Call a spade a spade has been used in literary works by what British playwright, novelist, and short story writer who was reportedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s?
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Call a spade a spade To "call a spade a spade" is a figurative expression which refers to calling something "as it is", that is, by its right or proper name, without "beating about the bush"—being outspoken about it, truthfully, frankly, and directly, even to the point of being blunt or rude, and even if the subject is considered coarse, impolite, or unpleasant. The idiom originates in the classical Greek of Plutarch's "Apophthegmata Laconica," and was introduced into the English language in 1542 in Nicolas Udall's translation of the "Apophthegmes," where Erasmus had seemingly replaced Plutarch's images of "trough" and "fig" with the more familiar "spade." The idiom has appeared in many literary and popular works, including those of Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, W. Somerset Maugham, and Jonathan Swift.
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W. Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham CH ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965), better known as W. Somerset Maugham, was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s.
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The Confidential Agent The Confidential Agent (1939) is a thriller novel by British author Graham Greene. Fueled by Benzedrine, Greene wrote it in six weeks. To avoid distraction, he rented a room in Bloomsbury from a landlady who lived in an apartment below him. He used that apartment in the novel (it's where D. hides for a day) and had an affair with the landlady's daughter. He wrote the book for money and was so displeased with his work that he wanted it published under a pseudonym. But critics took a far different view; "The New York Times", for example, called the novel "a magnificent tour-de-force."
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Thomas Hinde (novelist) Sir Thomas Willes Chitty, 3rd Baronet (2 March 1926 – 7 March 2014), better known by his pen name Thomas Hinde, was a British novelist.
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Oliver Goldsmith Oliver Goldsmith (10 November 1728 – 4 April 1774) was an Irish novelist, playwright and poet, who is best known for his novel "The Vicar of Wakefield" (1766), his pastoral poem "The Deserted Village" (1770), and his plays "The Good-Natur'd Man" (1768) and "She Stoops to Conquer" (1771, first performed in 1773). He is thought to have written the classic children's tale "The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes" (1765).
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James Redding Ware James Redding Ware (1832-c 1909, pseudonym Andrew Forrester) was a British writer, novelist and playwright, creator of one of the first female detectives in fiction.
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The Queen of Spades (1927 film) The Queen of Spades or Pique Dame is a 1927 German silent drama film directed by  Aleksandr Razumnyj and starring Jenny Jugo, Rudolf Forster and Henri De Vries . It is one of many film adaptations of the Russian writer Alexander Pushkin's 1834 short story "The Queen of Spades".
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Francis King Francis Henry King, CBE (4 March 19233 July 2011) was a British novelist, poet and short story writer. He worked for the British Council for 25 years, with positions in Europe and Japan. For 25 years he was a chief book reviewer for the "Sunday Telegraph", and for 10 years its theatre critic.
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The Listerdale Mystery The Listerdale Mystery is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins and Sons in June 1934. The book retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6). The collection did not appear in the US; however, all of the stories contained within it did appear in other collections only published there.
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Agatha Christie bibliography Agatha Christie (1890–1976) was an English crime novelist, short story writer and playwright. Although she wrote six romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, her reputation rests on the 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections that she wrote under her own name, which have sold over two billion copies—an amount only surpassed by the Bible and the works of William Shakespeare. Her works contain several regular characters with whom the public became familiar, including Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, Parker Pyne and Harley Quin. Christie wrote more Poirot stories than any of the others, even though she thought the character to be "rather insufferable". Following the publication of the 1975 novel "Curtain", Poirot's obituary appeared on the front page of "The New York Times". The literary historian Howard Haycraft considered that "few fictional sleuths can surpass the amazing little Belgian—with his waxed moustache and egg-shaped head, his inflated confidence in the infallibility of his 'little grey cells', his murderous attacks on the English language—either for individuality or ingenuity."
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Alfred Mendes Alfred Hubert Mendes (18 November 1897 – 1991), novelist and short-story writer, was a leading member of the 1930s "Beacon group" of writers (named after the literary magazine "The Beacon") in Trinidad that included Albert Gomes, C. L. R. James and Ralph de Boissière. Mendes is best known as the author of two novels - "Pitch Lake" (1934) and "Black Fauns" (1935) - and for his short stories written during the 1920s and 1930s. He was "one of the first West Indian writers to set the pattern of emigration in the face of the lack of publishing houses and the small reading public in the West Indies.
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Noel Streatfeild Mary Noel Streatfeild OBE (24 December 1895 –11 September 1986), was an English author, best known for children's books including the "Shoes" books, which were not a series. Random House, the U.S. publisher of the 1936 "Ballet Shoes" (1936), published some of Streatfeild's subsequent children's books using the word "Shoes" in their titles, to capitalize on the popularity of Ballet Shoes; thus "Circus Shoes", "Party Shoes" (in Britain, "Party Frock"). She won the third annual Carnegie Medal for "The Circus Is Coming", also published as "Circus Shoes". She was a member of the historic Streatfeild family.
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Agatha Christie Memorial The Agatha Christie Memorial is a memorial to author and playwright Agatha Christie, located at the intersection of Cranbourn Street and Great Newport Street by St Martin's Cross near Covent Garden, in London, United Kingdom. It is located in the heart of London's theatre district. This was chosen to pay homage to Christie's contribution to theatre: her murder mystery play "The Mousetrap" is the world's longest-running show, and she was the first female playwright to have three plays performing simultaneously in the West End.
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James Agate James Evershed Agate (9 September 1877 – 6 June 1947) was an English diarist and one of Britain's most influential theatre critics between the two world wars. He found his way into journalism in his late twenties, on the staff of "The Manchester Guardian" (1907–14) and as a drama critic for "The Saturday Review" (1921–23), and "The Sunday Times" (1923–47). He also reviewed drama for the BBC (1925–32). The nine volumes of Agate's diaries and letters, entitled "Ego", record the British theatre of his era and his non-theatrical interests, including sports, social gossip and his private preoccupations with his health and precarious finances. He also wrote film and literary criticism for London newspapers, published three novels, translated a play that was staged in London, albeit briefly, and regularly brought out collections of his theatre essays and reviews.
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William Norman Ewer William Norman Ewer (22 October 188525 January 1977) was a British journalist, remembered mostly now for a few lines of verse. He was known as William or Norman, and by the nickname Trilby. He was prominent writing on foreign affairs for the London "Daily Herald". It is now increasingly well established that he spied for the Soviet Union during the 1920s.
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Simon Bent Simon Bent is a British screenwriter and playwright, notable for work including BBC TV drama "" (2006), the screenplay for the feature film "Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry" (2000), and the Joe Orton biographical play "Prick Up Your Ears" based on John Lahr's book.
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Sidney Kilner Levett-Yeats Sidney Kilner Levett-Yeats CIE, (c. 1858–1916), an English novelist known professionally as S. Levett-Yeats, was the descendant of an old English trading family with connections to British India. S. Levett-Yeats became a soldier with the Indian Army and later joined the Indian Civil Service as a low-level bureaucrat. Inspired by the example of other ambitious Anglo-Indian writers like Rudyard Kipling, Levett-Yeats turned out a series of Victorian potboilers, often set in Europe, that earned him a place on the bestseller lists of the day.
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Ulric Nisbet Hugh Ulric Swinscow Nisbet (May 19, 1897 - 1987) was a British writer and the author of "Thoughts on the purpose of art" (1934), "Spread no wings" (1937) and "" (1964). Under the pseudonym Hugh Callaway he published "The onlie begetter(1936)", "Bridge to world man" (1960), "" (1967) and "The new consciousness (alternative to chaos)" (1971). He also published under the name Pierre Saint Vaast. In "The onlie begetter" he proposed William Herbert as the dedicatee of Shakespeare's "Sonnets".
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Michael Kenyon Michael F. Kenyon (26 June 1931 – 29 May 2005) was a British author of crime novels. Author of more than 20 humorous mystery novels, he was one of the first in the field of spoof-espionage story telling, but perhaps better known for the Superintendent O'Malley, and latterly Inspector Henry Peckover series of books. Peckover was especially successful, fondly known as "The Bard Of The Yard". He was also a regular contributor to Gourmet Magazine, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.
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Josephine Bell Josephine Bell, pseudonym of Doris Bell Collier, (8 December 1897 – 24 April 1987), was an English physician and writer. Bell wrote nineteen novels and forty-five mystery novels in her lifetime, as well as radio plays, short stories, and series for women's magazines.
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Lancelot Cayley Shadwell Lancelot Cayley Shadwell (26 April 1882 – 28 October 1963) was an English writer, lyricist, and ceramicist. He wrote the lyrics to a host of popular songs, published three collections of his poetry, and contributed to the popular monthly series, "Books for the Bairns", published by W.T Stead to provide affordable literature to children and adults. During World War I, he helped launch and nurture one of the most successful concert parties of the war: the Diamond Troupe of the 29th Division (United Kingdom). In the mid-1920s, Shadwell co-founded the Broadstone Potters—a small, but influential producer of studio pottery with links to some of the most important figures in British ceramics.
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John Wainwright (author) John William Wainwright (25 February 1921 – September 1995), was a British crime novelist and author of 83 books, four of which have been published under the pen name Jack Ripley. He also wrote some short stories (mostly uncollected in book format), 7 radio plays, and an indefinite amount of magazine articles and newspaper columns.