December 19th, 2007 : The Saint and the Pulps
The Saint features in a new collection of pulp stories out just in time for Christmas. The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps is an anthology of what its editor Otto Penzler has subtitled “The Best Crime Stories from the Pulps During Their Golden Age--The '20s, '30s & '40s”. It features the tale of 'The Saint and the Invisible Millionaire' which originally debuted in Follow the Saint (January 1939) and was last seen in the 1974 anthology Saints Alive
December 5th, 2007 : Meet the new Simon Templar!
We can confirm that pre-production has started on a 2 hour pilot film for a new series of The Saint. It will star James Purefoy as the Saint and will shoot in Berlin and Australia in April next year. Film will be produced by William J. Macdonald, Geoffrey Moore and Jorge Zamacona .
November 8th, 2007 : The Return of the Jaguar XJ-S
Mike Smith has sent us these photos of the newly restored Jaguar XJ-S. it is one of the originals that was used in Return of the Saint.
November 8th, 2007 : New Saint books
The Saint Club Christmas letter has broken the news that there are three new Saint books due next year.
Hodder & Stoughton will be publishing two Saint anthologies in the Autumn of 2008. Unoriginally entitled The Best of the Saint (volumes 1 and 2) they'll feature a selection of stories from across the Saint's career (including one which has never appeared in an English paperback before); each volume will also have an introduction from a notable Saint (or Saint fan) plus some additional material by Ian Dickerson . Current plans are for each book to have a yellow jacket cover, along the lines of the old H&S style.
Next year will also see the publication of the definitive history of the Saint's television adventures. Currently and unoriginally entitled The Saint on TV , it's written by Ian Dickerson and if you thought the story of the Saint on TV started with Roger Moore, well this book will show you otherwise. It starts in 1940s Hollywood and this book follows the Saint on TV right up to the present day and the new show in development.
Amongst other things it provides a unique episode guide to all three Saint TV series detailing plots, cast, crew, filming locations and critical reaction. It also comprehensively details what many of the cast and crew have been up to since they met the Saint. And tells the full story behind The Saint in Manhattan and The Saint (with Simon Dutton) using exclusive interviews with many of the cast and crew involved on the productions to analyse what went wrong.
November 8th, 2007 : Website problems
You may have noticed that this site's not been available for a while. Please bear with us--we've just changed hosts and are currently putting everything back together. All pages should be up now, with just a few pictures missing here and there.
August 23rd, 2007 : The Saint's 20 Cigarettes
Simon Dutton is currently starring in 20 Cigarettes at the Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street London, until August 30th.
August 23rd, 2007 : The Saint is Not Going Out
The second series of one of the few shows on TV that makes us laugh, Not Going Out, starring comedian Lee Mack returns to BBC 1 on Friday September 7th. In one episode Simon Dutton plays the boyfriend of his landlord's younger sister...
August 17th, 2007 : The Saint's Web Site
Ian Ogilvy has started a web site devoted to the literary adventures of Measle Stubbs. He's also started a blog....
August 17th, 2007 : The Saint Goes Dutch
Dutch Saint fan Jeroen van Geffen has compiled a rather splendid web site featuring covers from the Saint's Dutch publications
August 6th , 2007 : Study the Saint
News reaches us here at Upper Berkley Mews that an Australian student is writing a thesis on 'Ideology and Heroism in the Early Novels of Leslie Charteris' based on the view that the political and social views Leslie articulated so strongly in the early books are in fact a dimension of the Saint's heroism, and as such mark him out from the heroes of other thrillers of the day (as well as making Leslie's books distinctive within the genre).
July 16th, 2007 : Leslie Charteris - A Saintly Centennial
This is a 30 minute programme looking at the life and times of Leslie Charteris and will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday July 31st at 11:30am . It's narrated by Sir Roger Moore and interviewed for the programme were Bill MacDonald, Burl Barer , Ian Ogilvy, Robert S. Baker, Patricia Charteris Higgins and Dan Bodenheimer amongst others.
June 3rd, 2007 : Simon Dutton
Is currently starring in Blithe Spirit at the Watford Palace Theatre until June 16th. You can read reviews of it here (love the comment that " This production forsakes the temptation of casting a big name or two, and triumphs with an excellent cast, regardless of the relative lack of TV soap appearances between them.") and The Stage have also been to see it.
June 2nd, 2007 : An Open Letter to the Editor of Book and Magazine Collector:
You know despite poking fun at your inability to write an accurate cover headline we do understand the problems involved and we've always held your magazine in sneakily high regard, for whenever we've purchased it we've always learnt something new and always been entertained, not necessarily for the right reason but hey, we're easily amused.
We'd not read it in quite a while though, so it was with more than our fair share of eagerness that we picked up the June 2007 edition, admittedly with the intention of learning more about "100 years of the Saint"--oh, okay, sorry. We'll behave. Promise.
Simply acknowledging Leslie's centenary puts you light years ahead of virtually every other publication on the planet, but to make so many errors of fact and demonstrate a distinct lack of research is, quite frankly, very disappointing. To whit:
On the first page the articles states that "The books sold in their tens of thousands…". This seems more than a little uncharitable when we can pull down a Hodder 1964 paperback of The Saint in New York from our shelves and discover from the back cover that over 8 million Saint books have sold in British editions, over 8.5 million in American editions and over 5.5 million in French editions. That's an awful lot of tens of thousands.
The article goes on to state that “In 1919 Dr Yin decided to send his son to England to complete his education.” Erm, no. In 1919 it was Leslie's mother and brother Roy who accompanied him to England . Dr Yin stayed in Singapore . Read in to that what you wish, you probably won't be far from the truth. Dr Yin had nothing to do with the decision.
By the end of the second page the magazine alleges that “…it was in 1923 whilst still at Rossall that he had his first story accepted by a professional magazine”. From Leslie's 1965 article I'm No Saint, "In the field of fiction, I tore off an average of one short story every day, and sent them on the rounds of every imaginable magazine. I sold the first one at 17 and the next at 19, so I doubt if they even paid the postage on the ones which nobody wanted.” Now let's see, he sold his first one at 17. He was born in 1907. You do the maths.
A paragraph later we learn that “Leslie was sent to study at King's College Cambridge where his father hoped he would consider becoming a doctor…” Unlikely, given that he started a law degree at Cambridge . Now I admit that by this time his paternal relationship was probably strained at this stage but still, if your son's studying law at Cambridge it's unlikely he's going to end up a doctor.
The paragraph finishes with “The idea appalled his parents and they withdrew their financial support”. Erm, no. That was just his father. Leslie continued living with his mother and brother in London sporadically over the next few years, so I think it's terribly unfair to say she withdrew her financial support when she obviously didn't.
The next paragraph starts with “Changing his name to Leslie Charteris Ian by deed poll in 1926…” No, he changed it to Leslie Charteris, no Ian on the end. Splendid name though it is.
The article mentions ‘The Uncritical Publisher'…”a story that has never been included in any UK Saint collection” and points "British completists" towards the original Empire News of November 11th 1933 or The Saint Mystery Magazine of November 1960 if they want to read it. What about The Orion Book of Murder published in 1996 which also carried the story? Or The Saint Club one-off publication of the story?
The article then goes on to the RKO years stating that “In 1938 the first Saint film, The Saint in New York was produced by RKO…Later that year a second Saint film was released, this time starring George Sanders …” Erm, no. Sanders' first Saint film was The Saint Strikes Back which was released March 1939 (which a simple check on any number of online sources would have validated).
It goes on to say that “Sanders was succeeded by Hugh Sinclair, who took over for two films made in 1940 and 1941”. Again a couple of minutes on this pesky easy to use internet-thingy would have shown that The Saint's Vacation starring Sinclair was released in May 1941 and The Saint Meets the Tiger, also starring Sinclair, was released in December 1943.
This delightful piece of research then goes on to tackle the magazine years by stating that “In 1954 Charteris began to edit the Saint Mystery Magazine …” So shall we just ignore the Spring 1953 of The Saint Detective Magazine edited by Leslie Charteris? (Granted it was the American edition but that doesn't mean American's can't produce or read magazines. Oh, wait a minute…). November 1954 saw the first UK publication of The Saint Detective Magazine edited by Charteris but it didn't become a mystery magazine until January 1960.
Finally we get to television and learn that “In 1961 the Saint was given a boost when the character's adventures were transferred to television.”. Well, okay, according to producer Robert S. Baker it was December 1961 when he flew to Florida to see Leslie Charteris about optioning the TV rights so you could argue that it was then that the Saint transferred to television, but we find it hard to believe contracts would have been signed in December, what with Christmas and all that. And the show didn't air until October 4th, 1962 so I'm afraid we disagree.
And then there's the old chestnut where it says “The series ran for eight years during which time 116 hour long episodes and two feature length films were made”. Blimey. Which means when we helped with the release of 118 episodes on DVD last year we must have conjured up two extra ones from nowhere. Or maybe we released them all, but two stories which were two parters got feature film releases. So perhaps we should agree at 118 episodes, but only 116 stories… ? And about that eight year run...the series ended its original UK transmission in 1969. By our count 1962 to 1969 does not equal 8 years.
Then there's the bibliography: The Saint and the People Importers was apparently a “novel adapted by Fleming Lee from his own Saint TV script”. The implication, if nothing else, is false. Check out the actual TV episode—now available on DVD we hasten to point out—and you'll see it's credited to Donald James. Read LC's intro to the book and other Saint reference books that your article makes mention of and you learn that Fleming Lee indeed had the original idea and wrote the book. But he didn't get the final credit on the TV episode.
The co-author of The Saint in Pursuit— Fleming Lee --doesn't rate a mention whilst almost all the other co-authors do.
Send for the Saint is apparently “Two novellas adapted by Peter Bloxsam…”. Peter Bloxsom's lesser known cousin obviously.
And then there's Salvage for the Saint. Which despite being listed under adaptations by other writers doesn't actually mention the other writer. It's that Bloxsom fellow again.
Finally Crooked Gold gets a mention as a non-Saint title. Okay, so they didn't credit Leslie as the author but they did keep Simon Templar as the hero, so please explain how it's a non-Saint story?
And you know what, writing this has nothing to do with us wanting to demonstrate our knowledge of the subject. We are quite simply utterly disappointed and very let down that what we previously thought of as a well-edited, informative journal would publish such an inaccurate and badly researched piece of writing.
March 29th, 2007 : The Saint on Wheels
If you wondered why you hadn't seen much of Saint Simon Dutton over the last few years, this could be why.
From a pool hall in Portobello, via a dressing room in Glasgow to the mountains of Provence . Wheels within Wheels is the journey, actor Simon Dutton took in search of Tom Simpson, a sporting hero.
A documentary made over a 4 year period. It chronicles Dutton, who, in a mid-life crisis decides to go off in the tracks of Simpson, the legendary British racing cyclist who tragically died in the 1967 Tour de France.
The film follows Dutton on what turns out to be a pilgrimage… of sorts. Along the way expect humour, pathos, shaky camera work, vintage footage, and a few facts, all backed by an eclectic musical soundtrack … saddle up and enjoy this well oiled chain of events!
March 26th, 2007 : Les Aventures du Saint; an update
The French Saint web site has just undergone a massive update.
Four new pages are now devoted to the French edition of LE SAINT DETECTIVE MAGAZINE which feature all 154 issues and index all the Leslie Charteris et al. stories published therein (with the same information then added to the Bibliography page), with more cover scans to come.
It turns out that there were FOUR stories published in LSDM not collected in book form: (i) The Noble Sportsman, (ii) Le Saint et les Prospecteurs, a Michel-Tyl adaptation of a NYHT strip, (iii) Amours, Gadgets et Colonel, of which nothing is known at this time, and (iv) The Power Artist, a Fleming Lee collaboration, which was, however, later retranslated in the Livre de Poche Saint on TV collection. In particular, (ii) and (iii) are the first time these stories have come to the attention of Saint fans everywhere!
It also turns out that the Charteris original The Uncritical Publisher was never translated after all, although there is a 1945 French-Canadian edition of The Saint Intervenes.
Our Cover Gallery Page 7 now includes additional covers of rare 1950s Saint reprints, the Fayard "Omnibus" volumes, and the Lefrancq reprints of the mid-1990s.
Finally, fans of French cover artist Bernad will enjoy additional cover scans of the Fayard NERO WOLFE and TOFF series.
March 10th, 2007 : Saint Raymond Austin
Writer, producer, actor and director Raymond Austin now has a web site. It contains absolutely loads of superb photos from his long and varied career including some from his time on The Saint.