Oliver Anderson

Oliver Anderson was Snitterby, England, the son of the village Rector, the Rev. Robert Anderson. After the World War I, he moved with his family to the village of Little Ponton when his father was appointed Rector there. He was educated at The King's School in Grantham. After school, he worked as a journalist for the Grantham office of the Nottingham Guardian and Evening Post. He used many of his experiences reporting on Grantham in his first book, Rotten Borough (1937), which was a powerful satire of provincial life. Upon its publication, several of libel suits were brought against Anderson by Grantham businessmen, and the controversial novel was withdrawn from publication after three weeks. Following the controversy, Anderson started his own business, but closed it soon after so he could enlist in the British Army when World War II began. He served in the Royal Artillery for the duration of the war, mostly in the North African campaign.

After the war he returned to Grantham and moved in with his mother in the village of Harlaxton, where he lived for the next 50 years. He continued to write, and during the 1950s he published a series of humorous novels about country life. In 1960 he began a series of comic novels featuring Guy Random, a man-about-town who meets several exotic characters in his adventures.

Dying in 1996, it seems highly improbable that Oliver "Rotten Borough" Anderson is the author of "Dark Before Twilight", "The Football Review 2007" or "The King's Jack". The name is not uncommon, and there is certainly at least one author of this name who is currently writing and publishing. Just because there's lots of information on the Web doesn't mean this plethora of information is reliable - a fact which Oliver "Rotten Borough" Anderson would undoubtedly have explored and exploited were he to be writing today.