John Bude

John Bude was a pseudonym used by Ernest Carpenter Elmore, a British born writer who was born in 1901. He spent several years as a games master at St Christopher School in Letchworth, where he also led the school's dramatic activities. This keen interest in the theatre led him to join the Lena Ashwell Players as stage manager, taking their productions around the country. He also acted in plays produced at the Everyman Theatre in Hampstead, where he lived for a time. It was during these years that he honed his writing skills in various dressing rooms. After his marriage to Betty in 1933, he became a full-time writer and wrote some 30 crime fiction novels, many featuring his two main series characters Superintendent Meredith and Inspector Sherwood.

Bude's first crime novel, 'The Cornish Coast Murder', was published in 1935, and his final two crime novels, 'A Twist of the Rope' and 'The Night the Fog Came Down', were published posthumously in 1958. He was a founder member of the Norfolk-based Crime Writers Association (CWA) in 1953 and was a co-organiser of the Crime Book Exhibition, one of the CWA's early publicity initiatives. He was a popular and hard-working member of the CWA's committee from its inception through to May 1957. Under his own name, he also wrote a number of fantasy novels and a children's book. He was admitted to hospital in Hastings on 6 November 1957 for a routine operation but died two days later.

Bude's writing style has been described as smooth and accomplished, with his first mystery, 'The Cornish Coast Murder', showcasing a readability and entertainment value that is not commonly found in many début mysteries. Fellow British crime writer Martin Edwards has commented that while Bude's work may not have been stunning enough to belong with the greats, there is a quality about his writing that sets him apart from many other writers in the genre. Bude was also the dedicatee of 'The Case of the Running Mouse' (1944) by his friend Christopher Bush, a testament to the high regard in which he was held by his contemporaries.