The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-30
STRIKING CAREER
 OF BRITISH AUTHOR
Russell Thorndike On Ac-
 tive Service In Egypt
IS WIDELY TRAVELLED
Has Been On Stage-Plat Flor For First Novel About To Be Pub lished Was Found in Georgia.
 Barr Fits to Deal
By HAYDEN CHURCH

By HAYDEN CHURCH
 London, May 1S.-Rather an excep- tionally interesting novel that was in spired by a shooting affray in Georgia town, which the author an English ac tor. witnessed from his hotel window is about to be published on both sides l of the Atlantic Meanwhile the author, | Russell Thorndike, who Is still in his twenties, is serving In Egypt as a pri- Ivate in a famous British regiment that is helping to keep the hordes of Fur key out of the land of the Pharaohs
 Both the British and the American | publishers of "Dr. Syn"-which IS Thorndikes maiden novel-believe that 1 1t is going to be a real winner and 1 the young author already can claim for it a distinction that Is somewhat 1 rare, namely that 1t was accepted by the first house to which it was offered, both in the United States and here. Thorndike himself is the son of an English canon and the grandson Of q general in the Royal Artillery, and, up | to now. such fame as he can claim haS been gained principally as an unusual 1y capable young actor. He went on the stage at IS, touring the United States and Canada, with Ben Greet, for three | or four years, and playing all sorts or Shakespearean parts. He was writing during spare moments all the t1me Ihowever-at early train calls 1t was quite usual for him to be sitting on his suit case jotting down notes and sketches, and when he'd finished hard days of travelling and acting g-ne was stage manager, too, no easy work-he would go back to his hotel and write for hours.
 Found Plot In Georgia
 He got the idea of his forthcoming novel, pr Syn" in Spartenburg, Ga. A man was shot just underneath his bed room window, and Thorndike made his
 sister sit up all night with the teapot
 handy while he enlarged on the most
 awful horrors, which the murder out
 side had started going. "Dr. Syn," how ever. is a tale, not of Georgia. but of
 the Romney marshes in the old days of lhighwaymen. Thorndike wrote it as d
 play, first, but it proved bit too grue-
 some in the performing, and he ex-
 pressed himself more happily as story
 teller. But then he is quite evidently
 born tale spinner, though he was first
 heard of as a choir boy with quite an
 exceptionally beautiful voice. He was born in the cathedral city of Rochester, where his father was a minor canon. and at went to St. Georges Windsor,
 
 master of the Kings music. where he received a thorough musical education. He had beautiful voice and was made
 solo boy to Queen Victoria, singing a. ]. Windsor castle, Balmoral and Osborne He used to spend holidays in the latter place with John Biggs, son of Lord Stamfordham. who has always been most kind to him.
 Even as child Thorndike loved to act
 and tell stories and it was always the weird and fantastic that attracted him. He loved to frighten people and his fla vorite game was to make his sister and l friends play house in the cemetery while he sprang out at them from the back
 of gravestones at unsuspected moments, impersonating any evil, frightfu thing
 that came into his head. He wanted to apply for the post of sexton in the par ish thinking It would afford wider scope , for fantastic performances in the digging l of graves, ringing of bells, etc, but this was squashed by the family as was also
 his plan of being travelling story-teller, 3 earning his living by telling tales at the village inns throughout the country.
 Meanwhile, he scrubbed hard. At the l age of IA, he wrote a five-act tra sedy in s blank verse on the subject of Saul, and re-wrote it nine times, finishing it final l ly when he was 19. With Matheson s Lang he toured China, India Burmah and in the Philippine Islands, and eager ) ly gathered all the weird and gruesome tales he could from these countries. After travelling continually for nearly 10 years, he decided to give himself up
 for a year just to writing, and appears l to have struck the bulls eye squarely . with his first serious effort.
 ] Immediately the war broke out both g he and his younger brother joined the l Westminster Dragoons and they are now . stationed near Cairo. Thorndke has be- D come an expert with the machine gun. V and we probably shall have something e exceptionally interesting in the way of military experiences from him by and by Barr Deserts London
 l James Barr who wrote "The Gods Give . My Donkey Wings" and whose writings = are only less well known than those of s his brother, the late Robert Barr has T made his home in South Kensington for l a score of years or more but now has ,. deserted London for Deal where he and n what remains of his family-namely three n attractive daughters-ntend to spend the = summer. All three of his talented sons d are now in different branches of the h service-the youngest, who is only 16. is 2 a bugler-and, until. as Barr somewhat v patheticaly expresses 1t, he finds out V who is coming home and who may not e be- he will not, so he says. settle dowr h permanently anywhere. but expects to be O back in town in the early autumn.
 From Deal, meanwhile, he writes tC
 me
 This is the one spot on earth at the
 moment. At our front gate lies a big S steamer. mined. Out against our from = garden are anchored about 20 mine 0 sweepers. German submarine is knowr r. to be lurking somewhere about and de | stroyers going at express speed are slic f ing the waters in the hopes of failing e over the enemy The Downs are or il l. full of shipping liners, four-masted sail 0 ing ships. every sort of craft. Deal il C wonderful
 e New Sullivan Story
 A new and entertainingly characteristic
 story of the late Sir Arthur Sullivan il < told by George R. Sims. This tale re s lates how Sir Arthur recognized hous
 in Russell Square. He had only beel |. there once before with the friend wh y lived there and was now his expectan 2, host Sullivan had been invited to din a there and bring his friend. Frederic e Clay, with him. When they got to Rus II sell Square Sullivan had forgotten tn
 number of the house and Clay did no = know it. Suddenly an idea occurred t . Sir Arthur. II remember he said t Clay, that the last time was there lit the ferrule of my umbrella agains 2 the scraper, and B flat was the result Let us go and try the scrapers' s ! Sullivan and Clay walked round tn .u,,ora striking the various ScraperS UT