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Martin Blackburn
12/04/2017 23:30

The Mysterious case of Alan Gardner


"The Hibernation of Ginger Scrubb" by Alan Harold Gardner is an excellent adventure novel concerning the ailing company director of a London toy doll company who is enticed into undergoing cryogenic preservation to wake up in the 22nd century ! I picked this now out of print edition up from a second hand bookshop and have never read anything quite like it. Published way back in 1968 by New English Library I find the author is as mysterious as the book's title...

The book offers no author biography other than that he was a London journalist, a search on wikipedia draws a total blank on his name. Ebay lists several authors by the name of Alan Gardner who write on everything from Eastern History and text books on Algebra for schools - yet none of them are him.

Alan Gardner (not to be confused with Alan Garner (Owl Service, Weirdstone of Brasingamen, Elidor etc.) does not appear to have ever existed at all !!! Is it possible, in this day and age, for an author to slip through the cracks of the world wide web ? Even a general tool bar search on this name does not lead me to the author of this book. I'm intrigued because I'd like to find out what else he's written, if anything.

Have Bibliophiles had any similar experiences to this in being unable to track down invisible authors...any suggestions ?
Francis Alcraft
08/06/2020 18:01

RE: The Mysterious case of Alan Gardner


How interesting this should come up as my wife and I were just having the exact same discussion.

I have the same book as you but I started reading Six Day Week by him as we have been doing a bit of family tree in lockdown. I also bought the two books in the US and they are cheaply printed so I thought they would be rubbish and put them away some years ago. However, now I am reading it I see it has a top review from the New York Times and is excellent!

We think Alan is the son of Alf and May Gardner and is my wife's second cousin once removed. Interestingly that is the same relationship to her as to the late Stephanie McMillan, nee Gardner, who won an Oscar for the English Patient and is better known for the set design of the Harry Potter films - a talented family. If he is the same Alan as our relative I can tell you one thing which might explain that he has been erased by the British establishment; he sued the best man of Princess Margaret!! We are finding out more about this.

His eight books are on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1341414.Alan_Gardner
Simon Gardner
28/11/2020 17:24

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
Simon Gardner
28/11/2020 17:51

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
Simon Gardner
30/11/2020 19:35

RE: The Mysterious case of Alan Gardner


Francis

For your family tree

Three Brothers Alf, Alfred and Leslie Gardner
Alf Married May and had Alan Harold Gardner as an only son
Leslie had Stephanie as a daughter who married Russell Miller I think
I was at that wedding. I used to stay with Uncle Les in Woodford Essex (who was not really my Uncle) and regularly borrowed his West Ham United season ticket!
I do not know much about Alfred
Sally Perrott
01/12/2020 20:27

RE: The Mysterious case of Alan Gardner


I am Sally Perrott (nee Gardner). I remember well the 3000 words Dad bashed out before breakfast some mornings. I remember our time in Scarsdale near New York, watching the rocket shoots from Cape Canaveral and some of the stories regarding Mutiny on the Bounty (edited for our ears)! During his gossip column days he once got savaged by the print room cat that he had rounded up for a society gathering of a lady who owned a posh pooch. Things didn't go well and he ended up with stitches! He left journalism after being sent to cover the war in Algeria by William Hardcastle. A few horrific incidents led him to quit journalism forever and eventually move into PR. He felt that he had been involved in one war and didn't need the danger of another bearing in mind that he now had a wife and two kids to support. Before coming back to the UK for a more traditional education, we spent a wonderful summer on the beach at Ostia near Rome while he bashed out another book from his deckchair. As my brother mentioned he retired to Majorca. My brother lives in Toronto, Canada and I recently retired to Cape Town, SA where I paint and play golf! Stephanie Miller (nee Gardner) was my second cousin and I was bridesmaid at her wedding to Russell. We lost touch after Uncle Leslie died. I guess she was just very busy!