Archibald Thomas Pechey Biography, English Lyricist and Novelist

Who Was “Archibald Thomas Pechey”? The life of the English poet and writer. Also a complete list of his works.

Archibald Thomas Pechey (September 26, 1876 in West Ham, Essex – November 29, 1961 in Wells, Somerset, England) is often credited simply as Valentine, was an English lyricist and novelist. The pseudonym of Valentine derives from the family of his mother, the Vallentins, who were distillers of London. Pechey’s maternal grandfather, Sir James Vallentin (1814-1870) was Knight Sheriff of London and Master of the Worshipful Company of Distillers. In the 1880s, Pechey’s uncle, Grimble Vallentine, ran the business in Lambeth. His cousin John Franks Vallentin (1882-1914) received the V.C.

Pechey as “Valentine” often wrote lyrics along with composer James W. Tate. The songs written by Valentine include “Love Will Find a Way” and “A Paradise for Two” (both from 1917, from The Maid of the Mountains).

Pechey wrote stories, such as “The Adjusters” (1922) and “An Exploitation of the Adjusters: The Man Who Scared the Bank” (1929), under the name of Valentine. “The Adjusters” and their aftermath are about a group of amateur crime fighters with complementary talents, who “adjust” the results of the law, often tricking criminals to catch them using a logical crime analysis, so that the culprits they are punished and the good ones are protected, liberated or compensated. The Adjuster characters are Daphne Wrayne, a girl from the sports society; Sir Hugh Williamson, a prominent African explorer; James Treviller, a handsome young nobleman; Martin Everest, a handsome lawyer; and Alan Sylvester, an actor.

Pechey married Bijou Sortain Hancock, and was the father of the well-known television cook Fanny Cradock. The extravagance of his wife and his own susceptibility to gambling left him with considerable debts. It seems that he tried to avoid debts by moving around the country. He left Herne Bay in Kent and moved to Swanage in Dorset, then to Bournemouth in Hampshire, where his brother Richard Francis Pechey (1872-1963) became the vicar of the Church of the Holy Trinity in 1919. He finally moved to Wroxham in Norfolk, c1927, where its debtors reached it and by 1930 it appeared in the bankruptcy court of Norfolk with debts of £ 3,500.

Once without a debt, Pechey moved to Somerset, changed his pseudonym to Mark Cross and wrote more than 45 detective novels with that name between 1934 and 1961, many of them about the Adjusters. The novels include the thrillers The Shadow of the Four and Who Killed Henry Wickenstrom. Pechey also drew the cover of some stories.