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.

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

External links

• H C Asterley's 1951 Colony of Singapore passport