Cyril Hare was the pen name of Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark, an English novelist born in Mickleham, Surrey in September 1900. Clark was born into a family of means, the son of Henry Herbert Gordon, a local businessman in the wine and spirit trade. He was educated at Rugby School and St Aubyn’s Rottingdean, before attending New College, Oxford where he studied history and graduated with first class honors. After Oxford, Clark pursued a legal career, studying law and being called to the Bar at Middle Temple in 1924.
Clark began his writing career when he was 36 years old, using his experiences at his various legal positions for inspiration for his novels. He adopted the pseudonym Cyril Hare, combining Hare Court, where he worked, and Cyril Mansions, Battersea, where he lived after he had married Mary Barbara Lawrence in 1933. Clark's first detective novel, 'Tenant for Death' was published in 1937 and was well-received as an engaging debut. During the early years of World War II, Clark toured as a judge's marshall and used his experiences as the basis for his fourth novel 'Tragedy at Law', published in 1942. In that same year, Clark became a civil servant with the Director of Public Prosecutions and worked in the Ministry of Economic Warfare, which proved invaluable when writing 'With a Bare Bodkin' in 1946.
Clark was appointed county court judge for Surrey in 1950, spending his time between traveling the circuit trying civil cases and writing his detective fiction. He was a noted public speaker and in demand by a wide variety of societies. However, his workload curtailed his literary output, and he did not use a typewriter, instead writing all his work by hand. Clark left behind two enduring characters in Inspector Mallett of Scotland Yard, who featured in three novels, and Francis Pettigrew, an amateur sleuth, who also featured in three novels. The two appeared together in two other novels, 'Tragedy at Law' (1942) and 'He Should Have Died Hereafter' (1958). Clark suffered from tuberculosis for some time and died at his home near Boxhill, Surrey on 25 August 1958, aged only 57.