Sand on the Gumshoe

E. W. HORNUNG

Ernest William Hornung was born at Marton near Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, in 1866. He came to Australia in 1884, spending two years as a tutor in the Riverina before returning to England. It was enough time to provide Hornung with the material for several novels. The first, The Bride from the Bush (London, Smith & Elder; New York, United States Book Company) was published in 1890. In 1891 he began writing for a newly established journal, The Strand Magazine, where he became acquainted with Arthur Conan Doyle. In 1893 Hornung married Doyle’s sister, Constance.

Hornung published over a dozen novels and collections of short stories in the 1890s but his greatest fame came with The Amateur Cracksman (London, Methuen) in 1899. Raffles, the gentleman thief, was introduced in this collection of short stories. There was much in common with Sherlock Holmes, not the least of which was a Watson-like associate and chronicler by the name of Bunny.

The well-bred champion cricketer who lapses into crime to supplement his income is now a well-known creation. Though subsequent adventures remained thoroughly English, Raffles’ first adventure on the wrong side of the law occurred in Yea, Victoria and forms the basis for ‘Le Premier Pas’.

Raffles’ fame outlived his creator. Hornung died at St Jean de Luz in the Pyrenees in 1921. Another writer, Barry Perowne, continued the series and did quite a good job of it. Hornung also created an Australian version of Raffles. In his novel Stingaree (London, Chatto & Windus and New York, Scribners, 1905), the main character is a gentleman bushranger with a pure heart, a monocle, a love of Gilbert and Sullivan and a dashing white charger called Barmaid.

‘Le Premier Pas’ is far more than Raffles’ rare brush with antipodean law and order. It is well regarded as one of Hornung’s best stories – or should that be one Bunny Manders?