Alan Scholefield

Alan Scholefield (1931-2017) was a South African born journalist, novelist and screenplay writer.

Biography

Born in Cape Town, educated at Queen’s College, Queenstown, and completed a B.A. in English Literature at the University of Cape Town, graduating in 1951. He then became a journalist, working for both the Cape Times and the Cape Argus.

He left South Africa in the sixties and with his first wife Patricia, went to live in Spain. Divorced in 1960, he married Anthea Goddard in 1962, settling in London, where he worked as journalist, inter alia in the London bureau of the Sydney Morning Herald and as Defence Correspondent of The Scotsman and began to write novels, becoming very susccessful, especially for his Macrae and Silver series.

In addition to his novels, he also wrote The Dark Kingdoms a non-fiction book on Africa and some dramatic work, including the first and second draft screenplays for his book Great Elephant, which had been optioned by the American producer Jud Kingberg and sold on to CBS New York in the early 1960s his book. He also wrote a stage adaptation of Treasure Island (1978).