RAE, Hugh C(rawford). Also writes as Robert Crawford; R. B. Houston; Stuart Stern. Scottish. Born in Glasgow, Lanarkshire 22 November 1935. Educated at Knightswood School. Glasgow, 1940-51. Served in the Royal Air Force (national service) 1953-54. Married Elizabeth McMillan Dunn in 1960; one daughter. Bookseller, John Smith and Son, Glasgow, 1954-64. President, Scottish Association of Writers, 1974-78. Since 1975 Member, Scottish Arts Council. Agent: Fraser and Dunlop Scripts Ltd., 91 Regent Street, London WI R 8RU, England Address: Drumore Farm, Balfron Station, Stirlingshire, Scotland.

Novels

CRIME PUBLICATIONS

• Skinner. London. Blond. and New York. Viking Press. 1965.
• Night Pillow. London. Blond, and New York, Viking Press, 1967.
• A Few Small Bones. London, Blond, 1968; as The. House at Balnesmoor, New York. Coward McCann, 1969.
• The Interview. London. Blond. and New York, Coward McCann, 1969.
• The Saturday Epic. London. Blond, and New York. Coward McCann. 1970.
• The Marksman. London, Constable, and New York. Coward McCann, 1971.
• The Shooting Gallery London. Constable. and New York. Coward McCann. 1972.
• Two for the Grave(as R. B. Houston). London, Hale, 1972.
• The Rock Harvest. London, Constable. 1973.
• The Rookery. London, Constable. 1974; New York, St. Martin's Press. 1975.
• The Minotaur Factor (as Stuart Stern). London. Futura, 1977; Chicago. Playboy Press. 1978.
• The Poison Tree (as Stuart Stern). London. Futura. and Chicago. Playboy Press. 1978.
• Sullivan. London, Constable, and Chicago, Playboy Press, 1978.
• The Haunting at Waverley Falls. London, Constable, 1980. .
• Privileged Strangers London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1982

Novels as Robert Crawford

• The Shroud Society. London, Constable, and New York, Putnam. 1969.
• Cockleburr. London, Constable, 1969; New York, Putnam, 1970; as Pay as You Die. New York, Berkley, 1971.
• Kiss the Boss Goodbye. London, Constable, 1970; New York, Putnam, 1971.
• The Badger's Daughter. London, Constable, 1971.
• Whip Hand. London, Constable, 1972.

  Other Genres

• Harkfast The Making of a King. London, Constable, and New York, St. Martin's Press, 1976,
• The Travelling Soul. New York, Avon, 1978,

Novels as James Albany (Fighting Saga of SAS)

• Warrior Caste (1982)
• Mailed Fist (1982)
• Deacon's Dagger (1982)
• Close Combat (1983)
• Marching Fire (1983)
• Last Bastion (1984)
• Borneo Story (1984)

Plays

• The Freezer(broadcast1972 produced Leicester. 1973).
• Radio Play: The Freezer, 1972.

Television Plays:

• The Dear Ones. 1966;
• Swallowtale, 1969.

Other Writing

• Editor, with Philip Ziegler and James Allen Fort, Scottish Short Stories 1977. London, Collins, 1977.
• Editor, Scottish Short Stories 1978. London, Collins, 1978.
• A series of novels as Jessica Stirling

Hugh C. Rae comments

There can be little enough to say about a person who has spent most of his life at a typewriter. Originally I made a technical and subjective differentiation between my "crime novels" and my "thrillers," publishing the latter titles under the name Robert Crawford. It was my belief that it might be possible, in Britain, to deliver material of some import in terms of theme and statement within the confines of the criminal roman, and my studies of the criminal and his victims in the early Rae novels are in effect studies of fragments of the Scottish environment and personality examined through the medium of the police investigation. A common enough technique but not one that goes down well either with serious critics, or with the reading public.

The lightweight guns'n'gals thrillers under the Crawford name were economically necessary if I were to remain a full-time writer. A branching out into "historical crime" with The Rookery, together with more experimental work in The Interview and The Rock Harvest led eventually to a broadening of the base, the "view of the fictional field," and to more complex medical/scientific thrillers (written with the direct help of a London doctor) under the name Stuart Stem. Most recently I have developed a keen interest in the "mythology" of international espionage and crime: a transatlantic approach. rather than a provincial one. Sullivan is an example.

My "technique" if it can be so called, is based on the synthesis of popularly available attitudes which I endeavour, to some degree or another. to turn around by using a supercharged and compacted language structure, a heightening of reality that creates a seriocomic irony between "Mass Image" and authentic historical fact between popularly disseminated "fictions" and how-it-is. At root, I'm interested in language and, through language, in character. Plot, per se, kind of follows on like a wooden duck on a string, though I am generally - now - inventive enough to bridge the credibility gap.

Quoted from Crime and Mystery Writers

Adaptions of his works

• The Marksman (1987)
• The Shroud Society as Man with a Gun (1995)