Heron Carvic, born Geoffrey Rupert William Harris, was a renowned English author and actor. He was most famous for creating the Miss Seeton series of novels and for his work as an actor, particularly for his portrayal of Gandalf in the BBC radio adaptation of The Hobbit and for playing Caiphas the High Priest in The Man Born To Be King.
Carvic was born on January 21, 1913, and as a young man, he left Eton to earn a living as an actor in France. It was there that he adopted his grandmother's name as his stage name, which caused outrage among his family back home. In 1958, he married Phyllis Neilson-Terry, a woman 20 years older than him. As a writer, Carvic created the memorable character of Miss Emily D. Seeton, a retired art teacher, and a gentle parody of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. The Miss Seeton series proved to be very popular, leading to Carvic publishing five titles in the series.
After Carvic's death in 1980, the decision was made to reissue his novels as ebooks, which were well received. This led to the engagement of Sarah J. Mason to write more titles in the series under the pseudonym Hamilton Crane. Prior to that, Roy Peter Martin as "Hampton Charles" wrote three novels in the Miss Seeton series, which were all released in 1990. Sarah J. Mason's books, written under the name of Hamilton Crane, proved to be very successful, with 14 books still in print.