Room 13

Wallace (1875-1932) was an English writer so prolific that one of his publishers claimed that a quarter of all books in England were written by him. As well as journalism, he wrote screenplays, poetry, historical non-fiction, 18 stage plays, nearly a thousand short stories and over 170 novels, selling over 50 million copies of his combined works. His literary career took off after he travelled to the Congo Free State in 1907 to report on atrocities being committed there under the Belgians and was asked to contribute stories inspired by his experiences to the Weekly Tale-Teller Magazine. In 1911 these were published as his first collection, Sanders of the River, which became a bestseller, and he went on to publish 11 more similar collections. By the 1920s Wallace was established as a celebrity writer - The King of Thrillers - known for his trademark trilby, cigarette holder and yellow Rolls Royce. After an unsuccessful bid to stand as a Liberal MP in the 1931 election he moved to Hollywood to work as a scriptwriter for RKO but died suddenly during the initial drafting of one of his best-remembered creations, King Kong. Room 13 (1924) was the first in a series featuring J G Reeder, a mild-mannered civil servant who is a brilliant detective. In 1938 it was filmed as Mr Reeder in Room 13.