Parasol in the Park

Laurence Walter Meynell (1899 - 14 April 1989) was the English author of over 150 books, who wrote also as Valerie Baxter and A. Stephen Tring.[1] Life Meynell was born in Wolverhampton, the youngest son of Herbert Meynell, chairman of a brass-founding firm, and his wife Agnes Mary Sollom. He was sent to the oldest Catholic boarding school in the country, St Edmund's College, Ware, and then served in the artillery in the First World War. He worked for a time as an estate agent and as a schoolmaster before becoming a professional writer in the 1920s. A contemporary satire, Mockbeggar (1924), won him the Harrap Fiction Prize.[1] Meynell wrote juvenile literature as Valerie Baxter and A. Stephen Tring. His story for boys, The Old Gang, was particularly well received. He also wrote detective fiction, with a recurring private-eye character, Hooky Hefferman.[1] Meynell was twice married. He had one daughter by his first wife, Shirley Ruth Darbyshire (1903-1955). He died on 14 April 1989 in Hove, Sussex.