However, in earlier years he was known for his detective novels, his stage plays which were made into films, notably The Limping Man in 1931 and 1936, and for the 2,000 short stories[3] that he contributed to magazines and newspapers; believed to be a record for the United Kingdom during his lifetime.

[31] They had two daughters: the first was Patricia Shirley born at 1 Highfield Terrace, Golders Green on 28 September 1919 when Scott described himself as a black and white artist.

His Times obituary says that he began in London as a caricaturist for the Performer magazine, drawing George Robey, Wilkie Bard, and Fred Kitchen from the film Old Mother Riley Overseas.

[4] The Mask Players was the amateur Herne Bay drama group started for charity purposes by Edward Anstee in March 1930, with twelve or twenty-four founder members; this number had risen to 300 by 1935.

The group celebrated its tenth anniversary and 63rd green room night on 28 March 1940 at St John's Hall in Herne Bay, although the previous cast of hundreds had been whittled down to dozens by the war.

The ninth story in the series was Will Scott's Old Bus, which appeared on 30 September 1930: a shaggy dog tale about twenty years in the life of a limousine.

[47] Will Scott's thriller drama, The Limping Man was called an "outstanding success", the character of Disher being expanded onstage by Franklin Dyall.

[67][68] The play went on tour and then debuted in London on Monday 19 January 1931 at the Royalty Theatre, starring Franklin Dyall, Eve Gray, Miriam Lewes and Arthur Hardy.

[72] The Daily Express review said: "Will Scott, an artist and author, has written in The Limping Man a comedy thriller which is far above the average if only for the reason that it contains at least a score of very amusing lines.

It consists of an introduction and six single-scene episodes showing how the town celebrated previous coronations and events,[42] each representing eras of Herne Bay's history: 1821, 1831, 1838, 1902, 1911 and 1937.

Some of the scenes are humorous: for example the 1838 episode includes a light mockery of reactionary attitudes, showing an elderly resident worrying that the new clock tower is déclassé.

The entire pageant promotes pride in Herne Bay through understanding of its development from a fishing village to a complex town and tourist attraction.

"[42] Scott's farce Married for Money appeared at the Aldwych Theatre in late 1939, during the early months of the Second World War, with a cast that included Nora Swinburne and Dinah Sheridan.

[82] The book retailed at 7s 6d in the UK, and The Sunday Times review of May 1925 said: "The reader will be unusually thrilled by Mr Scott's brilliantly conceived story – really a little masterpiece of ingenuity.

Against a background of tall black trees the Revel stood up, a brilliant red silhouette, a haphazard collection of corners and gables and curly chimney-pots and stepped terraces .

[89] In this whodunit novel, private detective Will Disher is described as suave, plump, astute and bored, but Scotland Yard still asks him for help in solving the mystery.

Real local place names such as Maypole, Whitstable and Stodmarsh are transmuted into fictional places with names such as the Hope Poles Inn, Winstonlea and Stodmere Farm, and a chase through countryside at night evokes the true atmosphere of the marshes around the rivers Stour and Wantsum with their dykes or banked drainage trenches, twisting lanes and dark woods.

[61] However this novel also offers glimpses of the area just before the beginning of the Great Depression when many local farmers and innkeepers went bankrupt and their land was sold for very little to itinerant farm labourers, as happened at Shelvingford and Marshside.

The character Wilks the farmer with his Kentish dialect could be taken to represent the existing peasantry in the area, as a contrast with the upper class in the novel's Georgian House.

The bus, the train and walking are still preferred methods of travel for the majority, though, and even the car-owning gentry at the Georgian House are familiar with public transport timetables.

[97] The dedication says, "A book for Mike to remind him of the days when all of us – and Daisy's sister – dashed about, like The Cherrys themselves, all over the place, from the beginning of Kent to the end of the Windrush, having a high old time".

[4] It was published in French in 1963 by Rouge et Or Dauphine as Les Cherry au Bord de la Mer, illustrated by Pierre Le Guen.

[106] Happenings: Mr Wilks cries 'Look!’; Mr. Nobody; Nothing but mysteries; The standstill race; The Society For Finding Things Out; Old sailor from over the water; Away they go; Smart work; The same-sounding words; The end if the trail.

[114] In the winter of 1962–1963 there was an unusually thick snowfall and the surface of the sea froze along the shoreline close to Scott's house, Windermere, on Westcliff at Herne Bay.

Herne Bay's clock tower and adjoining public gardens appear in the story, as do Hampton-on-Sea's jetty, concrete shelter, the beach and the boating lake as it was in 1955.

In the 1950s there was an antique shop in Herne Bay High Street called Len Pottle,[119] and the caretaker at Hampton Primary School was Mr Stickels.

The story follows the attempts of five children to clear the name of their friend Sticky by trailing and catching a homeless thief with disagreeable manners; a "ghastly type" to be identified by his brown boots.

If this is so, then the disagreeable man could be taken to be the author's characterisation of D. C. Thomson & Co., or its cartoonist Bill Holroyd,[123] who published children's cartoons such as Jack Silver and His Dog Black.

[124] It is perhaps also significant in this context that the publication of Half-Term Trail in 1955 follows press commentary on the first few books of The Cherrys series, and that Scott did not like to be compared with Enid Blyton.

The dust-jacket summary says: "A wise old night-watchman convinced Dick, Mick and Henry that any unvisited place is uncharted territory – and that there was no need to climb Everest or track through dark jungles to enjoy the thrill of discovery.