A.j. Quinnell Views
Revel Barker writes Philip Nicholson used to sit with both elbows on the bar of Gleneagles, his favourite watering hole in Gozo, and watch with amusement as tourists entered in search of the best-selling author who used the nom-de-plume A.J. Quinnell. Often, an English or American tourist would put himself forward, sometimes it would be a local Gozitan fisherman; Philip would keep quiet, although chuckling with joy as the pretenders wrestled to answer intricate and detailed questions from his passionate readers.
A.J.Quinnell according to his books is the 'pseudonym of an author who lives on an island in the Mediterranean'. The mercenary hero of many of his books 'Creasy', coincidentally happens to have a little pad (with swimming pool) on the Island of Gozo, near Malta (also in the Mediterranean). Who is A.J.Quinnell that he requires a pseudonym?
When he started researching the plot for Man on Fire, a book based on the increasing number of Mafia kidnappings in Italy, he made contact with the man's family. They were eager to help, and provided introductions to lawyers, to anti-Mafia investigators, and to mafiosi who were happy to assist and who even asked to be named in the novel. Published in New York in 1980 and London in 1981, it became an immediate best-seller. Searching for a nom de plume, and looking for an unusual name, he took the surname of the Welsh rugby forward Derek Quinnell, and the initials, A.J., from the son of his local barman.
A.j. Quinnell Images
