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Frank Showell Styles (14 March 1908 – 19 February 2005) was an English writer and mountaineer.
Biography
Showell Styles was born in Four Oaks, Birmingham and educated at Bishop Vesey's Grammar School in nearby Sutton Coldfield. His father Alfred Thomas Styles was also born in Four Oaks, in 1882. Known to his friends as 'Pip', Showell Styles' childhood was spent in the hills of North Wales where he became an avid mountaineer and explorer. During the Second World War, Styles joined the Royal Navy and was posted in the Mediterranean, but even there he walked and climbed as much as he could. As reported in his obituary by the daily post, in the early 1950s Showell Styles led several expeditions in the Himalayas and Arctic. He also climbed in the Pyrenees and Alps.
An aspiring writer, Styles already had articles published in Punch, before setting out to make his living as an author. His first novel, Traitor's Mountain, was a murder mystery set on and around Tryfan in Wales. He became a prolific writer with over 160 books published for children as well as adults. In addition to historic naval adventure fiction such as the Midshipman Quinn and Lieutenant Michael Fitton series set during the Napoleonic Wars, and non-fiction works on mountains and such as The Mountaineer's Weekend Book, he wrote detective fiction under the pseudonym of Glyn Carr, and humorous pieces as C.L. Inker.
Works
Children's books
- First Up Everest (1969), illustrated by Raymond Briggs, LCCN 69-10377
- Marty's Mountain (1973), illus. Malcolm Hargreaves
- Welsh Tales for Children (1974), retold by Styles, illus. Bernadette Watts
Anthologies edited
Fiction
Midshipman Septimus Quinn Midshipman Quinn (1956) Lieutenant Michael Fitton Adventures A Sword for Mr. Fitton (1975) Tiger Patrol Tiger Patrol (1957) Wolf Cubs Red for adventure (1965) Simon & Mag Hughes The Shop in the Mountain (1961) Abercrombie Lewker Traitor's Mountain (1946) Subsequent Lewker novels were written under the pseudonym 'Glyn Carr' |
Other novels Sir Devil (1949)
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Non-fiction
A Climber in Wales (1949) |
Glyder Range: Snowdonia District Guide Books (1974) Short non-fiction
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References
- "Search Results for England & Wales Births 1837-2006".
- Live, North Wales (23 February 2005). "Prolific author Showell Styles dies, aged 96". North Wales Live. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
- Welsh tales for children, Gelert Press, 1974. Library catalogue record OCLC 34021497. WorldCat. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
External links
- Obituary in The Angry Corrie (archived 2007-09-04)
- Showell Styles at FantasticFiction.co.uk
- Showell Styles at Library of Congress, with 76 library catalogue records
- Glyn Carr at LC Authorities, with 5 records, and at WorldCat
- 1908 births
- 2005 deaths
- English male novelists
- English explorers
- English children's writers
- English crime fiction writers
- People educated at Bishop Vesey's Grammar School
- 20th-century English novelists
- Members of the Detection Club
- 20th-century English male writers
- Nautical historical novelists
- Royal Navy officers of World War II
- People from Sutton Coldfield