Derham Groves

This is the first page of the science fiction novel S.H. Courtier was working on when he died in 1974. It is interesting that he couldn’t quite nail its title.

Joff Ellen (20/5/15 – 30/12/99) was an Australian entertainer, actor and comedian. He was most famous for his appearances on the television show ‘In Melbourne Tonight’ from 1958 to 1962 employing a variety mix of song-and-dance, comedy sketches and other vaudevillean skills. He was also famous for appearing in various children’s television shows as the character ‘Joffa Boy’. His only known film role was in Nightclub (1952), one of only a handful of films made in Melbourne in that decade, where he appeared with the artist and actor Valma Howell who he had briefly married and later divorced. He retired in 1976 and lived in Warragul and lived with his second wife Bernadette of 54 years. (Wikipedia, plus my own corrections)

I am currently reading and researching S.H. Courtier (1904-1974), a very fine, but much neglected, Australian mystery writer. His books are well worth reading. Pictured is the cover of his first novel, THE GLASS SPEAR (1950).