Peter (Robert Gascoigne) Townend (6 March 1935 – 6 June 1999

was a thriller writer, photographer, bit-part actor and journalist.

Life and work

Townend was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford, Westminster and St Pauls, London. He won an open classics scholarship to study classics at Christs College, Cambridge where he became part of future thriller writer Alan Williams's entourage. He dressed in the then fashionable style of "Teddy Boy". After graduating he dabbled in filmmaking, getting small parts in films and plays

He eventually moved to Spain, befriending many

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...

s including

Gerald Brenan Edward FitzGerald "Gerald" Brenan, CBE, MC (7 April 1894 – 19 January 1987) was a British writer and hispanist who spent much of his life in Spain. Brenan is best known for '' The Spanish Labyrinth'', a historical work on the background t ...

and famous transsexual

April Ashley April Ashley (29 April 1935 – 27 December 2021) was an English model. She was outed as a transgender woman by ''The Sunday People'' newspaper in 1961 and is one of the earliest British people known to have had sex reassignment surgery. Her ...

While there, he co-founded ''Look Out'

Spain's first English-language literary and travel magazine. Essentially a two-man operation, the magazine had Townend editing, art directing and writing features. He also did the magazine's photography, a hobby he relished. Townend's own photography appears in several books:

Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy (17 May 1933 – 16 July 2019) was a British author, known for biographies, including one of Alfred Kinsey, and books of social history on the British nanny and public school system. For his autobiography, ''Half an Arc ...

's 1992 biography of Gerald Brenan ''The Interior Castle'', and Brenan's own memoirs. Townend's passions included

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

roulette Roulette is a casino game named after the French word meaning ''little wheel'' which was likely developed from the Italian game Biribi''.'' In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various groupings of numbers, the ...

and

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

. He often wrote about these interests in his novels, several of which feature one-eyed photographer (partial to the

Nikon F The Nikon F camera, introduced in April 1959, was Nikon's first SLR camera. It was one of the most advanced cameras of its day. Although many of the concepts had already been introduced elsewhere, it was revolutionary in that it was the first ...

br>
and occasional British

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

Philip Quest. Townend described Quest as a hard-living, fast-traveling, and over-sexed photojournalist who keeps a gun hidden beneath a carton of 120

Ektachrome Ektachrome is a brand name owned by Kodak for a range of transparency, still, and motion picture films previously available in many formats, including 35 mm and sheet sizes to 11 × 14 inch size. Ektachrome has a distinctive look that ...

film

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

suggested that Townend might be the new

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...

. In 1973 he married Kate Moffa

Together they raised her two sons from her previous marriage to

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

Ivan Moffat Ivan Romilly Moffat (18 February 1918 – 4 July 2002) was a British screenwriter, film producer and socialite who, with Fred Guiol, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for adapting Edna Ferber's eponymous novel into the ...

Bibliography

Novels

*Zero Always Wins

961 Year 961 ( CMLXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * March 6 – Siege of Chandax: Byzantine forces under Nikephoros II Phokas cap ...

''published under pseudonym Peter Gascoigne.'' *Out of Focus

971 Year 971 ( CMLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Battle of Dorostolon: A Byzantine expeditionary army (possibly 30–40,000 men) ...

*Zoom

972 Year 972 ( CMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Spring – Emperor John I Tzimiskes divides the Bulgarian territories, recent ...

*Fisheye

974 Year 974 ( CMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Battle of Danevirke: Emperor Otto II defeats the rebel forces of King Harald I, who has ...

*Triple Exposure Quest #1

979 Year 979 ( CMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * March 24 – Second Battle of Pankaleia: An Ibero-Byzantine expeditionary ...

Footnotes and references

External links

Obituary

April Ashley's own memories of Townend

Brief critical discussion of Townend and Philip Quest on page 16.
1935 births British spy fiction writers 1999 deaths 20th-century English novelists English male novelists 20th-century English male writers {{england-writer-stub