William Philip Atkey (1908–1985) better known under the pseudonym Barry Perowne, was an English writer, best known for his

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

. Atkey also published books under his own name and under the pseudonym Pat Merriman.

Life

Atkey, a nephew of the writer Bertram Atkey, was born on 25 June 1908 in Downton in the

New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, fea ...

area of

Wiltshire, England Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. He was educated at

St John's College, Portsmouth St John's College was a former independent day and boarding school located in Southsea, Hampshire, England. On 16 May 2022, the Governors of St John's College announced that the school would not re-open in September 2022 due to declining stude ...

.''Cradled In History: the History of St John's College'' by Michael Magan, 1974. By agreement with the E W Hornung Estate, he continued the

A. J. Raffles Arthur J. Raffles (usually called A. J. Raffles) is a fictional character created in 1898 by E. W. Hornung, brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Raffles is, in many ways, an inversion of Holmeshe is a "gentle ...

series after its creator E. W. Hornung's death. He was invited to do so in 1932, and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

regularly published in ''Ellery Queen's Magazine'', ''The Saint Magazine'' and ''John Bull''. Atkey also wrote other stories with his own characters. An amateur cricketer, Atkey played for the Somerset Stragglers. He died in

Marbella Marbella ( , , ) is a city and municipality in southern Spain, belonging to the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is part of the Costa del Sol and is the headquarters of the Association of Municipalities of the reg ...

on 24 December 1985.

References

External links

List of books
* 1908 births 1985 deaths English crime writers Writers from Wiltshire 20th-century pseudonymous writers {{England-writer-stub