Kemlo and the Purple Dawn

Reginald Alec Martin (1908-1971)

E. C. Eliott is the best-known pseudonym of British writer Reginald Alec Martin, who wrote under a number of different names. Born in South London, Martin began working at the age of thirteen and had numerous varied occupations throughout his life, including cowboy, gold prospector and wild-horse trader. He began writing full-time as a career at the end of World War Two and wrote well over a hundred and fifty books in total, including about sixty children's novels. The titles from Martin's children's sf series Kemlo had a powerful emotional impact on many of their youthful British readers, helping shape the thoughts of a generation towards sf. He died on 27th June 1971 in Haywards Heath, Sussex.