A British thriller writer, who gained world fame in the 1960s and published 16 popular adventure novels. On his rough, several years long trip from England to South Africa, Desmond Bagley gathered a colourful life experience that was highly useful later, when he started his career as a writer. Bagley favoured first person narrative.

"The next morning I took charge. I told Coertze to do nothing but pour gold; he must not have anything to do with loading the furnaces or cleaning mats—all he had to do was pour gold. Piero I assigned to melting the gold and to passing the furnace with the molten gold to Coertze. The furnaces were light enough to be moved about so I arranged a table to that they could move bodily along it." (The Golden Keel by Desmond Bagley, New York: Pyramid Books, 1972, p. 142; first published in 1963)

Desmond Bagley was born in Kendal, Westmoreland (now, Cumbria), in England's Lake District. His father, John Bagley, was a miner. After his health began to fail, the family moved to Blackpool, where Bagley's parents began to run a theatrical boarding house.

Bagley attended a variety of schools is Bolton and Blackpool, showing talents especially in mathematics. At the age of 14 Bagley left school and began his working life as a printer's devil, and changed then to a factory, where he made plastic electrical fittings. Between the years 1940 to 1946, he worked in the aircraft industry, making parts for warplanes. At an early age, Bagley had begun to stammer and he was not called for military service during the war. In 1947 Bagley began his long journey to South Africa by road. He crossed the Sahara, got work in Kampala in Uganda, contracted malaria, and worked his way down Africa, taking various jobs in asbestos and gold mines. While in Natal, Bagley developed his interest in journalism.

In the 1950s Bagley lived in South Africa. There he became a freelance journalist, working for the Broadcasting Company in Durban (1951-52), and writing film critiques for Rand Daily Mail in Johannesburg (1958-62). Bagley sold his first short story, 'My Old Man's Trumpet' (1957) to Argosy magazine. In 1960-61 he was a writer for Filmlets Ltd. In his spare time he wrote three novels, but he never sent them to a publisher.

In 1960 Bagley married Joan Magaret Brown, whom he first met at a fencing club party. Joan ran a flourishing bookshop. They spent some months in the 1960s in Italy, sightseeing. Before moving to Guernsey for tax reasons, they lived in Devon from 1965 to 1976. "It is really a place where the peace settles into your bones," Bagley wrote of his new home at Câtel House. ('A Little Peace of Britain,' In Britain, Volume 35, No, 2, February 1980) Because of stammer, he spoke very little in public and was reluctant to give too many interviews.

For a long time, Bagley wrote his books on a typewriter using one finger. Later in the 1980s he had a Xerox 860 dedicated word processor. Bagley's wife Joan became his invaluable research assistance and the first reader of his manuscripts. Bagley treated his writing as a job. If he felt that the work did not progress well, he could give up writing the book and then start with a new idea. 

The Golden Keel (1963), Bagley's first novel, became an immediate success. It was based supposedly on a true story, which Bagley heard in a bar in Johannesburg. During World War II Mussolini's vast personal treasures were moved from north in a German S.S. convoy. The treasures were moved from north in a German S.S. convoy. As the convoy neared the Ligurian coast, it vanished. An old soldier, named Walker, told Bagley that he really knew where Mussolini's missing gold was, and even suggested the idea of taking a yacht to the Mediterranean, and melting the gold down to make a golden keel. Around this coup Bagley spun a tale, where a successful Cape Town boat-builder designs an ocean-going yacht, sails to the Mediterranean, and with his companion attempts to get the treasure out of Italy. "I grew to hate the sight and the feel of gold, and the smell too—it has a distinctive odour when molten—and I prayed for the time when we would be at sea again with nothing more than a gale and a lee shore to worry about." (Ibid., p. 158)

Like Hammond Innes, Alistair MacLean, and Geoffrey Jenkins, Bagley created fast moving stories with rich local colour, ranging from the jungles of South America to the interior of Iceland. "I don't write crime novels," he said in an interview. "I write novels of action, and it's the usual thing, good versus evil, I suppose." ('A Word with Desmong Bagley' by Deryck Harvey. The Armchair Detective, Volume 7, Number 4, August 1974, p. 258) Within the twists and turns of the story he offered detailed information from a variety of subjects, such as genetic engineering in The Enemy (1977), the behaviour of hurricanes in Wyatt's Hurricane (1966), earth tremors in Landslide (1967), the Finnish way of life in The Tightrope Men (1973), and avalanches in The Snow Tiger (1975). Bagley researched his settings very meticulously but he did not make notes. "I have a retentive memory, a mind like flypaper to which facts stick." ('Desmond Bagley: Unprocessed Idea to Processed Word,' in Whodunit? Guide to Crime, Suspense and Spy Fiction, edited by H.R.F. Keating, London: Winward, 1982, p. 88)

Before writing Running Blind (1970), which was filmed by the BBC, Bagley spent a month in Iceland. "I choose my setting depending on whether people know a little or a lot about the country," Bagley said. "The plot that was worked out . . . came directly from the terrain and peculiar institutions of Iceland and I do not think that specific plot could have been set in any other country." (Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: The Boom in British Thrillers from Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed: How Britain Lost an Empire but Its Secret Agents Saved the World by Mike Ripley, [London]: HarperCollinsPublishers, 2017, p. 76) Flyaway (1978) gives more information of peoples, customs, traditions, and nature of the Sahara desert than an ordinary travel guide.

With his attention to environmental issues Bagley was ahead of his time. He was always very popular in the Scandinavian countries, especially in Finland and Norway, sharing with his readers there love for the outdoor life. The protagonist of The Tighrope Men, Giles Denison, wakes up in a hotel in Oslo, and sees a strange face in the mirror. His name is Harold Feltham Meyrick, he has a Patek Philippe watch, and an English passport. The MacGuffin of the story is a book full of mathematical symbols, buried near the Finnish border, on the Russian side. Bagley also touches such diverse subjects as the Finnish national epic Kalevala, the temperature of sauna, and paper-making machines. "There was, apparently, one sauna for every six Finns which, he reflected, was probably a greater incidence than bathrooms in Britain. A clean people, the Finns, – mens sana in corpore sauna. Stones were heated by birch logs or, in modern times, by electric elements. Humidity was introduced by löyly – tossing water on the stones. The booklet managed to convey an air of mystic ritual about what was essentially a prosaic activity, and Denison came to the conclusion that the sauna was the Finnish equivalent of the Japanese tea ceremony." (The Tightrope Men by Desmond Bagley, New York: Perennial Library, 1984, p. 104)

Several of Bagley's books have been adapted to film or television. The spy thriller The Freedom Trap (1971) was filmed in 1973 under the title The Mackintosh Man, starring Paul Newman, James Mason, and Dominique Sanda. In the story a freelance agent is hired to catch a Communist spy. Sanda is a jewel thief or a member of the British Secret Service, or both. Walter Hill wrote the screenplay. The director, John Huston considered the film a failure. He was offered a good sum of money to direct it, but he was from the beginning plagued by the screenplay's weaknesses. "The worst part was that the story lacked an ending. All the time we were filming we were casting about frantically for an effective way to bring the picture to a close. Finally, during the very last week of shooting, an idea came to us. It was far and away the best thing in the movie, and I suspect that if we had been able to start shooting with it in the mind, The Mackintosh Man would have been a really good film. But we weren't. As it is, I know hardly anyone who has ever heard of it." (An Open Book by John Huston, London: Columbus Books, 1988, p. 340)

Alistair MacLean, whose breakthrough novel H.M.S. Ulysses came out in 1955, said that Bagley writes better than he does. They both often used first-person narrative, a suggestive method which takes the reader right in the middle of the action. Reginal Hill said that "as long as meticulous craftsmanship and honest entertainment are valued, and as long as action, authenticity, and expertise still make up the strong framework of the good adventure/thriller, Desmond Bagley's books will surely be read." ('Bagley, Desmond' by Reginald Hill, in Twentieth-century Crime and Mystery Writers, edited by John M. Reilly, London: St. James Press, 1985, pp. 39-40) Bagley's career spanned two decades. His influence can be seen in the works of such highly acclaimed thriller writers as Ken Follet and Duncan Kyle, who published their first novels in the 1970s. From the younger generation writers, the Guernsey-based John Templeton Smith had personal contact with Bagley – he was Smith's mentor in the late 1970s. 

Bagley published only a few short pieces. In his introduction to Crime Wave: Word's Winning Crime Stories 1981 (1981) he said: "I cannot write  short stories. A short story is deceptive in its simplicity and its is one of the most difficult forms of literature." (Ibid., p. 7).

When not travelling in search of the background for his novel, Bagley spent his time sailing with his wife and motor-boating. He loved classical music and films, military history and played war games. Moreover, he was an active member of the Sarnia Sword Club. Bagley's friends included the mystery novelist and composer Robert Bruce Montgomery, who wrote under the pseudonym Edmund Crispin. One evening in the early 1970s Montgomery telephoned, whether he could come and watch with them a particular thiller for which he had composed the score. "I've never sat through a movie with the composer sitting next to me and it was an odd experience," recalled Joan Bagley. "We saw the entire film in its musical context, accompanied by a running commentary. How I wish we'd taped it!" (Bruce Montgomery/Edmund Crispin: A Life in Music and Books by David Whittle, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2007, p. 274)

Night of Error (1983), in which an oceanographer investigates the death of his brother, and Juggernaut (1984), were published posthumously. Juggernaut was set in Nyala, an imaginary African country. Neil Mannix, the protagonist, tries to move a giant transformer, on a low-bed trailer, across the country. The Juggernaut is nearly 80 meters long and has 96 wheels. When the civil war breaks out, the transportation project is doomed – which can be read as a comment on the results of development co-operation activities.

Desmond Bagley died on the 12'th of April, 1983, in Southampton. After a stroke he had been flown to Southampton for treatment; he died eight days later. Bagley's works have been translated into some 20 languages. Joan Bagley died in 1999. She re-edited two of her husband's unfinished manuscripts for posthumous publication. The incomplete manuscript with the working title of Road appeared as Juggernaut.

Domino Island, Bagley's unpublished thriller from 1972, was discovered in 2017. The draft consisted of 243 pages; its working title was Because Salton Died, with Bagley's remark to his publisher, "if you can think of a better, please do". Completed by Michael Davies, the book was published in 2019 with a title that referred to the set of events, a Caribbean island.

For further reading:  Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: The Boom in British Thrillers from Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed by Mike Ripley (2017); 'Bagley, Desmond,' in St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, edited by Jay P.Pederson (1996); 'Bagley, Desmond' by Reginald Hill, in Twentieth-century Crime and Mystery Writers, edited by John M. Reilly (1985); 'Desmond Bagley: Unprocessed Idea to Processed Word,' in Whodunit? Guide to Crime, Suspense and Spy Fiction, edited by H.R.F. Keating (1982); 'A Word with Desmond Bagley' by Deryck Harvey, in Armchair Detective Volume 7, Number 4, August (1974)

Selected bibliography:

• 'My Old Man's Trumpet,' 1957 (in Argosy)
  
• The Golden Keel, 1963 (Hi-jacking of Mussolini's gold)
  - Kultainen köli (suom. Panu Pekkanen, 1965)
• High Citadel, 1965 (High in the Andes a plane is hi-jacked and forced down)
  - Andien vangit (suom. Panu Pekkanen, 1966)
• Wyatt's Hurricane, 1966 (A weather expert battles against odds when a hurricane threatens a Caribbean island)
  - Hurrikaani (suom. Matti Wilen, 1967)
• Landslide, 1967 (Set in the remote lumber country of British Columbia, where a powerful corporation is building a dam)
  - Maanvyöry (suom. Panu Pekkanen, 1967)
  - film: Landslide, 1992, dir. by Jean-Claude Lord, starring Anthony Edwards, Tom Burlinson, Melody Anderson
• The Vivero Letter, 1968 (A killer-hunt in the rain forests of Yucatan)
  - Vivero (suom. Seppo Loponen, 1970)
  - film: Forgotten City / The Vivero Letter, 1999, dir. by H. Gordon Boos, screenplay by Denne Bart Petitclerc and Arthur Sellers, starring Robert Patrick, Chiara Caselli, Fred Ward.
  
• The Spoilers, 1969 (An expedition to the Middle East in pursuit of big-time drug pedlars becomes enmeshed in a web of political intrigue)
  - Tehtävä kuudelle (suom. Matti Kannosto, 1971)
• Running Blind, 1970 (Spy-chasing in Iceland)
  - Islannin peli (suom. Matti Kannosto, 1972)
  - TV series: Running Blind, 1979, dir. by William Brayne, starring Stuart Wilson, Ragnheiður Steindórsdóttir, George Sewell
• The Freedom Trap, 1971 (US title: The MacKintosh Man, 1973)
  - Loukku (suom. Matti Kannosto, 1973)
  - film: The MacKintosh Man, 1973, dir. by John Huston, screenplay by Walter Hill, starring Paul Newman, James Mason, Dominique Sanda, music by Maurice Jarre. "If you can accept Newman as a totally unconvincing Australian (thankfully only for about 20 minutes), an appalling array of accents (mainly Irish), and Dominique Sanda as an unlikely member of the British Secret Service, then it whiles away the time pleasantly enough." (Time Out Film Guide, edited by John Pym, London: Time Out, thirteent edition 2004, p. 793)
• The Tightrope Men, 1973 (Giles Denison has lost his memory, and is caught in the web of international intrigues in Finland)
  - Suomalainen nuorallatanssi (suom. Simo Mäenpää ja Rauno Velling, 1973)
• The Snow Tiger, 1975 (An enquiry after a disastrous avalanche New Zealand reveals that the disaster was not so 'natural' after all)
  - Lumi vyöryy (suom. Panu Pekkanen, 1975)
• 'A Matter of Mouths,' 1976 (in Winter's Crimes 8, ed. by Hilary Watson)
• The Enemy, 1977
  - Vihollinen (suom. Erkki Hakala, 1977)
  - film: The Enemy, 2001, dir. by Tom Kinninmont, screenplay by John Penney, starring Luke Perry, Olivia d'Abo, Roger Moore, Horst Buchholz, Tom Conti
• 'The Circumstances Surrounding the Crime,' 1978 (in I, Witness: True Personal Encounters with Crime by Members of the Mystery Writers of America)
  
• Flyaway, 1978
  - ... ja hiekka peittää jäljet (suom. Aulis Rantanen, 1978)
• 'A Little Peace of Britain,' 1980 (In Britain, Volume 35, No, 2, Feb 1980)
  
• Bahama Crisis, 1980
  - Bahaman hauta (tr. Aulis Rantanen, 1981)
• 'Introduction,' 1981 (Crime Wave: Word's Winning Crime Stories 1981,  selected by an international jury and with an introduction by Desmond Bagley)
• Windfall, 1982 (adventure set in the Kenyan savannah)
  - Safari (suom. Erkki Hakala, 1982)
• Night of Error, 1983
  - Erehdysten yö (suom. Aulis Rantanen, 1984)
• Juggernaut  1984
  - Surmanajo (suom. Pentti Isomursu, 1985)
• Domino Island, 2019 (curated by Michael Davies)