Archibald Thomas Pechey (26 September 1876 in

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancien ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

– 29 November 1961 in

Wells Wells most commonly refers to: * Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England * Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground * Wells (name) Wells may also refer to: Places Canada *Wells, British Columbia England * Wells ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England) often credited as Valentine, was an English lyricist and novelist. The pen name Valentine was derived from his mother's family the Vallentins, who were London distillers. Pechey's maternal grandfather Sir

James Vallentin James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

(1814–1870) was Knight

Sheriff of London Two sheriffs are elected annually for the City of London by the Liverymen of the City livery company, livery companies. Today's sheriffs have only nominal duties, but the historical officeholders had important judicial responsibilities. They have ...

, and Master of the

Worshipful Company of Distillers The Worshipful Company of Distillers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Distillers' Company was incorporated under a Royal Charter in 1638 as proposed by Thomas Cademan and Theodore de Mayerne, physicians to Queen Henriet ...

. By the 1880s Pechey's uncle Grimble Vallentine was running the business in Lambeth. His cousin

John Franks Vallentin Captain John Franks Vallentin, VC (14 May 1882 − 7 November 1914) was a British Army officer and an English recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded ...

(1882–1914) was awarded the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

in 1914. Pechey as "Valentine" often wrote lyrics in conjunction with composer James W. Tate, including for ''

The Beauty Spot ''The Beauty Spot'' was a 1909 musical comedy in two acts that played for 137 performances at the Herald Square Theatre in New York with music by Reginald De Koven, a book by Joseph W. Herbert and additional lyrics by Terry Sullivan. The musical ...

''. Songs written by Tate and Valentine (with F. Clifford Harris) include "A Bachelor Gay" and "A Paradise for Two" (both 1917, from ''

The Maid of the Mountains ''The Maid of the Mountains'', called in its original score a musical play, is an operetta or "Edwardian" musical comedy in three acts. The music was by Harold Fraser-Simson, with additional music by James W. Tate, lyrics by Harry Graham an ...

''). As a playwright his biggest success was '' Tons of Money'', a

farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity o ...

co-written with Will Evans, which ran in the West End from April 1922 for 737 performances. Pechey wrote stories, such as "The Adjusters" (1922) and "An Exploit of The Adjusters: The Man Who Scared The Bank" (1929), under the name Valentine. "The Adjusters" and its sequels are about a group of amateur crime fighters with complementary talents, who "adjust" the results of the law, often tricking criminals into trapping themselves using a logical analysis of the crime, so that the guilty are punished and the good are protected, released or compensated. The Adjusters characters are Daphne Wrayne, a sporting society girl; Sir Hugh Williamson, a noted African explorer; James Treviller, a handsome young nobleman; Martin Everest, a handsome lawyer; and Alan Sylvester, an actor. Pechey married Bijou Sortain Hancock,GRO Register of Marriages: JUN 1908 4a 161 W. HAM - Archibald Thomas Pechey = Bijou Sortain Hancock and was the father of well known television cook

Fanny Cradock Phyllis Nan Sortain Pechey (26 February 1909 – 27 December 1994), better known as Fanny Cradock, was an English restaurant critic, television chef and writer. She frequently appeared on television, at cookery demonstrations and in print with h ...

. His wife’s extravagance and his own susceptibility to gambling left him with sizeable debts. He seems to have tried to avoid the debts by moving around the country. He left

Herne Bay Herne Bay is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in South East England. It is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government ...

in Kent and moved to

Swanage Swanage () is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately south of Poole and east of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the civil ...

in Dorset, then to

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

in Hampshire, where his brother

Richard Francis Pechey Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...

(1872–1963) had become the Vicar of Holy Trinity Church in 1919. He finally moved to

Wroxham Wroxham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The civil parish of Wroxham has an area of 6.21 square kilometres, and in 2001, had a population of 1,532 in 666 households. A reduced population of 1,502 in 653 households ...

in Norfolk, c1927, where his debtors caught up with him and by 1930 he was appearing in Norfolk's bankruptcy court faced with debts of £3,500. Once out of debt, Pechey moved to Somerset, switched his pseudonym to Mark Cross and wrote over 45 crime novels under that name between 1934 and 1961, many of them about the Adjusters. The novels include the thrillers ''The Shadow of the Four'' and ''Who Killed Henry Wickenstrom''. Pechey also drew the cover art for some stories.

Selected novels

*''The Shadow of the Four'' (1934) *''The Grip of the Four'' (1934) *''The Hand of the Four'' (1935) *''The Mark of the Four'' (1936) *''The Way of the Four'' (1936) *''The Four Strike Home'' (1937) *''Surprise for the Four'' (1937) *''The Four Get Going'' (1938) *''The Four Make Holiday'' (1938) *''Challenge to the Four'' (1939) *''The Four at Bay'' (1939) *''Find the Professor'' (1940) *''It Couldn't Be Murder'' (1940) *''How Was it Done'' (1941) *''Murder in the Pool'' (1941) *''The Green Circle'' (1942) *''The Mystery of Gruden's Gap'' (1942) *''Murder as Arranged'' (1943) *''Murder in the Air'' (1943) *''Murder in Black'' (1944) *''The Mystery of Joan Marryat'' (1945) *''The Secret of the Grange'' (1946) *''The Strange affair at Greylands'' (1948) *''Missing from His Home'' (1949) *''Other Than Natural Causes'' (1949) *''On the Night of the 14th' (1950) *''Who Killed Henry Wickenstrom (1951) *''The Jaws of Darkness'' (1952) *''The Black Spider'' (1953) *''The Circle of Freedom'' (1953) *''The Strange Case of Pamela Wilson'' (1954) *''The Best Laid Schemes'' (1955) *''Murder Will Speak'' (1954) *''In the Dead of Night'' (1955) *''The Mystery of the Corded Box'' (1956) *''When Thieves Fall Out'' (1956) *''Desperate Steps'' (1957) *''Foul Deeds Will Arise'' (1958) *''Over Thin Ice'' (1958) *''Not Long to Live'' (1959) *''Third Time Unlucky'' (1959) *''When Danger Threatens'' (1959) *''Once Too Often'' (1960) *''Wanted for Questioning'' (1960) *''Once Upon a Crime'' (1961) *''Perilous Hazard'' (1961)

References

Sources

External links

List of Mark Cross booksInformation about the Adjusters
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pechey, Archibald Thomas 1876 births 1961 deaths English crime fiction writers English lyricists People from West Ham People from Wells, Somerset