Hartley Howard

Leopold Horace Ognall (20 June 1908 – 12 April 1979), known by the pen names Hartley Howard and Harry Carmichael, was a British crime novelist.

Biography Ognall was born in Montreal, Canada, but grew up in Glasgow, Scotland. At age 19, the younger Ognall was working as a bus driver in Rutherglen. He also worked as a journalist before starting his fiction career. He lived in Leeds in England for many years; he was married there in 1932, Under the Harry Carmichael pen name, his primary series characters were John Piper, an insurance assessor, and Quinn, a crime reporter; the London-based duo appeared together in 32 books. Ognall created the pseudonym "Harry Carmichael" as an amalgam of the names of his immediate family: his son Harry, his wife Cecilia, his daughter Margaret, and his son Michael. Ognall's 1964 spy thriller Department K was adapted into the 1968 British film Assignment K. Some of his works were also adapted for radio.

Ognall married Ceclia Sumroy (1909–1994) in 1932 in Leeds. The couple had three children, His final book, The Sealed Envelope, was published posthumously later that year.