Sydney Horler (July 18, 1888 - October 27, 1954) was a prolific British novelist specialising in thrillers. Born in Leytonstone, London and was educated at Redcliffe School and Colston School in Bristol.
His first job was with Western Daily Press and Allied Newspapers in Bristol started in 1905. This lasted until 1911 when he left to become a special writer on the staff of Edward Hulton and Co. in Manchester. He moved to London to work on the Daily Mail and Daily Citizen in Fleet Street, although he also worked in the propaganda section of Air Intelligence towards the end of the First World War. When it ended he joined the editorial staff of George Newnes as a sub editor of the John O'London's Weekly. He didn't see eye to eye with the editor and after a big row in 1919 his employment was terminated.
He decided to become a full-time writer. He became a popular author with the publication, in 1925, of his first crime novel, The Mystery of No.1, and with novels such as Checkmate (1930).Horler's work was influenced by other popular thriller writers such as Edgar Wallace and "Sapper". His main hero was "Tiger" Standish, a character similar to Sapper's Bulldog Drummond.[1] By the 1930s, Horler's books had sold an estimated two million copies.[2]
Horler's novels have not been popular since his death. Critics have taken issue with Horler's plots, described by William L. DeAndrea as "unbelievable" (Horler himself claimed to "give old man coincidence's arm a frightful twist") and characters seen as cliched.[3] David Stafford describes Horler as "among the worst" of British thriller writers.[4]
Horler's works also incorporated his own prejudices. In addition to expressing sentiments about non-English peoples that most modern readers would find deeply offensive (Horler's heroes, such as Tiger Standish, regular use derogatory terms like "wogs" and "stinking Italianos"), Horler also expressed a dislike of sexuality, especially homosexuality. He spent a large amount of time emphasising how "virile" and "masculine" his heroes are. One of Horler's characters, the gentleman thief "Nighthawk", only steals jewels from women he sees as sexually immoral, pausing in his work to scrawl the word "Wanton" on their pillowcases.[1] Writers such as Bill Pronzini [5] and Malcolm Turnbull have noted that Horler's novels regularly featured negative depictions of Jews as criminals and racketeers, and he made denigrating comments about the Jewish community in his memoirs, Excitement:An Impudent Autobiography.[2] Not even the rise of Nazism made any change to Horler's anti-semitism; Turnbull points out Horler subscibes to "wartime slanders of Jew-Nazi collaboration and Jewish wartime profiteering in his 1940s titles". Horler's book Nighthawk Mops Up(1944) even features a Jewish villain, Wilfred Abrahams, who collaborates with the Nazis.[2]
Horler wrote some 157 novels.
He also wrote a factual crime book 'London's Underworld', published by Hutchinson in 1934. He researched his material by spending a month in London's Underworld.