Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper

Donald Landels Henderson was born in 1905; he later said, ‘I cannot pretend to have enjoyed anything very much about my childhood or adolescence.’ Henderson was an actor and combined writing with his acting career, before taking a job at the BBC, where he worked throughout the Second World War. He died at only 41, in 1947, just three years after the publication of Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper.

‘I think it's one of the most fascinating books written in the last ten years. Everyone who read it in my limited circle agrees with me.’ RAYMOND CHANDLER‘There is an element of psychological fantasy in this novel. Mr Henderson pursues a grim little theme with lively perception and ingenuity. His manner is brief, deliberately undertoned, and for the most part curiously effective. There is acute observation in the portrait of Mr Bowling.’ TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT‘This tragedy of a madman is told with great simplicity, and is very much helped by the realism of its details. All the events take place in the duller London suburbs which are beautifully observed.’ DAILY EXPRESS‘Henderson has written about Mr Bowling so well and so clearly that I feel like I have met him; he follows him with the affectionate care with which H.G. Wells followed Kipps. Indeed, there is in places a touch of Wells’s genius; he writes with great skill and his dialogue is vivid.’ RAYMOND POSTGATE in TIME & TIDE‘Top marks go to Donald Henderson whose Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper gives us real hope of a literary discovery. This is a brilliant study in the macabre of a man who – almost it seems because he can’t help it – nonchalantly commits murders. A really fine thriller.’ SUNDAY GRAPHIC