Joseph Storer Clouston was an Orcadian author and historian.

Life and work

J S Clouston OBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

, the son of psychiatrist Sir Thomas Clouston

Thomas Clouston

Sir Thomas Smith Clouston was a Scottish psychiatrist.Clouston was born in the Birsay parish of Orkney, and educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and the University of Edinburgh. Clouston qualified M.D. with a thesis on the nervous system of the lobster, supervised by John Goodsir...

, was from an "old Orkney family", according to his obituary in The Scotsman

The Scotsman

The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....

. After being educated at Merchiston Castle School

Merchiston Castle School

Merchiston Castle School is an independent school for boys in the village of Colinton in Edinburgh, Scotland. It has about 480 pupils and is open to boys between the ages of 8 and 18 as either boarders or day pupils; day pupils make up 35% of the school....

, Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

 and Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...

 he was called to the bar

Barrister

A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...

 at the Inner Temple

Inner Temple

The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1895, but never practised as a lawyer.

Soon after embarking on a career as a writer, he published one of his most popular novels, The Lunatic at Large. He was also a historian, author of a great history of Orkney, a founder member and second president of the Orkney Antiquarian Society

Orkney Antiquarian Society

The Orkney Antiquarian Society was founded in 1922 by Dr. Hugh Marwick, Archdeacon James Brown Craven, Joseph Storer Clouston and John Mooney, and continued in existence for 17 years...

, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is the senior antiquarian body in Scotland, with its headquarters in the National Museum, Chambers Street, Edinburgh...

. His The Spy in Black

The Spy in Black

The Spy in Black is a 1939 British film, and the first collaboration between the British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. They were brought together by Alexander Korda to make the World War I spy thriller by Joseph Storer Clouston into a film...

was made into a successful film in the late 1930s.

He died at home at Smoogro House, Orphir, Orkney.

Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest

Literary Digest

The Literary Digest was an influential general interest weekly magazine published by Funk & Wagnalls. Founded by Isaac Kaufmann Funk in 1890, it eventually merged with two similar weekly magazines, Public Opinion and Current Opinion.-History:...

it was cloos'-ton, "with ou as in group." (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)

Works

His fiction and nonfiction works include:

• Vandrad the Viking: or the Feud and the Spell (1898)
• The Lunatic at Large (1899)
• The Duke (1900)
• The Adventures of M. D'Haricot (1902)
• Our Lady's Inn (1903)
• Garmiscath (1904)
• Count Bunker (1906)
• A Country Family (1908)
• The Prodigal Father (1909)
• Tales of King Fido (1909)
• The Peer's Progress (1910)
• His First Offence (1912)
• Records of the Earldom of Orkney 1299-1614 (1914)
• Two's Two (1916)
• The Spy in Black (1917)
• The Man from the Clouds (1918)
• Sermon (1919)
• Carrington's Cases (1920)
• Lunatic at Large Again (1922)
• The Lunatic Still at Large (1923)
• The Two Strange Men (1924)
• Tales of King Fido (1924)
• The Lunatic in Charge (1926)
• Mr. Essington in Love (1927)
• The Jade's Progress (1928)
• After the Deed (1929)
• Colonel Dam (1930)
• A History of Orkney (1932)
• The Virtuous Vamp (1932)
• The Best Story Ever (1932)
• Button Brains (1933)
• The Chemical Baby (1934)
• Real Champagne (1934)
• Our Member Mr. Mittlebury (1935)
• Scotland Expects (1936)
• Scots Wha Ha'e (1936)
• Not Since Genesis (1938)
• The Man in Steel (1939)
• Beastmark the Spy (1941)

Further reading

• Articles by J. Storer Clouston