Forgotten Scribes : John Keir Cross : 19 August 1914 - 22 January 1967

 

Writer & Scriptwriter

John Keir Cross

A Forgotten Scribe 

1914-1967

John Keir Cross was an author of adult fantasy and horror stories. He also wrote many books especially for children. In addition he wrote and adapted stories for radio, famously working for several years as the  main scriptwriter  on “ The Archers” – for  BBC Radio- a programme still going strong today.

John also wrote the script for the first episode for Dr Finlay’s Casebook for TV and was a regular name as an adaptor of  Stevenson’s children’s classics, “Treasure Island”, and “Kidnapped”, for radio and TV. 

Born in Carluke, his childhood years were spent there and in Perth  in Scotland where  he became a well- kent children’s entertainer , with a remarkable feat for ventriloquism. But his job was in insurance and he soon tired of its boredom and routine. 

Son of Hugh Anderson Cross ( a school dentist)  and Lizzie Birch, there was a brother Harry who was lost at sea in WW2 and a brother David who established a large Cross clan in Glasgow and Dunbartonshire.

In 1937 John famously walked from Perth to London, with rucksack and frying pan dangling  from his back,  to seek fame and fortune and wrote an early autobiography telling of this  eventual trip, called “ Aspects of Life”, later appearing on the radio’s popular show, “ In Town Tonight”  to repeat the story of his epic journey where he was arrested en route for a murder.

John was  an  early pioneer of radio for the BBC and helped set up  the BBC studios in Glasgow in WW2 , where he became a regular Saturday night broadcaster, whilst secretly working for the Ministry of Information and was an unsung amongst  many scribes who hit hard  for the war effort behind a typewriter or a microphone.

John also wrote under the name of Stephen Macfarlane.

His fantasy titles include “ The Man in Moonlight” (1947), “The White Magic” (1947) and “The Dancing Tree (1955).  His historical tales include “ The Owl and the Pussycat (1946), “ The Other Side of Green Hills ( 1947).

As Macfarlane John  produced a series for younger children including “ The Blue Egg” (1944, “Lucy Maroon, the Car that Loved a Policeman” (1944, “Mr Bosanko and Other Stories” ( 1944) and “The Strange Tale of Sally and Arnold” (1944).

His stories for adults include  “ The Other Passenger: 19 Strange Stories ( 1944). Look out for the  1961 reprint with surreal full-colour illustrations by Bruce Angrave (1912-1983).

One reviewer says  "The Other Passenger" is an excellent Doppelgänger tale, and "The Glass Eye" one of the better Ventriloquism tales, though only "Clair de Lune" and "Esmeralda", both Ghost stories, are unequivocally supernatural…”

The Glass Eye”, was adapted for the Alfred Hitchcock TV series with Jessica Tandy as a lonely woman smitten with a ventriloquist, and also starring a very young William Shatner.

John anthologies include “Best Horror Stories” (1957), Best Horror Stories 2 ( 1965) and Best Black Magic Stories ( 1960).

Some of his other television work includes two episodes of the series “Sir Francis Drake” in 1962, a couple of “made for television” movies as well as adaptions of John Wyndham's “The Kraken Wakes”; Charles Dickens' “A Tale of Two Cities” and “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” and Robert Louis Stevenson’s adult romp,  “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”.

John Keir Cross died  today, on 22nd January, in  1967 . He had a  working farm called “Brushford” in Diptford, Devon, where he authentically wrote his work for BBC's “ The Archers”.  59 years ago this week many of  his BBC colleagues descended on "Brushford" to see how John intended the storylines of " The Archers" to pan out.

He was the sole writer. A lesson was learned that scripts for programmes should be generated by a team of people. 

John's  widow Audrey survived him and there were several children.   

William Cross, FSA Scot

( A cousin )

More information : contact williecross@aol.com

SOME COVERS  ETC OF JOHN'S BOOKS