John Palmer (author)

John Leslie Palmer (4 September 1885, Paddington, London – 5 August 1944) was an English author. Under his own name, he wrote extensively about early English actors and about British literary figures. He also wrote fiction under the collaborative pseudonyms Francis Beeding, Christopher Haddon, David Pilgrim and John Somers.

As "Francis Beeding", he and Hilary Saint George Saunders co-authored The House of Dr. Edwardes. The novel was later used as the basis for the Hitchcock film Spellbound.

The Beeding pseudonym was kept secret from its start in 1920, until in 1925 Saunders delivered a lecture about his writing methods, as Francis Beeding, while Palmer heckled for the audience. Saunders invited Palmer to the platform, and the dual authorship was revealed.

Nonfiction

He wrote biographies of Molière, Ben Jonson, George Bernard Shaw, and Rudyard Kipling. He also wrote books on Shakespears's comic and political characters.

Fiction

Palmer and Saunders used the collective pseudonym "Francis Beeding" for more than thirty novels, including:

• The Seven Sleepers (1925)
• The Hidden Kingdom (1927)
• The House of Dr. Edwardes (1927)
• Death Walks in Eastrepps (1931)
• Murder Intended (1932)
• The Two Undertakers (1933)
• The One Sane Man (1934)
• The Norwich Victims (1935)
• No Fury (1935)
• They are Thirteen (1946)

External links

• Works by John Palmer at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about John Palmer at the Internet Archive
• Works by or about Francis Beeding at the Internet Archive