Watch Your Back - Allen, Richard

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Résumé :
When a Loss of Ambition leads to Unintentional Employment 'The writer was the unwanted child of an Elementary School Headmaster blessed with great mental and sporting capabilities and a Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum Charge Attendant. The story commences at birth, through a suppressive childhood to being virtually homeless at the age of sixteen. His mother's sister gave him shelter until he was called up for National Service after which he joined the Police but found himself unhappy. Fortunately after a period he met up with a former colleague. The relationship blossomed with the ultimate result '66 years of married bliss'. The story continues with life as a Constable/ Sergeant for sixteen years in the Police being happy. In 1964 however his Chief Constable issued an ultimatum to him that he would either sit and pass his 'Inspectors Examination' or he would be moved elsewhere which may be to his detriment with a promise that if he passed he would be promoted within a very short period. He passed the examination and promotion then followed up to Chief Superintendent in which rank the writer remained seven years until retirement, the last three years being untenable for a number of reasons but one reason did not come to light until the death in retirement of his last Chief Constable who had carried on to be the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police....

Sommaire:
Richard Allen was the pen-name of James Moffat, born in Canada in 1922. Moffat was prolific, though one repeated claim that he was the author of at least 290 novels in several genres under at least 45 pseudonyms still requires independent verification. It is known that Moffat contributed to an early draft of the novel Somewhere in The Night, which was later completed (or entirely rewritten - sources differ) by Michael Moorcock and published under the pseudonym Bill Barclay in 1966. However it was Moffat's gritty youthsploitation novels, published in the 1970's and early 1980's under the name Richard Allen, that form the bulk of his legacy today. The Joe Hawkins story began in Skinhead (1970) and was continued in Suedehead (1971). Later there were further instalments in Joe Hawkins' story, as well as novels focussing on other youth movements such as Smoothies (1973), Punk Rock (1977) and the final Allen novel Mod Rule (1980). Altogether there were eighteen novels under the Richard Allen brand. James Moffat spent most of his final decade in obscurity, though he lived to see the reissue of the Richard Allen novels in the early 1990's. He died in July of 1993, while living in a nursing home in Newton Abbot....