John Edmund Gardner was born on 20 November 1926 in Seaton Delaval, a village in Northumberland. His … See more

In 1964 Gardner began his novelist career with The Liquidator, in which he created the character Boysie Oakes who inadvertently is mistaken to be a tough, pitiless man of action and is thereupon recruited into a British spy … See more

In 1952 Gardner married Margaret Mercer and the couple had two children, Simon and Alexis. Gardner also had another daughter, Miranda, the result of a long affair with Susan Wright, a former personal assistant… See more

Gardner died on Friday 3 August 2007 from suspected heart failure. He collapsed while shopping in Basingstoke; he was later casually driven to hospital, where he died. See more

• Spin the Bottle (1964)
• The Liquidator (1964)
• Understrike (1965)
• Amber Nine (1966)
• Madrigal (1967)… See more