Manning Coles was the pseudonym of two British writers, Adelaide Frances Oke Manning (1891–1959) and Cyril Henry Coles (1899–1965),stopyourekillingme.com/C_Authors/Coles_Manning who wrote many spy thrillers from the early 1940s to the early 1960s. The fictional protagonist in 26 of their books was Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon, who works for a department of the Foreign Office, usually referred to in the novels as "MI5".Panek, Leroy L. The Special Branch: The British Spy Novel, 1890-1980 (1981), pp. 185-200
Biography Manning and Coles were neighbours in East Meon, Hampshire. Coles worked for British Intelligence in both the World Wars. Manning worked for the War Office during World War I. Their first books were fairly realistic and with a touch of grimness; their postwar books perhaps suffered from an excess of lightheartedness and whimsy. They also wrote a number of humorous novels about modern-day ghosts, some of them involving ghostly cousins named Charles and James Latimer. These novels were published in England under the pseudonym of Francis Gaite but released in the United States under the Manning Coles byline.
Many of the original exploits were based on the real-life experiences of Coles, who lied about his age and enlisted under an assumed name in a Hampshire regiment during World War I while still a teenager. He eventually became the youngest officer in British intelligence, often working behind German lines, due to his extraordinary ability to master languages.
Tommy Hambledon Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon works for a department of the Foreign Office, usually referred to in the novels as "MI5" (counter-intelligence), although in the earliest books he is clearly working for the active overseas department MI6. The character is thought to have been based by Coles on a former teacher of his.
Tommy Hambledon novels Drink to Yesterday, 1940 Toast To Tomorrow (1940) Pray Silence, 1940 (American title: A Toast to Tomorrow) They Tell No Tales, 1941 Without Lawful Authority, 1943 Green Hazard, 1945 The Fifth Man, 1946 Let the Tiger Die, 1947 A Brother for Hugh, 1947 (American title: With Intent to Deceive) Among Those Absent, 1948 Diamonds to Amsterdam, 1949 Not Negotiable, 1949 Dangerous by Nature, 1950 Now or Never, 1951 Alias Uncle Hugo, 1952 (British title: Operation Manhunt, 1953) Night Train to Paris, 1952 A Knife for the Juggler, 1953 (revised American edition, 1964; also published as The Vengeance Man, 1967) Not for Export, 1954 (American title: All That Glitters; also published as The Mystery of the Stolen Plans, 1960) The Man in the Green Hat, 1955 The Basle Express, 1956 Birdwatcher's Quarry, 1956 (British title: The Three Beans, 1957) Death of an Ambassador, 1957 No Entry, 1958 Crime in Concrete, 1960 (American title: Concrete Crime) Search for a Sultan, 1961 (by Coles and Tom Hammerton) The House at Pluck's Gutter, 1963 (by Coles and Tom Hammerton)
Tommy Hambledon short story collection Nothing to Declare, 1960
Novels without Tommy Hambledon Half-Valdez, 1939 (by Manning alone) This Fortress, 1942
Ghost novels under the Francis Gaite byline Great Caesar's Ghost (juvenile), 1943 (British title: The Emperor's Bracelet, 1947)(non-ghost; a "lost city" story) Brief Candles (The Latimers), 1954 Happy Returns (The Latimers), 1955 (British title: A Family Matter, 1956) The Far Traveler, 1956 Come and Go (The Latimers), 1958 Duty Free, 1959 (non-ghost novel)
Uncollected short historical essay "Death Keeps a Secret" (John Creasey Mystery Magazine, March 1958; reprinted in The Mystery Bedside Book (1960), edited by John Creasey} is a brief account of the capture and death of Colonel Alfred Redl, an Austrian spymaster and traitor in the First World War: was he shot by his captors, or did he commit suicide?
References
External links
Manning Coles, by Tom & Enid Schantz