Berkely Mather

Who was Berkely Mather?

Berkely Mather was a British author who published fifteen novels and a book of short stories. He also wrote for radio, television and the movies.

Berkely Mather was in fact the pseudonym of John Evan Weston-Davies, whose family, shortly before World War I, emigrated to Australia, where he received his education. Finding himself in England without prospects at the height of the Great Depression, he enlisted in the Royal Horse Artillery, but failed to gain a commission. He therefore applied to join the Indian Army, in which he rose through the ranks, becoming a sergeant at the outbreak of World War II in 1939. He served in the Iraq campaign under Slim, and ended the war as an acting lieutenant-colonel. After India gained independence in 1947, he rejoined the British Army, serving in the Royal Artillery until he retired in 1959.

Mather's first novel, The Achilles Affair, was a minor best-seller, and his second, The Pass Beyond Kashmir, which received glowing reviews from Ian Fleming and Erle Stanley Gardner, did even better. Ernest Hemingway owned copies of both these novels.