H. C. McNeile

He was one of the most successful British popular authors of the inter-war period before his death in 1937 from throat cancer, which has been attributed to damage sustained from a gas attack in the war.

Although he was seen at the time as "simply an upstanding Tory who spoke for many of his countrymen",[1] after the Second World War his work was criticised as having fascist overtones, while also displaying the xenophobia and anti-semitism apparent in some other writers of the period.

He was the son of Malcolm McNeile, a captain in the Royal Navy who at the time was governor of the naval prison at Bodmin,[3][a] and Christiana Mary (née Sloggett).

[4] The McNeile family had ancestral roots from both Belfast and Scotland,[5] and counted a general in the British Indian Army among their members.

[2] McNeile's first known published story, Reminiscences of Sergeant Michael Cassidy, was serialised on page four of the Daily Mail from 13 January 1915.

[7] By the end of 1915, he had written two collections of short stories, The Lieutenant and Others and Sergeant Michael Cassidy, R.E., both of which were published by Hodder & Stoughton.

[2] 18th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment under McNeile saw action for the remainder of his command, and were involved in fighting during the Hundred Days Offensive in the St. Quentin-Cambrai sector in September 1918;[2] during the year, he was again mentioned in dispatches.

[30] The same year he also published a novel, Mufti, in which he introduced a type of character as "the Breed", a class of Englishman who was patriotic, loyal and "physically and morally intrepid".

[31] Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond DSO, MC was described in the novel's sub-title as "a demobilised officer who found peace dull" after service during the First World War with the fictional Loamshire Regiment.

[31][e] Drummond also had roots in the literary characters Sherlock Holmes, Sexton Blake, Richard Hannay and The Scarlet Pimpernel.

[38] Drummond was characterised as large, very strong, physically unattractive and an "apparently brainless hunk of a man",[39] who was also a gentleman with a private income;[40] he could also be construed as "a brutalized ex-officer whose thirst for excitement is also an attempt to reenact [sic] the war".

[41] The character was later described by Cecil Day-Lewis, author of rival gentleman detective Nigel Strangeways, as an "unspeakable public school bully".

[42] Drummond's main adversary across four novels is Carl Peterson,[f] a master criminal with no national allegiance, who is often accompanied by his wife, Irma.

[44] Irma is described by Jonathon Green as "the slinky epitome of a twenties 'vamp'",[4] and by Lawrence Treadwell as dark, sexy and from an oriental background, "a true femme fatale".

[43] After Carl Peterson's death in The Final Count, Irma swears revenge on Drummond and kidnaps his wife—whom he had met in Bull-Dog Drummond—with the intent of killing him in the ensuing chase.

[47][i] Later in 1922 McNeile resigned his reserve commission with the rank of lieutenant-colonel,[50] and moved as a tax exile to Territet, Montreux, Switzerland, with his wife;[51] the Swiss countryside was later described in a number of his stories.

[5] Bulldog Drummond Hits Out was finished by Fairlie and had a short tour of Brighton, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh, before opening in London at the Savoy Theatre on 21 December 1937.

[38] W. E. Johns used McNeile's work as a model for his character Biggles,[69] while Ian Fleming admitted that James Bond was "Sapper from the waist up and Mickey Spillane below".

When he started writing thrillers, Hodder & Stoughton advertised McNeile as a "light and entertaining" writer,[13] and began publishing his works in the "Yellow Jacket" series.

[76] The academic Joan DelFattore points out that while the characters and plots cannot be considered to be unique, credible or well-rounded, his books "make no claim to literary excellence",[46] and are instead, "good, solid thrillers".

[77] Meyer classifies the non-war stories as middlebrow, with "sentimental plotlines and presenting a social message about the condition of England".

[79] DelFattore outlines the use of double adjectives to reinforce feelings towards enemies in both his war stories and thrillers, such as "filthy, murdering Boche", and "stinking, cowardly Bolshevik".

His war stories include descriptions of fights between individuals that carry a sporting motif: in Sergeant Michael Cassidy, R.E., he writes, "To bag a man with a gun is one thing; there is sport—there is an element of one against one, like when the quality goes big game shooting.

Reviewing Men, Women, and Guns for The Times Literary Supplement, Francis Henry Gribble wrote that "Sapper has been successful in previous volumes of war stories ...

When the time comes for picking out the writers whose war fiction has permanent value, his claim to be included in the list will call for serious examination.

[99] In the British market, The Times Literary Supplement also characterised him as a mass-market thriller writer, which contrasted with its consideration of his earlier works.

[96] From the 1950s on, McNeile's work came to be viewed in the light of events of the Second World War,[41] and journalists such as Richard Usborne highlighted aspects of the stories which he considered were "carrying the Führer-principle".

[46] Jaillant notes that the accusations of fascism only came about after the Second World War,[32] while the academic Ion Trewin considers that through the Drummond stories, McNeile was seen at the time as "simply an upstanding Tory who spoke for many of his countrymen".

[4] J. D. Bourn considers his language to be "rather distasteful",[101] while the academic Michael Denning observed that "Drummond is a bundle of chauvinisms, hating Jews, Germans, and most other foreigners".