A tip of the hat to Al Guthrie for correcting me on the
ending of Kersh's PRELUDE TO A CERTAIN MIDNIGHT. Next time I
decide to comment in detail on a novel I read in the late
1960s, I will first refresh my memory.
Miker says the achives mention a Kersh influence on Derek
Raymond, another favorite of mine who wrote under his
birthname of Robin Cook until another's success made that
impossible. Without checking the archives, I looked at an
interview conducted by Kersh biographer and former Rara-avian
Paul Duncan with Raymond. In that interview Duncan said
Raymond was very familiar with Kersh and poet Wilfred Owen
because he was fascinated with "war authors." Kersh became
celebrated in Britain during the war because after service
with the Coldstream Guards he wrote about life in the army
with both power and humor. Ironically, Kersh had to leave
active service with the Guards as in London on leave he was
severely injured by German bombs during the blitz.
In the same interview Raymond says he did not write a
thriller until he was 50 years old because he had read
Chandler and thought "he'd done it all."
I can see how Raymond would have been influenced by Kersh's
NIGHT AND THE CITY and I certainly see the Chandler
influence. But then it is hard to look anywhere and not see
Chandler's influence.
Richard Moore
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