Guy Thorne

Born Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull, he wrote under the pen name Guy Thorne and became a successful British novelist in the early 1900s. He was especially associated with dramatic, fast-moving popular fiction, and his books were widely read in their day.

One of his best-known novels was When It Was Dark, a religious thriller that helped build his reputation. He also wrote across a range of subjects, including adventure and wartime themes, showing a strong instinct for the kinds of stories that would grip a broad public audience.

Although he is less widely known now than he was during his lifetime, his career offers a glimpse of how commercially successful fiction worked in the Edwardian era and the years around the First World War.