Chris Verner

Christopher Verner was born on 13th December 1949 and brought up in Richmond, Surrey, England. His father was thriller writer Gerald Verner, born John Robert Stuart Pringle on 31 January 1897. He lived a colourful life while producing an extraordinary output of novels and plays.

Chris began writing a biography of his father in 2010, Plots and Gunpowder. He was delighted to have the biography accepted by Level Best Books. It has been published this September 2021 in both ebook and paperback editions.

Like his father he began his working life in Stage Management. He began as a student at the original Mermaid Theatre in Blackfriars, London, in 1967; spent five years at The National Theatre at the Old Vic in Waterloo until 1974; then Company Manager for The Black Mikado musical until 1976—after which he left the theatre world to form his own company to design and carry out special effects, principally for film and television, including Danger UXB, Time Bandits, and 1984, plus over four hundred television commercials.

Apart from a posthumous collaboration completing his father’s unfinished manuscript The Snark Was A Boojum, he has completed a novelette 'The Man On The Train', a novella 'Bullion', and a full-length novel The Seventh Virgin, all featuring his father’s detective ‘Mr. Budd’.

Chris has written an introduction to each of 6 Volumes of Mr. Budd Novelettes, Stories of Crime and Detection, by his father Gerald Verner - Volume One 29th Oct 2023 Volume Two 29th Nov and so on...

Chris has recently completed sourcing and editing all of the stories of Crime and Detection written by golden age author James Ronald. These stories are being published by Moonstone Press in 12 Volumes, commencing with Volume 1: The Britling Stories and Volume 2: Murder In The Family, Volume 3: This Way Out, and so on...

Chris lives in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England with his wife Jenny.