H. C. Asterley

Hugh Cecil Asterley (10 May 1902 - 1973) was a British writer and colonial administrator, who wrote crime and mystery stories and novels, usually with a south-east Asian setting, as H. C. Asterley.

Asterley's Singapore passport, issued in 1951

Early life

Asterley was born in Souldrop, Bedfordshire.

Career

Asterley was a civil servant, who spent much of his career in Singapore.

His first novel, Rowena Goes Too Far was published in 1931. A bestseller in the UK, it was banned in Australia due to customs belief that it “lacked sufficient claim to the literary to excuse the obscenity”.[1]

His 1961 novel, Escape to Berkshire, was a change in style, being a post-nuclear war survival novel about the destruction of, and escape from, London.

Publications
  • Rowena Goes Too Far, London, Jarrolds, 1931
  • A Tale of Two Murders, London, Jarrolds, 1932 (published as Mortmain in the USA)
  • Land of Short Shadows, 1932/33
  • Jungle Leech, 1935
  • Escape to Berkshire, 1961, London, Pall Mall Press

References
  1. Marita Bullock and Nicole Moore: Banned In Australia, A Bibliography
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