REV. PROCTER'S ​BRIEF AND AUTHENTIC STATEMENT ​(1818)
​
In The Changing Forest (1962), Dennis Potter laments pit closures and the ‘decline of the distinctive Forest culture’ of his childhood. He attributes the erosion of traditional ways to the onslaught of mass media and consumerism’s ‘newer, brighter, corroding uniformity’ (p10, 132) 
​
Reverend Procter’s Brief and Authentic Statement (1818) reveals a social and cultural revolution in the opening decades of the nineteenth century, comparable to and perhaps more fundamental than Potter’s. Procter narrates how the Anglican Church and an associated school became established at Berry Hill, and in doing so  he  incidentally provides glimpses of an older, more original Forest culture.

Procter’s memoir swings through many forms, from simple narration, to sermon, theological tract and proof texts, to ecclesiastical and even salvation history; all helpful for understanding his Anglican perspective. 

For me, however, with my Grandmother’s Cooper ancestors among those earliest Berry Hill folk, of particular interest are those glimpses of the Forest community before the Church held sway. This old Forest culture was about to undergo profound change, as the outside influences of Church, Crown and Capitalists penetrated the Dean and transformed its inhabitants’ lives. Where some talk of ‘improvements’, others might say ‘dispossession’. As Chris Fisher showed in Market Capitalism: The Forest of Dean Colliers 1788-1888 (1981), market capitalism replaced customary rights and most independent miners became wage labourers. With Procter we catch the beginnings of this process, with important insights into the ‘Before’.

Background
Saxon and Norman kings had preserved the Forest as a royal hunting ground, but in later centuries the Crown became more interested in exploiting its resources, especially the iron, coal, stone and timber. Freeminers in small-scale operations, other Forest workers and local entrepreneurs, and the destitute and marginalised, settled inside the boundary whenever the authorities were weak. Each time the Crown regained strength, their crude cabins would be dismantled and squatters removed. In the late eighteenth century, however, the Deputy Surveyor responsible for the Forest reported that he had to desist from pulling down cottages, fences and inclosures because the encroachers’ repeated insults and threats made him fear for his life and property. By 1788 over 2,000 cottagers were established in 1,398 acres, with 589 makeshift cabins, many looking ‘too miserable for human occupation’, but others of stone or brick-built (By the 1830s the houses grew to 1462, with 2108 acres, until the Dean Forest [Encroachments] Act of 1838 allowed the older encroachments and prohibited further ones. In ​Warren James and the Forest of Dean Riots (1986) (p8-11) Forest author and historian Ralph Antis described this world, between the Severn and the Wye, cut off from mainstream English social and economic life:

​"the geographical isolation of the foresters… was compounded by [their work]. Miners everywhere form closed communities, but… their isolation was increased by their absolute refusal to allow anyone from outside the Hundred of St Briavels to join [their mining…] They call such outsiders ‘foreigners’". 

This wild country’s dark and frightening paths and threatening inhabitants deterred strangers. Writers before 1820, educated and well-to-do outsiders, agreed about the Foresters’ ‘wildness and lawlessness’; and showed little sympathy for their hard lives. Nevertheless, the Mine Law Court documents suggest a community centred around responsible freeminers, with a very sober, intelligent and orderly approach to solving their problems. Anstis concludes that the Foresters could be tough, touchy and fiercely independent - such that governments tended to leave them alone -, until the Crown’s increasing economic development and efficient management of the Dean confronted the Foresters with a challenge that would produce the biggest change in their way of life that they had ever known, 
provoking the Warren James riots and further government attempts to rationalise and control the Forest. Eventually, in the 1830s, the Dean Forest Commission and ensuing legislation imposed a new settlement on the Forest. The continued presence of sheep roaming the Forest and Freeminers underground, however, are modern day reminders that the Foreigners’ victory was not total.

The Berry Hill Mission
In 1803 Rev. Procter became Vicar of Newland. His interaction with the extra-Parochial Foresters was at first limited to visiting the sick and baptising babies. When Procter was to preach at Coleford Chapel, curiosity attracted some of the colliers and reports from these brought Freeminer Thomas Morgan. After hearing Procter’s preaching, Thomas became agitated in his soul and asked Rev. Procter to visit his home (next to the Church’s future location, that became the vicarage), where in deep conversation they discussed the fate of his soul. Thomas requested the Reverend to return next week, and if some friends and relatives could join them. Next Thursday Rev. Procter was surprised to discover a house so packed that he could hardly open the door to get in. Rev. Procter kept up these Thursday evening lectures for the coming years and his audience were unfailingly attentive. With benevolent intentions, a warm sympathy and prolonged effort, the good Reverend worked to prepare ‘these scattered people… for the Lord’ (p11). ​

Procter admits also to a motive from ecclesiastical politics; to capture the Foresters before any Dissenter mission could. 

We can see that not everyone at Berry Hill welcomed these visits. This new way of life split the village. We can appreciate the sadness for Thomas’s friend who called on him to remember their good times together and re-join his former ways, but Thomas said their only togetherness could be for his former friend to stand where Thomas stood. Local curate and Forest historian the Reverend Nicholls' later comments (The Personalities of the Forest of Dean, 1863, p165) reveal the strong feelings aroused: 

'These journeys into the Forest were not altogether free from danger. The old party did not like their sports to be interrupted. Until all fear from violence from them ceased, some portion of the congregation used to attend Mr Procter over the bounds of the Forest, after his Evening Lecture'. 

In this ‘culture war’ that split the village, ‘the old party’ might feel there was more at stake than interrupted sports. A new division was created and the community’s old ways were not surrendered without resistance. Thomas had the vision for a church and a school at Berry Hill and from his own generosity and effort, local contributions and two public appeals, these were established. Later legislation after the Dean Forest Commission incorporated the Forest into the Anglican parish system. 

Procter wrote his Memoir to help cover a debt of £950 that he had incurred by a technical fault when transferring property to set up the Church. His friends suggested the profits from this pamphlet could help pay off that heavy debt.

Generations of my Grandmother Cooper’s ancestors attended the Church and many are buried in the graveyard behind. My special interest in Procter’s Brief and Authentic Statement, however, is not with any triumph of the Gospel, though it influenced generations of my ancestors’ worship and education. My Grandmother inherited a strong commitment to keeping Sunday special, and my Dad and his siblings attended the school and played on the triangle of grass outside. Since my own ancestors were among these early settlers at such evocative locations as Shortstanding, Joyford, Berry Hill and Hillersland, before ‘Christchurch’ was conceived, I have a special interest in the occasional glimpse Procter provides of their early Forest culture.

​Despite his churchman’s view of the Foresters, the much-loved Reverend provides direct views of his parishioners, including insights into their lives and Forest culture before the Established Church became an influential force in their community. ​

The Older Forest Culture
Although Procter criticises some Forest ways, his remarks also provide occasional perceptive insights into their culture. Procter’s account describes several aspects of Forest culture and life around Berry Hill from 1804 and earlier.

Based on ‘visiting of the sick’ and ‘baptizing of the children’, Rev Procter’s first impression – despite his feelings of sympathy and Christian love -‘was of the most unfavourable kind’, as he gained ‘knowledge of their condition, their lives and conversation, of which the latter were the most deplorable.’

'But what are the real evidences of a low, debased state of morals! is an habitual profanation of the Sabbath-day? are drunkenness, rioting, immodest dancing, revellings, fightings? are the want and ignorance of the holy scriptures? and is an improper state of females on their marriage? if these are allowed to be evidences of immorality, I have only here to affirm that they are facts, not opinions hazarded, but observations made; they are rending and harrowing truths. The general state of the women, in an especial manner, gave a convincing proof of a deep-rooted depravity, abhorrent to what the world calls virtue: how disgraceful then to the christian name and profession!' (p2-4)

Procter’s words, remember, reflect his class and faith. We might look beyond the standards, to be imposed by his Anglican regime and consider the Forest community in their own terms, in the context of the hard lives they lived. Procter’s brief words on the daily dangers colliers faced evoked the precariousness of life for mining people. Considering my own ancestors were among these miners, this sentence struck me as chilling:

'Not a thought was permitted to intrude of the possibility that the pitin which he worked, might close its mouth uponhim, and his soul be required.' (p43)

This reminded me of comments from former miners, like Eric Morris, Charlie Penn, Paul Morgan and Gordon Brooks. Each said they did not dwell on the dangers of work underground – even though all had recounted to me dangerous, life-threatening moments! Such matter-of-fact fortitude implicit in all mining helps explains why the Forest so respects and celebrates its mining heritage. Procter’s note, a minor detail, that colliers returned home from their pit at 7pm (p6), recalled vividly for me warm summer evenings in the Forest. 
 
Rev. Procter’s tireless exertions to fix the gospel in this extra-parochial part of the Forest and to minister to the Foresters resulted in building at Christchurch the Forest’s first parish church. Despite his benevolence, Procter also reflected the nineteenth-century preoccupation with sabbath-breaking – effectively controlling every minute of the lives of the lower orders, lest they revolt or fall into vicious iniquity! Importantly, he provides a marvellous window on a Foresters’ ‘scene of iniquity’ at Berry Hill, which today might be viewed more favourably. Thomas Morgan enthusiastically organised cricket matches, but on the Sunday Sabbath-day! 

‘There was no fear of God before his eyes. Cricket matches were their favourite game, and hundreds assembled on the Sabbath-day to see the play. Old and young blended together, children and infants were brought, because their fathers and mothers could not come without them. Such was their mode of education, such was their Sabbath-day as handed down from father to son from generation to generation… 
Thomas [looked after]…the bats, balls and wickets… He was first upon the ground, and the last to quit… 
Thomas cast many a watchful, anxious look on [the sun’s] departing beams, and his heart throughout the sacred day first sighed when the evening shades compelled to desist from profaning that Sabbath which the Lord God blessed, hallowed, and commanded to be kept holy. On depositing in a place of safety the bats and balls, he looked forward to the next Sunday, regretting only the intervening six days.’

Today’s judgement might look beyond the sabbath-breaking and see a wonderfully inclusive community event, where the feared and rejected Foresters came together in a well-deserved break from their long days of hard labour in the dark depths of the earth. I am reminded, too, of Eric Morris’s almost poetic comment about how working in the dark pit helps miners appreciate even more the colours of the Forest:

'When we came up in the bond we used to look across at the trees by Lydbrook Vicarage. How green those trees were to us, never were trees so green. In the pit there were no colours, just black, or shades of black, only men’s eyes showed white. When you came up from the pit at the end of a shift it was wonderful to see colours. The autumn colours of the trees - that was almost like a reward for working down in the black. As we reached the surface that first glimpse! Only miners could appreciate to the full the green of the trees, the colours of autumn. Had anyone else walked with us from the pit they'd not have seen what we saw. They wouldn't have seen the blue sky, the green trees that we saw with our eyes'. (Eric Morris in Forest Voices:  Recollections of Local People, 2008 by Humphrey Phelps, p91-92)

Eric’s comments perhaps encourage our sympathy today with Thomas Morgan’s enjoyment of his Sunday cricket. 

We see in Thomas Morgan’s final days a fate that must have been replicated in many cottages (even up into recent times, as was the case for both my miner grandfathers, where pit work undermined their health). 

'He had long been declining in health, and now becoming seriously ill, he gradually sunk down under a painful, tedious asthmatic affection brought on by the damps of the pits'. (p54) 

Thomas was not alarmed by ‘the awful prospectof death’, but was ‘sure and steadfast’ in his hope.

'He gave a faithful evidence of his unceasing love to the cause of God, by appointing his executors to sell his little property, either to myself or the trustees, on a fair valuation, if required for the school or the church. This intention however was providentially completed by himself before his death; as much to the satisfaction of his family as could be expected'. (p54)

​The reference to his family’s feelings on the matter perhaps leaves much unsaid! I wonder what their full feelings might have been.
 
A final insight into the Foresters involves Thomas Morgan’s wish to be buried in the chapel he did so much to help establish. The visiting Bishop, much impressed by Thomas’s character and faith, could not grant his wish. Rev Procter considered the matter closed. But the last word on Thomas comes from his fellow Foresters. Sadly, Thomas Morgan died in the year 1816 when Christchurch was consecrated. It had no churchyard so he was buried in Newland Cemetery. Later twenty foresters armed with pick axes and shovels dug him up and reburied him where the South Aisle of the church is today in front of the pulpit, half way towards the door. The grave remains under the floor and a plaque is commemorated to all his hard work and vision. His name was the first to be recorded in the burial register when the ground was consecrated for burial (Christchurch Guide). This action was both a fitting final act in Thomas Morgan’s story and offers yet another insight into the Foresters of his day.

In Conclusion...
Procter’s Brief and Authentic Statement narrates the success of his Berry Hill mission. Hidden inside the text are priceless gems offering insights into the Forester community at the time, in the days before their world was transformed by Church, Crown and Capitalists! Take a look for yourself - you can read it online for free at Google Books, here.     

​Steven Carter, 2021

For many of the Forest of Dean’s authors and poets writing was something that, by necessity, they fitted around - or at the end of - their working lives. This was doubly so for some of the Forest’s female writers who, as well as working, also ran the family home: Writing was something to squeeze in at the end of a busy day, or later in life once the children had left home. In the twentieth century the domestic and working lives of Forest women began to (slowly) improve, as we can see reflected in the writing and working lives of three female Forest authors.

For Winifred Foley, born into a working-class family in 1914, there were few options but to join the army of Forest women and girls who worked in ‘domestic service’. This was something Foley wrote about so brilliantly in her debut book A Child in the Forest (1974). By the time Joyce Latham, born in 1935, joined the world of work other opportunities had begun to open up. In her memoirs - Where I Belong(1993) and Whistling in the Dark (1994) - Joyce writes about jobs in local shops, and in factories. By the latter half of the century entry by women into traditionally male dominated careers - such as newspaper journalism - were a possibility. Valerie Godwin (later to become Valerie Grosvenor-Myer), also born in 1935, started her career in journalism by writing for the Dean Forest Mercury. She would go on to write for national newspapers and become a respected literary editor, critic, academic and author of several significant literary biographies. Valerie’s time working at the Mercury is just one of the many splendid recollections in the latest episode of the Voices from the Forest podcast series.

Episode 4 focuses on the transformations in the working lives of women in the Forest of Dean during the latter half of the twentieth century. Several of the interviewees talk about their jobs in domestic service before World War Two, often starting as teenagers in jobs many miles from their family and friends. But during and after the War there was better access to education and improved opportunities as the Forest economy shifted from the older heavy industries to an increasing reliance on lighter, high value manufacturing and factory work. The podcast offers a fantastic insight into the working lives of Forest women and provides brilliant historical context in which to understand the work of some of the female Forest authors of the twentieth century. You can find the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Anchor, or simply go the Voices in the Forest website’s Podcast page  here  (and click ‘play’ to listen).  

Multi-award winning Coleford author Andrew Taylor will be discussing his new novel at a special online event at the end of April. The King's Secret is the fourth book in Andrew's 'Marwood and Lovett' historical novel series. His second, The King's Evil, won the prestigious Historical Writers' Association award for best novel of 2020 (Andrew has won numerous other awards for his detective fiction). At the centre of this latest novel set in seventeenth-century London 'lies a Royal secret that it could not only rip apart England but change the entire face of England'. The online event where Andrew will be discussing The King's Secret is being hosted by Rossiter Books, the local independent bookshop in Ross and Monmouth. The online-only event takes place on 29th April at 7pm, with tickets costing £5 per household - full details and tickets available here.

In a new podcast from our sister-project, Voices from the Forest, local people describe life in the Forest of Dean during the latter half of the twentieth century. This was a period of transformation for the Forest as old industries and centuries-old traditions gave way to new factories, and new social, economic and cultural aspirations. It was a rich period too for literary activity in the Forest. 

The nineteenth century had seen the birth of Forest of Dean literature with the work of Catherine Drew, Richard Morse, William Wickenden, and Phillip Ducarel; the mid to late twentieth century was arguably its golden age. Winifred Foley, Leonard Clark, Harry Beddington, Joyce Latham, and Dennis Potter were amongst those Forest-rooted writers working on memoirs, poetry, drama, fiction and commentary that described the subtly shifting patterns of people’s lives, places, and landscape as the Forest of Dean adjusted to the reality of a changed post-War world.  
 
Since 2015 Voices in the Forest has been interviewing and recording Forest of Dean residents’ recollections of life in the Forest (and sometimes periods of life spent further afield), following their lives from childhood and school, to first jobs, careers, relationships and families. The interviews offer a fascinating background to the period in which Winifred Foley was ‘In and Out of the Forest’, before eventually settling back here; when Harry Beddington was writing dialect plays for the local stage and, honing his poetry, humour and polemic into what would become ‘Forest of Dean Humour’ and ‘Forest Acorns’ published in the early 1960s. Leonard Clark meanwhile had left the Forest before the War but this second half of the century was when he documented life in the earlier Forest in his memoirs such as ‘Green Wood’ and ‘A Fool in the Forest’, when he eulogised about the Forest in his poetry, and broadcast about it in programmes on BBC Radio. 

Dennis Potter too had by this time moved away, first for university then to work for the BBC, later becoming one of the country's foremost television and film dramatists. But for him too, the Forest was ever a source of inspiration and subject matter. Even before it featured so memorably in his series ‘Pennies From Heaven’ and ‘The Singing Detective’, he wrote about it extensively in his first book, ‘A Glittering Coffin’. He returned to it in full just a few years later with his book ‘The Changing Forest’, a masterpiece of proto-New Journalism. In it Potter explored his  personal relationship with the people and places of the Forest whilst at the same time delivering his pin-sharp analysis of the economic and social realities of a community that was at a potentially pivotal moment in its history. This is the world described in depth too by the remarkable Voices from the Forest recordings drawn on  in the new podcast series over six episodes. Episode 1 begins with the period immediately preceding that of ‘The Changing Forest’: the Second World War. As Voices from the Forest Co-Director and presenter of the podcast Roger Deeks puts it, the War was something that “would shake the dust off the Forest and leave it a different place”. In the first episode we hear how the War brought an influx of people into the Forest such as Lumber Jills, G.I.’s and Italian and German Prisoners of War, and whilst there was the threat of stray bombs or the fear of invasion, it was also a time of liberation for some Foresters as many of the older restrictive social norms simply fell away.

For anyone interested in the fascinating and fertile background to those prolific Forest authors of the latter-twentieth century, this podcast is a must listen! ​​

​Episode 1 of the Voices from the Forest Podcast is published on Monday 1st February (2021) and can be listened to, from then on, via the 'Podcast' page on the Voices from the Forest website (and if you've never listened to podcasts before it's easy: just go the page and click the 'play' button).

​What's the connection between Edwardian author Tom Bevan, a Spanish plot to burn down the Forest of Dean, magus Dr John Dee and, 'fake news'?

Join us as we explore  the 1907 novel Sea Dogs All!  We find out about its author Tom Bevan and his connections to the region, and about the audience he was writing for. How much of his story was pure fiction, and how much historical fact? What was the Forest like at the time of the Spanish Armada, and why would anyone want to destroy the woods of the Forest? And, what on earth is the meaning of our title for episode 1 , 007's Angel and the Plot to Burn the Forest?

Presented by Dr Jason Griffiths and Dr Roger Deeks. Featuring interviews with specialist in children's literature Dr Debby Thacker and, historian and HM Verderer Dr Ian Standing. Also featuring the voices of 'El Draco', Martha Beard, Barney Rowe, and Rachel Griffiths. 

Ever wondered how much truth there is in the story that the Spanish Armada had orders to destroy the Forest of Dean? Or, why exactly did the killing of two bears in the 1880s became such a huge news story about the Forest, later making its way into poems, novels and even a television play? These and many more questions are being explored in our brand new podcast series The Stories Behind the Stories. Each episode explores one of the many persistent and well-loved (mostly!) stories about the Forest of Dean that have made their way into print. Structured as an investigation we attempt to trace each tale back in time to its original source. Along the twists and turns of each journey we dig deep into Forest history and look into the way it, as a place and community, has been written about over the years. You'll hear guest expert interviews, readings from the books, and some short dramatised scenes brought to life by local actors.
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Episode 1 deals with the story of the Spanish Armada's connection to the Forest by starting with its appearance in the 1907 novel Sea Dogs All!  We find out about its author Tom Bevan and his connections to the region, and about the audience he was writing for at the time. How much of the story was pure fiction, and how much historical fact? What was the Forest like at the time of the  Armada, and why might the story have become so popular and so often repeated? And, what on earth is the meaning of our title for episode 1 , 007's Angel and the Plot to Burn the Forest?

The first episode is being released on January 14th, with the following episodes on the 14th of each month. You can sign up to receive each episode via your favourite podcast service - we're on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify - or listen here on this website (just check back with us on the 14th). 

Here's our promo for the new series... 

An inspiring new book, Resilience, sees local writers respond to the challenges of lockdown. Resilience: the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. It’s a word we can all associate with the history and people of the Forest of Dean. At the beginning of this new era of Covid lockdowns, Dean Writers Circle invited local writers to submit work for a prose and poetry anthology on the theme of Resilience. This new book, with an introduction by Forest-based bestselling author Andrew Taylor, is their response. Many of the writers and poets published here are Dean Writers Circle members and all contributors either live in or have a close connection with the Forest of Dean and the Wye Valley. They know first-hand the long history of resilience of the people, the flora and fauna, and the landscape. The contributions are from writers with all levels of experience, and what brings them together is their passion for this unique corner of the world, and their belief in its continuing resilience in these extraordinary times. Proceeds from the sale of this anthology are being donated to Forest Read Easy Deal (FRED), a charity which facilitates adult literacy.
 
Reading the Forest’s Anna Grimmett had sight of an advance copy and reviews it here:  
 
The Resilience Anthology is a beautiful collection of almost fifty pieces of prose and poetry sent by local writers in response to a call out from the Dean Writers Circle toward the beginning of lockdown. With the prompt of “resilience”, writers of all ages and with various levels of experience, submitted imaginative and varied interpretations on this theme, some based on real events and others completely fictional.
I had the pleasure of a sneak preview and initially read through it over the course of a few days, finding that I needed time to digest and reflect, particularly on the personal pieces.  I learnt more about the Forest of Dean’s history and enjoyed the opportunity of sharing in people’s heartfelt descriptions of the resilience inspired through the unique local landscape, flora and fauna (which wound their way into so many of the submissions).  I also found it an easy collection to dip back into and although I’d hoped to find a few pieces to share here, in the end I had far too many markers for those which took hold of my curiosity.  
It felt like looking through a box of treasures, with the order working smoothly and the mix of poetry and prose not seeming muddled at all.  The pieces are so varied that it’s very likely you will find something which resonates with your own experience or challenges in life, for whatever mood you find yourself in - if you need deeper reflection and perspective on something, or if you need a bit of courage or your spirits lifted. Certainly for me, what has built resilience through the toughest times, is being reminded that I am not alone and reading through this anthology did just that.  I know it will be a valuable addition to my resilience tool box, along with so many of the wise Forest trees.
 
‘Resilience’is priced at £7.50 + £1.75 P&P and is available to order direct from the publisher, Holborn House

A lavishly illustrated new book has brought together forestry experts, ecologists, writers, poets and artists to explore our complex relationship with forests, woods and trees. Published by the charity art.earth the concept for the book came from a three-day long event held in 2019 - in-part marking 100years of the Forestry Commission - held at Dartington Hall in Devon. The event brought contributors together from across the globe for talks, discussions, artworks and performance all focused on the theme of our ever-evolving relationship with trees and forests. With such a huge variety of responses the book is organised loosely under the sections 'Ecology & Forest Management'; 'Philosophy & Polemic'; and 'Artistic Responses'. Included in its 442 pages is an essay from Reading the Forest's Jason Griffiths. Illustrated with photographs by Forest photographer John F. French, Jason takes as his starting point the 2011 HOOF protests and argues this was a continuation of the long tradition of robust defence of the Forest, and a love of its trees, evidence for which can be found in much of Forest of Dean literature.
The book is edited by Simon Lloyd, Richard Povall and Jeremy Ralph. You can order a copy (out on the 15th December at £27.95) at artdotearth.org/bookshop.

​Great news for Forest of Dean author Andrew Taylor. His 2019 novel 'The King's Evil' has scooped the prestigious Historical Writers' Association top award, the HWA Gold Crown 2020. In making the award the judges wrote: “The winner, 'The King’s Evil' by Andrew Taylor, is rich in period detail, has great characters and we all unanimously loved it. Andrew Taylor gives you the genuine feeling of being transported back in time to the royal court of King Charles II where murder is afoot. With its rich and exuberant writing and wonderfully realised setting, 'The King’s Evil' is a thrilling, immersive ride.”
Andrew is no stranger to to such accolades for his work. His crime fiction in particular has seen him win the Crime Writers’ Association of Great Britain’s Historical Dagger Award three times (!), the Cartier Diamond Dagger, and the Golden Crowbar. His novel 'The American Boy' was chosen by The Times newspaper as one of the top ten crime novels of the decade.