ABSTRACT
John Gordon Brandon has the distinction of being one of the most prolific authors of the twentieth century. His reputation – if it can be called that – reached its peak in the 1920s and '30s when it was easy to see him as part of a 'golden age' of English detective fiction, a line of influence connecting Sherlock Holmes with Sexton Blake and then to Bulldog Drummond and so on. At the start of Brandon's writing life, the theatre seemed a better bet. In spite of press talk about theatres experiencing poor attendances, Brandon was a prolific dramatist during the war. He was practical and down to earth in his approach; he was not trying to pen the first great 'war play'. Brandon's final wartime play was The Pacifist, whose titular character uses his position in the Port of London Authority to give information to the Germans about transports and facilitates air-raids by signalling.
