| The run-up to Christmas
2005 was overshadowed by news of the death of BHW
writer Geoff Sadler, who passed away on 6
December. Geoffrey
Willis Sadler was born on 7 October, 1943 in
Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire. He started
work as a library assistant in 1960, and married
Jennifer Watkinson five years later. Always a
western buff, he would later cite the likes of
Les Savage Jr, Jack Borg, Louis L'Amour and Matt
Chisholm as major influences — and certainly
Geoff's own westerns were always marked by a
strong sense of the visual, accurate gun detail
and believable characters who were not easily
forgotten.
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| The majority of Geoff's
westerns chronicled the adventures of a
half-Apache, half-Scottish lawman named Andrew
Anderson, a character who bears more than a
passing resemblance to the character played by
John Wayne in Hondo (1953) — a
film, incidentally, which also had quite an
impact on the author. The books were usually set
against a backdrop of deserts and dust, of
glaring heat and sudden, often brutal violence,
but there could be lighter moments, too, as in
the Canada-based Headed North (1990),
where the character of "Byron W.
Holmes" was clearly based upon the author's
good friend and fellow BHW writer, B. J. Holmes. Geoff created Anderson
when he was about twelve or thirteen, originally
recording the half-breed marshal's fast-paced
exploits in longhand. One of these early efforts,
Kingdom of the Desert (in which a
stranger cleans up a corrupt town and tames the
four-man syndicate who run things for their own
ends), later formed the basis of his first
published book, Arizona Blood-Trail (1981).
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Geoff followed this
with Sonora Lode (1982), an intriguing book
in which the action is virtually confined to a doctor's
surgery and an undertaker's parlour, symbolically
representing the two basics of life and death. This
gun-running story also introduced the sinister,
amber-eyed Amarillo -- an enemy with whom Anderson would
lock horns time and again.
| Not that Geoff limited
himself to the western genre. In 1982, he penned
a trilogy of "slaver" novels which were
published in paperback by New English Library.
These "Justus" books — The
Lash, Bloodwater and Black
Vengeance, are well worth seeking out,
and show beyond all doubt that Geoff was a writer
of considerable range and skill. |
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Geoff's third Anderson
book, Tamaulipas Guns (1982), meanwhile,
remains one of his best, offering as it does a strong,
original plot that is told with great pace, and laced
with a whole catalogue of unforeseen twists. And there
were more impressive plots to come; in Severo Siege
(1983) the town for which Anderson acts as
marshal comes into conflict with a die-hard Confederate
determined to create a new "Trans-Continental United
States." Sierra Showdown (1983) pits
Anderson against a gang of ageing Mexican War veterans
who return to the area to reclaim a long-buried stash of
stolen gold bars.
| The courtroom drama Throw
of a Rope (1984) finds Anderson accused
of murder, and facing the very real prospect of
death by hanging. And in Saltillo Road (1987),
the US Government sends Anderson to the steamy
swamps of Louisiana to break a smuggling
operation. In the late 1980s, Geoff
adopted a second pseudonym, "Wes
Calhoun", and created the character of Chulo
Pritchard, a mild-mannered black ex-Army scout
who would sooner avoid trouble than have to deal
with it. Chulo came about when Geoff was
researching one of the Anderson books, and
chanced upon a photograph of an amiable-looking,
slightly overweight Negro cowhand. However, Chulo
only ever appeared in a handful of adventures,
including Chulo (1988), At
Muerto Springs (1989) and Texas
Nighthawks (1990), and never really
enjoyed the lasting popularity of Anderson.
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In any case, Geoff was
asked to edit the second edition of Twentieth
Century Western Writers at around this time, and
went on to make a magnificent job of the assignment,
creating a book that remains invaluable, even fifteen
years on. Mike Linaker, Mike Stotter and I were among the
contributors, and I know I speak for all of us when I say
that Geoff was an absolute joy to work with — calm,
methodical, supportive and always good-humoured. Phone
calls from Geoff were never fraught or filled with
complaint. What I remember most are all those cheeky
wisecracks and all that wicked laughter.
In later years, this
father of two sons fought a brave battle against motor
neurone disease, but still managed to turn out the odd
local-history book, learned critical essay or BHW here
and there. Sadly, however, the fight ended on 6 December,
2005, at which time we lost not only a fine writer, but
also a most articulate and charismatic spokesman for our
genre.
| Geoff was an
intelligent, caring author whose plots reward
careful study. He once told me, "My books
are intended as entertainment … But it is to
be hoped that it is entertainment with a little
added depth, some hint of authenticity, and some
moral conflict. I've never sat down and thought, Right,
now I'll take the Western from shoot-'em-up to
Art. But if the story gets to the audience,
it has to satisfy me first of all, and to
do that it has to contain some deeper quality,
some strength that makes it worthwhile. In that
respect, I suppose, it does go beyond pure
entertainment." |
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I can only recommend
that, if you haven't already done so, you check out
Geoff's western legacy, and see for yourself. I'm quietly
confident that you won't be disappointed.
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