IDENTITY REVEALED

Taranaki Daily News, 25 November 1929, Page 6

IDENTITY REVEALED

“THE GENTLEMAN WITH .DUSTER” Tho identity of /‘The Gcntelman with a Duster,” the author of “Tho Mirrors of Downing Street,” published in 1920, was revealed by the.death or - Mr. Harold. Begbie, the writer, at his home at Ringwood, Hampshire. Mr. Charles Boon, the London publisher, was able to disclose the secret. He says: . ... When Mr. Begbie wrote “The Mirrors of Downing Street,” I promised him that I would not disclose the: secret until the-day of his death. .a. When the book was published it created a great stir, und |heie weie many guesses at the identity of . the author. Mr. Begbie’s name was mentioned, but he never admitted itfl. authorship' publicly. I think it has been the most closely guarded of modern literary secrets. Of course, Mr. Begbie himself told a very few of his most intimate friends, but ho did it under their pledge of secrecy and not once was he let down. Mr. Begbie was 58. He was the son of the late Rev. Mars Hamilton Begbie, and was born at Fornham Bt. Martin, Suffolk. He was a versatile writer and was a successful journalist before he became an even more suecessfiil writer of books. . ‘