See 'Round Corners, which dwelt on the life of an army deserter wanted for the sensational murder of his girlfriend in wartime Sydney.

Cleary worked as a journalist for the Australia News and Information Bureau in London from 1948–49 and in New York from 1949–51. He travelled extensively and many of his novels were set in exotic locations.

Cleary's honours include the Australian Broadcasting Commission prize for radio drama in 1944, the Australian Literary Society's Crouch Medal for Best Australian Novel in 1950, an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Novel (Peter's Pence) in 1975, and the Australian Crime Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.

He died on 19 July 2010, aged 92.

Awards

• 2004 – Ned Kelly Awards Best Novel for Degrees of Connection
• 1996 – Ned Kelly Awards Lifelong Contribution to the Crime, Mystery and Detective Genres
• 1975 – Edgar Award for Peter's Pence

Bibliography

Novels

• You Can't See 'Round Corners (1947)
• The Long Shadow (1949)
• Just Let Me Be (1950)
• The Sundowners (1952)
• The Climate of Courage (1954)
• Justin Bayard (1955) (aka Dust in the Sun)
• The Green Helmet (1957)
• Back of Sunset (1959)
• North From Thursday (1960)
• The Country of Marriage (1962)
• Forests of the Night (1963)
• A Flight of Chariots (1963)
• The Fall of an Eagle (1965)
• The High Commissioner (1966) - the first Scobie Malone novel
• The Pulse of Danger (1966)
• The Long Pursuit (1967)
• Season of Doubt (1968)
• Remember Jack Hoxie (1969)
• Helga's Web (1970) - Scobie Malone novel
• Mask of the Andes (1971) (aka The Liberators)
• Man's Estate (1972) (aka The Ninth Marquess)
• Ransom (1973) - Scobie Malone novel
• The Safe House (1975)
• Peter's Pence (1975)
• A Sound of Lightning (1976)
• High Road to China (1977)
• Vortex (1979)
• The Beaufort Sisters (1979)
• A Very Private War (1980)
• The Faraway Drums (1981)
• The Golden Sabre (1981)
• Spearfield's Daughter (1982)
• The Phoenix Tree (1984)
• The City of Fading Light (1985)
• Dragons at the Party (1987) - Scobie Malone novel
• Now and Then, Amen (1988) - Scobie Malone novel
• Babylon South (1989) - Scobie Malone novel
• You, the Jury (1990) (reprint of 1950 Just Let Me Be)
• Murder Song (1990) - Scobie Malone novel
• Pride's Harvest (1991) - Scobie Malone novel
• Dark Summer (1992) - Scobie Malone novel
• Bleak Spring (1993) - Scobie Malone novel
• Autumn Maze (1994) - Scobie Malone novel
• Winter Chill (1995) - Scobie Malone novel
• Endpeace (1996) - Scobie Malone novel
• Five Ring Circus (1998) - Scobie Malone novel
• A Different Turf (1998) - Scobie Malone novel
• Dilemma (1999) - Scobie Malone novel
• Bear Pit (2000) - Scobie Malone novel
• Yesterday's Shadow (2001) - Scobie Malone novel
• The Easy Sin (2002) - Scobie Malone novel
• Degrees of Connection (2003) - Scobie Malone novel
• Miss Ambar Regrets (2004)
• Morning's Gone (2006)
• Four-Cornered Circle (2007)

Short story collections

• These Small Glories (1946)

Films

• Dust in the Sun (Justin Bayard) (1958), starring Jill Adams and Ken Wayne - original novel only
• The Siege of Pinchgut (1959) - screenplay only
• The Sundowners (1960), starring Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr, Glynis Johns, Peter Ustinov - based on his novel, did uncredited rewrite on script
• The Green Helmet (1961), starring Bill Travers, Ed Begley, Sid James and Nancy Walters - based on his novel, wrote script
• Nobody Runs Forever (The High Commissioner) (1968), starring Rod Taylor, Christopher Plummer, Lilli Palmer and Camilla Sparv - based on his novel
• You Can't See 'round Corners (1969) (adaptation of television series), starring Ken Shorter, Rowena Wallace and Carmen Duncan - based on his novel
• Sidecar Racers (1975) - screenplay only
• Scobie Malone (Helga's Web) (1975), starring Jack Thompson, Judy Morris, Shane Porteous and Jacqueline Kott - based on his novel
• High Road to China (1983), starring Bess Armstrong and Tom Selleck - based on his novel

Television adaptations

• You Can't See 'Round Corners (1967), starring Ken Shorter, John Armstrong, Rowena Wallace and Carmen Duncan - based on his novel
• Spearfield's Daughter (1986) (mini series), starring Christopher Plummer, Nancy Marchand, Kim Braden and Steve Railsback - based on his novel

External links

• Jon Cleary biography and bibliography
• Works
• 2006 Career interview on Radio National