Rochester, George E
Entry updated 28 October 2024. Tagged: Author.
(1898-1966) UK author; his experiences in active service during World War One inspired much of his fiction, most of it written for boys under his own and several other names, including John Beresford, Frank Chaltam, Barton Furse, Jeffrey Gaunt, Eric Roche and Hamilton Smith. Much of this output did not reach book form, including his first known sf tale, "The Black Vulture" (28 April-23 June 1934 Scoops), about a Mad Scientist plotting to rule the world. The Despot of the World (1936) tells a similar tale. Several 1930s tales with evocative titles – like The Skywayman: Breathless Story of Aerial Adventure (22 March-7 June 1932 Chums as "Captain Robin Hood, Skywayman"; 1933; vt Captain Robin Hood, Skywayman 1935), which features a mysterious Island, or Brood of the Vulture (1936), which does not – come close to sf, but typically restrict themselves to adventures in aeroplanes, often featuring air pirates. In The Haunted Man (23 January-3 April 1937 Detective Weekly; 1951) as by Jeffrey Gaunt, a mild-mannered clerk is surgically transformed into a powerful figure of evil. Of more direct sf interest is The Sea Spider: A Story of Piracy and Peril (9 February-4 May 1935 Magnet; 1936 chap), which features an armoured amphibious tank in the shape of a giant spider which ambulates on jointed metal legs.
Rochester was extremely popular in the 1930s; his later career was inconspicuous and he fell silent after about 1954. Of sf interest in his post-War output is the Black Wing sequence comprising Black Wing (1951) and Secret Pilot (1954), featuring a young heroic cadet who has been fitted with a flying suit powered by an atomic engine; among the advanced Weapons on display is a giant Ray Gun. In his last sf novel, The Black Octopus (1954), the eponymous submarine – gigantic, nuclear-fueled, controlled by a quasi-animate though manufactured Brain in a Box – is used by a cadre of heroes to defeat a dread consortium of aspirational Secret Masters whose supersonic Whirling Spheres, filled with narcotic gas, attack London. [JC]
see also: Boys' Friend Library; Boys' Papers.
George Ernest Rochester
born Alnmouth, Northumberland: 17 December 1898
died London: 23 March 1966
works (selected)
series
Black Wing
- Black Wing (London: The Epworth Press, 1951) [Black Wing: hb/uncredited]
- Secret Pilot (London: The Epworth Press, 1954) [Black Wing: hb/uncredited]
individual titles
- The Skywayman: Breathless Story of Aerial Adventure (London: The Amalgamated Press, 1933) [chap: first appeared 22 March-7 June 1932 Chums as "Captain Robin Hood, Skywayman": in the publisher's Boys' Friend Library series: pb/E Shelley]
- Captain Robin Hood, Skywayman (London: John Hamilton, 1935) [vt of the above: illus/hb/M D Gibson]
- The Sea Spider: A Story of Piracy and Peril (London: The Amalgamated Press, 1936) [chap: first appeared 9 February-4 May 1935 Magnet: in the publisher's Boys' Friend Library series: pb/uncredited]
- The Despot of the World (London: John Hamilton, 1936) [illus/hb/Howard Leigh]
- The Moth Men (London: Hutchinson, 1950) [hb/]
- The Black Mole (London: Amalgamated Press, 1937) [chap: first appeared 1 June- 31 August 1935 Ranger: in the publisher's Boys' Friend Library series: pb/uncredited]
- The Lost Squadron (London: Amalgamated Press, 1938) [chap: first appeared 15 February-2 May 1936 Magnet: in the publisher's Boys' Friend Library series: pb/uncredited]
- The Haunted Man (London: Eldon Press, 1951) as by Jeffrey Gaunt [first appeared 23 January-3 April 1937 Detective Weekly: hb/uncredited]
- The Black Octopus (London: Frederick Warne and Company, 1954) [hb/Serge Drigin]
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