Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark, who wrote under the pseudonym Cyril Hare, was the third son of Henry Herbert Gordon Clark, longtime director and eventually president of the London Life Association. Matthew Clark and Sons of London, the family firm, were prominent wine and spirit importers; the Gordon Clarks were associated closely with Surrey, of which Henry Herbert was once high sheriff. Alfred Gordon Clark was educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford, where he received a First in history. He was called to the bar of the Inner Temple in 1924 and joined the chambers of the noted criminal lawyer Ronald Oliver. As Gordon Clark pursued the career of a junior barrister, he also began to write light material for Punch and other popular papers. He invented a pseudonym that combined the addresses of his residence, Cyril Mansions, Battersea, and of his Temple chambers, Hare Court. He married in...