Douglas Rutherford

James Douglas Rutherford McConnell (14 October 1915 – 29 April 1988) who used the pen-name Douglas Rutherford was a language teacher and an author.

Biography Born in Kilkenny, Ireland . He went to school in Yorkshire, studied at Clare College, Cambridge, graduating in 1937, and received his MA from the University of Reading. During the Second World War, he served in the British Army Intelligence Corps in North Africa and Italy. After demobilisation, he became a modern languages teacher at Eton College from 1946 until his retirement in 1973.

Writing on weekends and holidays, he published his first novel, Comes the Blind Fury, in 1950. Many of his works centered on race-tracks or sports cars. With Francis Durbridge, he co-authored two novels in the Paul Temple series: The Tyler Mystery in 1957 and East of Algiers in 1959. Under the name James McConnell, he published books on learning foreign languages and on Eton.

He joined the Detection Club in 1970.

He married, in 1939, Margaret Worsley 'Peggy' Gandy (1910–1952) - daughter of Surg.-Cdr. Eric Worsley Gandy OBE; and secondly in 1953, Laura Margaret Goodwin (1922–2001).

He died on in Monxton, Hampshire.

Works

Novels

Series: Paddy Regan Comes the Blind Fury, 1950 Meet a Body, 1951 Telling of Murder, 1952 (alternative title Flight into Peril)

Series: Paul Temple (with Francis Durbridge) The Tyler Mystery, 1957 East of Algiers, 1959

Other novels The Chequered Flag, 1956 Grand Prix Murder, 1955 The Perilous Sky, 1956 The Long Echo, 1957 A Shriek of Tyres, 1958 (US title On the Track of Death, 1959) Murder Is Incidental, 1961 The Creeping Flesh, 1963 Best Motor Racing Stories, 1965 (ed.) The Black Leather Murders, 1966 Skin for Skin, 1968 The Gilt-edged Cockpit, 1969 Clear the Fast Lane, 1971 Kick Start, 1973 Killer on the Track, 1973 The Gunshot Grand Prix, 1972 Rally to the Death, 1974 Race Against the Sun, 1975 Mystery Tour, 1975 Return Load, 1977 Collision Course, 1978 Turbo, 1980 The Benedictine Commando, 1980 Porcupine Basin, 1981 Stop at Nothing, 1983 Battlefield Madonna, 1985 A Game of Sudden Death, 1987

Short story The Last Bullet, 1951 Assignment in San Sebastian, (Pocket Book Weekly 23 Apr 1955) End of an Epoch in 'Omnibus of Speed' (Putnam 1958) Best Underworld Stories (ed) (Faber & Faber 1969)

Non-fiction Books Written as James McConnell or J. D. R. McConnell

Learn Italian Quickly, 1960 Learn Spanish Quickly, 1961 Learn French Quickly, 1966 Eton: How It Works, 1967 Eton Repointed: The New Structures of an Ancient Foundation, 1970 with photographs by Ray Williams Treasures of Eton, 1976 (ed.) Early Learning Foundation, 1979 English Public Schools, 1985