Dixon Hawke

Crime favourite makes comeback after 18 years

Alongside Dick Barton, Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and GK Chesterton’s Father Brown, Dixon Hawke was one of the classic British characters from the “Golden Age of Detective Fiction”.

The gentlemanly sleuth was serialised in a number of DC Thomson publications, from his debut in the Saturday Post in 1912, through to the Sporting Post and later the Evening Telegraph.

He also appeared in a number of “casebooks” — collections of some of his adventures — and made his final appearance in “The Final Whistle”, published in May 2000.

In all, Hawke was the star of more than 5,500 stories, probably more than any other fictional character in the English language.

And now, he’s back — with two new compendiums bringing together some of his best stories from the 1940s.

The Case of the Smuggled Diamonds and Other Stories, and The Case of the Missing American and Other Stories, include a total of 54 gripping adventures from the decade.

Each tale has been meticulously examined by DC Thomson employees Derek Uchman and Steve Finan.

Derek (pictured) said: “I thoroughly enjoyed putting the books together.

“It was great to settle down in the evening with a whisky by my side and immerse myself in these adventures.

“I have worked on the Tele since 1987 and remember reading his stories every week up until the year 2000, when the Sporting Post folded. “So, yes, I am very fond of him. He has been part of my working life.” Derek added that, although the stories have been tidied up, care has been taken to ensure that the text, 1940s warts and all, remains true to the original copy. “Apart from tidying up some of the punctuation, we kept all of the stories as they were,” he said. “Some are not politically correct but we felt they provide an insight into the times they were written, so we left them unchanged. “It is important the modernday reader keeps that in mind. The language is unchanged too, as we felt it added to the charm of the stories.” Each of Hawke’s adventures was penned over the years by writers who faithfully adhered to the traits of the detective and his sidekick Tommy Burke, although the identities of the authors have been lost in history.

Derek added: “Tracking down the stories has proved difficult but we did find a lot from the 1940s, so we decided it might be an idea to take the best of what we had to produce these book from a classic Dixon Hawke era.

“Dixon Hawke stories used to appear every week in the Sporting Post, and when the paper folded, many readers got in touch to say how much they missed them.

“Even today, Tele readers still talk affectionately about Dixon Hawke.”

Derek also hinted that we may not have seen the last of the Scottish Detective. He said: “If the demand is there, there will definitely be other books. I can’t wait to get cracking!”

The books are available at dcthomsonshop.co.uk or by calling freephone 0800 318 846. Each is priced £11.99 individually, or £20 for the pair in a set. Our

SEEDY criminals resting easy for the last 18 years beware — Dixon Hawke, the Dover Street sleuth, is back on the streets.