Christopher St. John Sprigg

Until recently Christopher St John Sprigg was largely remembered for his Marxist writing and poetry, all of which was published posthumously under the name Christopher Caudwell. The reprinting of Death of an Airman by the British Library in 2015 has helped revive interest in his fiction.

Christopher St John Sprigg (1907 - 1937) was born in London to a literate family of writers, journalists and editors. The youngest of three children, Sprigg attended Catholic boarding school for ten years, until a downturn in family finances prompted a departure from schooling at age 15. He immediately became a trainee reporter at the Yorkshire Observer where his father was then literary editor, and father and son lodged together in a boarding house in Bradford.

In 1925 Sprigg joined his older brother Theo as the editing team of Airways magazine. During this time Sprigg also produced technical books and air adventures stores for Popular Flying magazine. He had a fondness for noms-de-plumes, writing adventure stores under the names ‘Arthur Cave’ and ‘Icarus’, using ‘St John Lewis’ for articles in Airways, and ‘Christopher Beaumont’ for his book reviews.

Over a three year period, Sprigg wrote several detective stores stories, including Fatality in Fleet Street, The Perfect Alibi, Death of an Airman, and Death of a Queen. In 1935, he joined the Communist party and focused on Marxist writings. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, he drove an ambulance to Spain and joined the International Brigade. After four weeks of training and poorly armed, his unit was thrown into the Battle of the Jarama River in February 1937. He was killed in the first day of fighting, along with more than half of his battalion.