Maurice Richardson

Maurice Lane Richardson (1907–1978) was an English journalist and short story writer.

Early life and education Richardson was born to a wealthy family; his father, a successful stockjobber, "after retirement and some financial ups and downs" moved from "a large house in Essex to another large house in Budleigh Salterton", Devon. As a child, Richardson was sent to prep school, which he disliked, then Oundle School; he later recalled his education in his 1968 book Little Victims. He studied at Oxford in the 1920s, initially reading zoology but subsequently changing to English; he did not take a degree. There he befriended the poet Brian Howard.

Career After leaving Oxford, he spent some time as an amateur boxer, and wrote his first novel, A Strong Man Needed, a humorous story about a female boxer. Richardson began his journalistic career in the 1930s. After joining the Communist Party, and a member of the London-based left-wing Writers and Readers Group which included Randall Swingler, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Mulk Raj Anand, Arthur Calder-Marshall and Rose Macaulay.

In the late 1940s, Richardson became a contributor to the British magazine Lilliput. Here he published a series of humorous fantasy stories about a "Dwarf Surrealist Boxer" named Engelbrecht. These tales were illustrated by several noted artists, including Ronald Searle, Gerard Hoffnung and James Boswell. David Langford has praised The Exploits of Engelbrecht for their "enjoyable absurdist humour";

After leaving the Communist Party in the 1950s, In the 1960s, he also worked as the Observer's television critic and wrote sports journalism for The Guardian.

After Richardson's death, a posthumous collection of journalism, Fits and Starts, was issued. Reviewing Fits and Starts, Mary Manning praised the book, particularly Richardson's essay on the Moors murders, which she described as "a masterpiece in this genre".