The IMDb page for this writer, consisting of a biography item and a trivia item which are identical, is inaccurate. I tried to help by submitting a new Trivia item on July 22. It has been acknowledged by email but not processed. My new information was:
The pen-name "Peter Saxon" was used by writer, editor and publisher W. Howard Baker (1925-1991) on novels published in the Amalgamated Press's Sexton Blake thriller series, of which Baker became the editor in 1956. The writer Wilfred McNeilly (1921-1983) was never editor of the Sexton Blake series, although he wrote for it under his own name after 1961 and ghost-wrote some first drafts of Sexton Blake stories that eventually appeared under the "house" name Desmond Reid, and the names of W. Howard Baker, W. A. Ballinger, and Peter Saxon. The character Sexton Blake was created not by Wilfred McNeilly - as is also astonishingly claimed here - but in 1893 by Harry Blyth (as Hal Meredeth). In 1968 McNeilly became one of Baker's team of writers for the Guardians series of paperback horror novels which were published under the Peter Saxon pen-name. The Peter Saxon novel The Disorientated Man (1966), which was the basis of the movie Scream and Scream Again (1969), was written not by Wilfred McNeilly but by Stephen D. Frances (aka the original Hank Janson) and W. Howard Baker. The 1959 movie Murder at Site 3 was based on the W. Howard Baker Sexton Blake novel Crime Is My Business (1958), and again had nothing to do with Wilfred McNeilly. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says: "He [McNeilly] achieved some minor notoriety when he claimed in print to have written all the work published under the byline W. Howard Baker - actually McNeilly's editor on stories written for the Sexton Blake Library and for Press Editorial Syndicate - and various other Baker pseudonyms, a claim since disproved.".
Explanation: I worked as an editorial assistant to W. Howard Baker at the Fleetway House (Amalgamated Press) and therefore knew and handled the work of both Baker and McNeilly.
The pen-name "Peter Saxon" was used by writer, editor and publisher W. Howard Baker (1925-1991) on novels published in the Amalgamated Press's Sexton Blake thriller series, of which Baker became the editor in 1956. The writer Wilfred McNeilly (1921-1983) was never editor of the Sexton Blake series, although he wrote for it under his own name after 1961 and ghost-wrote some first drafts of Sexton Blake stories that eventually appeared under the "house" name Desmond Reid, and the names of W. Howard Baker, W. A. Ballinger, and Peter Saxon. The character Sexton Blake was created not by Wilfred McNeilly - as is also astonishingly claimed here - but in 1893 by Harry Blyth (as Hal Meredeth). In 1968 McNeilly became one of Baker's team of writers for the Guardians series of paperback horror novels which were published under the Peter Saxon pen-name. The Peter Saxon novel The Disorientated Man (1966), which was the basis of the movie Scream and Scream Again (1969), was written not by Wilfred McNeilly but by Stephen D. Frances (aka the original Hank Janson) and W. Howard Baker. The 1959 movie Murder at Site 3 was based on the W. Howard Baker Sexton Blake novel Crime Is My Business (1958), and again had nothing to do with Wilfred McNeilly. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says: "He [McNeilly] achieved some minor notoriety when he claimed in print to have written all the work published under the byline W. Howard Baker - actually McNeilly's editor on stories written for the Sexton Blake Library and for Press Editorial Syndicate - and various other Baker pseudonyms, a claim since disproved.".
Explanation: I worked as an editorial assistant to W. Howard Baker at the Fleetway House (Amalgamated Press) and therefore knew and handled the work of both Baker and McNeilly.
Posted 3 years ago
Keith Chapman