RE: The Mysterious case of Alan Gardner
I am Simon Gardner the son of Alan. I do remember the days (mostly nights) when he wrote those books. He would be banging away at his typewriter in the early morning hours with red wine and a cigar. He definitely had a talent for the English language and a vast vocabulary. One of his books "The Escalator" was about a submarine and anyone who watched "The hunt for Red October" would have thought the movie was made from it.
Alan grew up in Guidea Park, Essex and married Joan Gardner (nee Goff) who was from Lambeth. They had two children, myself and Sally. My father was an accomplished journalist for the Daily Mail where he ran the gossip column. Settling down in Cranleigh, Surrey he pursued a quieter career in Public relations for Lucas, Ford and Rothmans. His postings as a journalist were many but I do remember him covering the shooting of the movie "The mutiny on the Bounty", the first two manned space shots and the problems in Algeria.
He was born in 1925 and died in 1995 just shy of 71. He had heart failure from a weakened heart in childhood. He had rheumatic fever and lost one third of his heart at age 19 so to get to 70 was not a bad lifespan under the circumstances. He did however retire to Majorca, Spain in 1978 so he did have 17 years in retirement.
I hope this information helps fill in a few gaps. I do remember him having an issue while running the gossip column that irked the Royal Family, so much so, that the Mail had to jettison him to America to run the New York office. He did not speak a lot about this to me but he did harbour a considerable dislike of the Royal Family!
Kind Regards Simon