Born on 1st February 1908, Leonard Reginald Gribble wrote his first novel The Case of the Marsden Rubies in 1929 and, three years later, he married Nancy Mason with whom he had one daughter, Lois. During World War II, Leonard Gribble served in the Press and Censorship Division of the Ministry of Defence before resuming his writing career in 1947 with the publication of Atomic Murder.
Anthony Slade of Scotland Yard was, without doubt, his greatest creation with forty five books featuring a string of mysteries and cases for the sleuth to unravel. The Arsenal Stadium Mystery remains his most successful work and was made into a movie in 1940 starring Leslie Banks, Greta Gynt, Arsenal manager George Allison and many of the Arsenal squad of that time.
In addition to his many books, Leonard Gribble also contributed numerous short stories and feature articles to leading national and provincial newspapers and to many magazines both in the UK and overseas.
He devised and wrote programmes for commercial radio and inaugurated BBC Radio’s Empire Bookshelf series. He was a founder member of the Crime Writers Association.
Reviews:
"Like Arsenal in more recent years, it does the double: while scoring highly for nostalgia, it also holds its own in the suspense stakes." The Independent on Sunday
