Heron Carvic

Heron Carvic
Born
Geoffrey Richard William Harris

21 January 1913
Marylebone, London, England
Died9 February 1980(1980-02-09) (aged 67)
Ashford, Kent, England
OccupationActor
Years active1934-1964
SpousePhyllis Neilson-Terry (m. 1958-1977; her death)

Heron Carvic (born Geoffrey Richard William Harris; 21 January 1913 – 9 February 1980) was an English actor and writer who provided the voice for Gandalf in the BBC Radio version of The Hobbit, and played Caiaphas the High Priest every time the play cycle The Man Born to Be King was broadcast.[1]

As a writer he created the characters and wrote the first five books featuring retired art teacher Miss Emily D. Seeton,[2] a gentle parody of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple.[3] These were made available as eBooks in 2016.[4]

Seriously injured in a road traffic accident near his home at Appledore, Kent, in August 1979, he never fully recovered and died in hospital the following February,[5] despite having an operation and spending time in intensive care, dying from pneumonia.[6]

Ten years after Carvic's death, his books were re-issued in the US and proved sufficiently popular for his Estate to commission further Miss Seeton stories from two other writers using pseudonyms with "HC" initials. Roy Peter Martin as "Hampton Charles" wrote three novels, which were all released in 1990. Sarah J. Mason, writing as "Hamilton Crane", then took up the series.[7]

  1. ^ "Search - BBC Programme Index".
  2. ^ "Heron Carvic".
  3. ^ Freeling, Nicolas; Woolrich, Cornell (September 2010). The Mystery Fancier (Vol. 8 No. 6) November-December 1986. Wildside Press LLC. ISBN 9781434406477.
  4. ^ Picture Miss Seeton. Farrago. 5 May 2016.
  5. ^ Kentish Express, 14 March 1980, p.5
  6. ^ Too Much Information 5.2 - The Velvet Web (50:02)
  7. ^ "Curtis Brown".