author
Laurence (Laurence Ayscough) Clarke
1873–1942
A British writer and editor best remembered today for the spy novel Bernard Treves's Boots, he worked in the lively world of early 20th-century popular journalism as well as fiction. His surviving public record is fairly sparse, which gives his work an added sense of rediscovery.
1 Audiobook
Bernard Treves's Boots: A Novel of the Secret Service
by Laurence (Laurence Ayscough) Clarke
About the author
Laurence Ayscough Clarke (1873–1942) was a British author and editor. Catalog and reference sources consistently connect him with the novel Bernard Treves's Boots, and biographical listings describe him as both a writer and an editor.
Some reference entries suggest he was educated at Roman Catholic schools in Wimbledon and at Durham, and that he edited several journals associated with Harmsworth publishing. Because detailed, easily verifiable biographical material is limited, those parts of his life are less firmly documented than his authorship and editorial career.
Today, Clarke is mostly encountered through reprints and library records rather than through a large surviving biography. That makes him the kind of early popular writer readers often enjoy finding again: a once-active literary figure whose work still offers a window into the tastes and publishing world of his time.