Following the publication of his first novel Dodd the Potter in 1931 under the name Cedric Beardmore, George went on to become a prolific writer with an unusually broad body of published work.
Writing as George Wolfenden he produced The House in Spitalfields (1937), The Undefeated (1940), The Spy who Died in Bed (1941), and The Little Doves of Destruction (1942). As Cedric Stokes he wrote All Space my Playground (1943) and The Staffordshire Assassins (1944). And as George Beardmore: Madame Merlin (1946); A Tale of Two Thieves (1947); Far Cry (1948); Going into the Country (1948); A Lion among Ladies (1949); The Isle of Apes (1950); North Wind (1952), and A Thousand Witnesses (1953).
Going into the Country is thinly disguised auto-biography. George dedicated the book to Anne and Richard (his brother Alan’s children), Robert-John (his wife’s nephew), Victoria (his eldest daughter – Mary in the book) and Anthea (his youngest daughter – the landlady’s baby).
George with the landlady’s baby
Ricky and Anne on the Wharfe
Anne under Linton Bridge
Mary being very brave
In the early fifties George began writing for two popular comics: Eagle and Girl.
North Wind was first published in 1951 as serial in Eagle. His main strip for Eagle was Jack O’ Lantern but he was also responsible for a Dan Dare episode called The Red Moon Mystery. His Belle of the Ballet for Girl was very popular and was even syndicated in Europe. Belle was drawn by a succession of talented artists: John Worsley, Chris Garvey (actually June Mendoza who later became famous as a portrait painter), Stanley Houghton, and Harry Lindfield.
George published three books during this period: Belle of the Ballet’s Gala Performance (1956), Belle of the Ballet’s Country Holiday (1957) and Jack O’ Lantern and the Fighting Cock (1958).
George in 1967
In the late sixties George returned to writing novels with Charlie Pocock and the Princess (1967) and Waldo Rush 48% (1968). At the same time he embarked on a successful series of children’s books: Leslie’s Great Adventure (1967), Island of Strangers (1968), Expedition to Faollen (1973), The Maid of the Isles (1974), Ladies of Spain (1975), and The Treasures of Spanish Bay (1975).
In 1972 George and his wife Jean published a collection of letters between Arnold Bennett and his French wife Marguerite under the title Arnold Bennett in Love.
Following George’s death in 1979 his daughters, Victoria and Anthea (Tiffa), collected together his wartime diaries. Civilians at War, published by John Murray in 1984, offers a unique record of life on the home front between 1838 and 1946. A new paperback edition is available through this website.
The Long Wedding Reception, George’s intimate memoir of his marriage to Jean, was previously unpublished, but is now available through this website.
