A PROMINENT writer who created an award-winning crime series and saw some of his books made into films has died.

Alan Tucker wrote for the Western Mail and Daily Mirror before writing the successful Harpur and Iles crime series.

In an emotional tribute, eldest son Patrick recollected fond memories of accompanying his dad to the cinema when he was a film critic, and hitting the old-school typewriter hard!

“My father was a bit of an adventurer,” said Mr Tucker. “He took us all on road trips to southern Spain camping in a number of unreliable cars.

“He was the film critic for the Echo and I remember being taken to see the previews of many classic films including Dirty Harry, The Godfather and others, often preceded by a pint.

“Of course I remember him writing in the early days on a mechanical typewriter, hitting the keys hard enough to make four or five carbon copies.”

South Wales Argus: Mr Tucker celebrating his 90th Birthday at the Keyif in Penarth with granddaughter Rachel Mr Tucker celebrating his 90th Birthday at the Keyif in Penarth with granddaughter Rachel (Image: Supplied)

From Fleet Street to award nominated crime writing

Alan James Tucker was born in Cardiff in 1929, growing up in Cardiff’s Docks and Grangetown near Clarence Bridge.

He was resident in Sully from 1960 to 64, and again from 1984 to his death this year.

Mr Tucker was a reporter for Cardiff’s Western Mail in 1954-1956 and for London’s Daily Mirror in 1956-1958. 

He returned to South Wales in 1958 and worked as a freelance journalist, contributing to such publications as New Society, Punch, The Spectator, The Sunday Times and the South Wales Echo.

He was also a part-time tutor at the University of Wales beginning in 1968.

He received a master’s degree in English from that same institution in 1974, and his thesis was published as The Novels of Anthony Powell (1976).

Mr Tucker began his second writing life as a fiction writer by trying literary fiction, then moved to espionage novels during the 1960’s, before turning to crime in the 1970’s. He wrote under his own name and the pseudonym David Craig.

After a break of a decade Mr Tucker revived the name of Craig in the 1990’s for novels set in the Cardiff Docks area. At this time he also used the name Judith Jones.

His successful Harpur and Iles series, ran to more than 30 titles, and is published all over the world.

The final Harpur and Iles book, Low Pastures, was published in 2022.

In all Mr Tucker had more than 70 books published in countries including UK, USA, Italy, France and Holland, with Wolves of Memory nominated for the Crime Writer’s Association Silver Dagger Award.

Three of Mr Tucker's books were turned into films, including Whose Little Girl are You?, Filmed as The Squeeze in 1974; Protection, filmed by the BBC in 1996; and Tip Top, released in France in 2013

Mr Tucker was predeceased by his wife Marian in 2017, and a grandson in 2003. He is survived by three sons, a daughter, ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.