Anthony Armstrong (writer)

Anthony Armstrong
Born	1897
Died	1976 (1977) (aged 79)
Occupation	British-Canadian writer

George Anthony Armstrong Willis (1897–1976) was an Anglo-Canadian writer, dramatist and essayist. He was the son of George Hughlings Armstrong Willis, R. N. and Adela Emma Temple Frere; although his parents were both English, he was born in Esquimalt, British Columbia as a consequence of his father's career as a Paymaster Captain in the Royal Navy. They returned to England before his brother's birth in 1900 in Dorset. He was educated at Uppingham School. His brother John Christopher Temple Willis (1900–1969) was Director-General of the Ordnance Survey 1953–1957, and a watercolourist.

During the First World War Willis was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in 1915. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1916

He married Frances Monica Sealy, and had three children: John Humfrey Armstrong Willis (1928–2012); Antonia Armstrong Willis (1932-2017); and Felicity Armstrong Willis (1936-2006). Antonia married the art expert and gallery owner Jeremy Maas; one of their sons, Rupert, is also an art expert, notable for his appearances on the Antiques Roadshow. Jonathan Maas, another grandson, is the current intellectual property rights holder for Anthony Armstrong's works and can be reached via his London agents, Eric Glass Ltd.

Armstrong contributed to the screenplay of Alfred Hitchcock's Young and Innocent (1937); and several of his own works were adapted into films including The Strange Case of Mr Pelham, which was made into a first-season episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (and directed by Hitchcock), and the film The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970).

Major works

Novels

• Lure of the Past (1920)
• The Love of Prince Raameses (1921)
• The Wine of Death: A Tale of the Lost Long-Ago (1925)
• Patrick, Undergraduate (1926)
• The Trail of Fear (1927)
• The Secret Trail (1928)
• The Trail of the Lotto (1929)
• Apple and Percival (1931)
• The Trail of the Black King (1931)
• The Poison Trail (1932)
• Britisher on Broadway (1932)
• Easy Warriors (1932)
• Ten Minute Alibi (1934) – adapted as the 1935 film Ten Minute Alibi
• Without Witness (1934)
• Cottage into House (1936)
• The End of the Road (1943)
• When the Bells Rang: A Tale of What Might Have Been (1943)
• No Higher Mountain (1951)
• He Was Found in the Road (1952) – adapted as the 1956 film The Man in the Road
• Spies in Amber (1956)
• The Strange Case of Mr. Pelham (1957) – adapted as the 1970 film The Man Who Haunted Himself
• One Jump Ahead (1973)

Short stories

• The Prince Who Hiccupped and Other Tales: Being Some Fairy Tales for Grownups (1932)
• The Pack of Pieces (1942) – more fairy tales for adults

Plays

• In the Dentist's Chair (1931)
• Orders Are Orders (1932)
• The Eleventh Hour (1933)
• Mile-Away Murder (1937)

External links

• Anthony Armstrong at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Anthony Armstrong at Library of Congress, with 53 library catalogue records