REMARKABLE STORY

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 January 1934, Page 10

REMARKABLE STORY

‘EVELYN GRAHAM’S’ LIFE I have a story that no one will let me tell. It is a chronicle of the most colossal piece of bluff that has ever been .perpetuated in the literary world; but because it involves the names of the highest in the land the most elaborate steps "have been taken to prevent the story appearing in print, -writes Evelyn Graham in the “Daily Express.” I have -written a book about my life, but you -will never read it because there is not a publisher in England -who -will publish it. In this article, however, it is my intention to give in “potted” form the story they say I should not tell. My real name is Netley Evelyn Lucas. I am just 30. My mother died when I was born. My father-was murdered in Paris. A duke was my guardian. I was educated at a famous public school. At 16 I became a crook, and after several years in the underworld of London, Paris, and on the Riviera, I was arrested and served three years in a Borstal Institution.

I then became a rum-runner and an international trickster. I associated with most of the big Continental crooks. I served an apprenticeship in the drug traffic under Brilliant Chang. I robbed the rich with ‘“Gipsy” Lee, most famous of jewel thieves. I nearly stole Gaby Deslys’s £30,000 pearl necklace, but fell in love with her instead.

I twice stowed away across the Atlantic. I spent six months among the gangsters of Chicago. I was deported from Canada. I have served three sentences of imprisonment. I became engaged to and nearly married “Chicago May” Churchill, the “worst woman in the world.” Then I took up a pen and laid aside my jemmy and wrote my first book, “The Autobiography of a Crook.” It became a best-seller. A NEW CAREER I decided to give up crime in favour of authorship. I wrote six books on the underworld. I discovered that there was more money in writing than stealing. Returning from New York in the Aquitania, I conceived an idea which enriched me by £20,000. I decided to change my name from Netley Lucas to Evelyn Graham and write biographies of the famous. I wrote to Princess Mary and asked her if I could write her life-story. She agreed, and told me to send my manuscript to her lady-in-waiting to Jje passed for press. It appeared as a serial in the columns of a London daily newspaper. It was an immediate success in book I form. J

The Queen of Spain then gave me permission to write her biography, and summoned me to Madrid for an audience at the royal palace. I went, an ex-crook and ex-Borstal boy, and kissed the hand of that royal lady. Evelyn Graham became the “mystery writer” of England. No one had ever seen him —and not a soul had any idea that Evelyn Graham, the famous royal biographer, was Netley Lucas.

My next literary “laurel” was to write the biography of none other than Mr. Justice Darling, tbje doyen of British Judges. He gave me his cut-ting-books and personal assistance in writing the story of his life arid the famous trials with, which he had been connected. I received £2OOO for that book. I also wrote a “Life” of the Prince of Wales, King Albert of Belgium, and King Alfonso of Spain. I made £20,000 in two years by my pen as Evelyn Graham. As Evelyn Graham I met many of the world’s most famous men and

women, Marshal Foch, Aristide Briand, Clemenceau. I was the “hidden hand” in most of th 6 big biographies that I appeared during 1928 and 1929. I was i instrumental in the publication of the ' official biography of Mashal Foch by Major-General Sir George Aston, in a Life of the Duke of Connaught, and a history of the Secret Service. EXPOSURE But there came the day when my Jekyll-and-Hyde existence suffered an eclipse. Fleet Stret “called my bluff” — Evelyn Graham was exposed as being Neley Lucas, ex-crook, and that was the end. [

From my pinnacle of literary eminence I fell back to where I had started—to a prison cell. The cycle was complete. I went to prison again for eighteen months for false pretences in connection with a “Life of Queen Alexandra.”

I am now free, and I have written the whole story of the extraordinary double life that I led, have told the whole truth aboue Evelyn Graham, the “royal biographer.” But publishers are afraid of it. They will not let the past bury its dead. I

! committed no crime by writing under ! the name of Evelyn Graham. There are > many famous authors who use noms- ! de-plume, but then they have not a 1 prison past. Writing is my profession, but no one will buy my work. The literary world is frightened of me —of what I may say. Bottomley shared the same- experience. We were in prison together. He was an old man when he emerged into freedom again. I have youth on my side, however, and although they will not publish my book I am determined to reach again the literary pinnacle I once occupied as Evelyn Graham. My autobiography may appear some time. Why shouldn’t it? It is a story yiat ought to be told —because so many people have tried to stop it from, appearing.