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This page lists novels and short story collections by Manning Coles.

Manning Coles was the writing name used for collaborative publications by two British writers Adelaide Frances Oke Manning and Cyril Henry Coles. Following Mannings death in 1959 two further Manning Coles novels were written by Cyril Henry Coles and Tom Hammerton.

Cover images are, when possible, for the first UK edition and for a more recent paperback or digital edition.

Manning and Coles also published a number of horror novels using the writing name Francis Gaite. These fall outside the scope of this page.

Drink to Yesterday

Manning Coles

1940

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

"Michael Kingston had a gift for languages, and at 17 enlisted and was drafted into the secret service, under Hambledon. They engineered the murder of a scientist breeding cholera germs, the arson of a Zepp plant, and the murder of Bodenheim. The death of Hambledon and of a German girl brought the wheel of murder full circle, and Kingston found himself haunted by blue devils when the Armistice came, unable to come to grips with himself or life."

Pray Silence

Manning Coles

1940

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

Published in the US A Toast to Tomorrow.

"Joseph Goebbels is fuming. It’s the mid-1930s and the Nazi Minister of Propaganda has a nice little racket going. He and his cohorts are allowing Jews to slip out of Germany in return for 80 percent of their assets. But longtime Nazi party member Klaus Lehmann, the Chief of the German Police, is too much of a prig to let him get away with it. And given that Lehmann was one of Hitler’s earliest supporters, he’s virtually untouchable. In the meantime, British Intelligence is going around in circles. Someone in Germany is sending them messages in a code that hasn’t been used since World War I."

They Tell No Tales

Manning Coles

1941

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

"When the British Admiralty asks British Intelligence for help in nailing down saboteurs, it's Tommy Hambledon, that old China hand at espionage, who is sent to the Portsmouth naval base. Hambledon is to meet a dockyard workman 'with a story to tell.' The workman arrives at the rendezvous all right, only to be shot dead before he can open his mouth. Hambledon, hampered by a romantically inclined colleague, and practically cluesless, must now proceed to put a name and a face to a cold-blooded adversary...fast!"

This Fortress

Manning Coles

1942

This novel appears to have only been published in the US.

Without Lawful Authority

Manning Coles

1943

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

"After Jim Warnford is found guilty of selling secrets to the enemy and discharged from his regiment, he’s very much at loose ends—that is, until he meets John Marden, a professional safe-cracker who is nonetheless a gentleman and a very pleasant one at that, despite the fact that he was trying to break into Warnford’s own safe when they met. The two become fast friends and unite in a common purpose, to find the fellow officer who framed Warnford and to round up the German spies who stole his secrets. In the course of their activities they keep nearly crossing paths with Tommy Hambledon of British Intelligence, who’s just back in England after a long sojourn in Germany. As delighted as he is with their little presents to him, he’s very anxious to meet them in person, but they prove to be a most elusive pair."

Green Hazard

Manning Coles

1945

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

"British agent Tommy Hambledon heads back to Nazi Germany impersonating a scientist who has developed a new and powerful explosive."

The Fifth Man

Manning Coles

1946

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

"When a man of many aliases turns up as the fifth of a party of British prisoners to be landed on the south coast of England from a German submarine, Tommy Hambledon takes a special interest in his activities."

Let the Tiger Die

Manning Coles

1947

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

"Tommy's Swedish vacation turns into a hunt for Nazis who still dream of restoring the third Reich."

A Brother for Hugh

Manning Coles

1947

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

Published in the US as With Intent to Deceive.

"In his first postwar adventure, Tommy Hambledon is drawn into a hunt for a large sum of money stolen by the Nazis and hidden in Argentina. Among others things, the book is noteworthy for introducing Forgan and Campbell, a pair of model-makers who become Tommy's enthusiastic and always amusing amateur assistants."

Among Those Absent

Manning Coles

1948

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

"Tommy Hambledon goes undercover to break up a gang that specializes in helping prisoners escape from jail."

Diamonds to Amsterdam

Manning Coles

1949

A Tommy Hambledon novel. No recent edition published.

Not Negotiable

Manning Coles

1949

A Tommy Hambledon novel. No recent edition published.

"It's Tommy Hambledon, of course, and this time on the track of a counterfeiting ring which keeps him racing from London to Brussels to France, with way stops for every kind of action."

Dangerous by Nature

Manning Coles

1950

A Tommy Hambledon novel. No recent edition published.

"It's the same insoucieant Hambledon, but far from his usual European haunts. Plunked down in a Central American republic, Tommy finds himself trapped between hot Latin temperaments and cold 'hostile powers,' waiting for his American opposite number to show - and waiting, and waiting. But to keep ennui at arm's length there are a sherry-swilling parrot; a lethal local lottery; and those hostile powers to be stymied, with or without the help of the missing American. All to be accomplished in the middle of a wild, ravine-filled terrain - dangerous by nature."

Now or Never

Manning Coles

1951

A Tommy Hambledon novel. No recent edition published.

"Tommy Hambledon is back, and again he's in Germany, posing as a camera-toting tourist while trailing renascent Fascists. The investigation started in Cologne when a corpse was found hung out like a batch of washing from the bare girder of a ruined building. Then Tommy learned about two quaint girls whose custom it was 'to frolic among the ruins' late at night, and found that his buddies, Forgan and Campell, were on hand to help him unravel the mystery of the Silver Ghosts, the Nazi outfit he was after. Their part was to find the next meeting place of the Ghosts. After another man had died among the wrecked buildings, the long-awaited message arrived, and the Ghosts were soon to meet for the last time."

Alias Uncle Hugo

Manning Coles

1952

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

"With gusto and good humor Tommy Hambledon, that intrepid sleuth and foreign agent, is off again on another round of frantic adventure. His assignment from British Intelligence is to rescue one small boy, the future king of a mid-European country, from the Russian school in Poltava. Tommy punches a hole in the Iron Curtain, rushes boldly through a series of tricks and traps while acquiring and shedding a variety of disguises on the way, and eventually makes his contact, only to find himself cornered - surrounded and challenged as he never has been before."

Night Train to Paris

Manning Coles

1952

A Tommy Hambledon novel. No recent edition published.

A Knife for the Juggler

Manning Coles

1953

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

Possibly also subsequently published as The Vengeance Man.

Not for Export

Manning Coles

1954

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

Published in the US as All That Glitters. Also published as The Mystery of the Stolen Plans. No recent edition published.

"Tommy Hambledon is called to Bonn to mingle with international police, a gang of Berlin crooks and a pair of Polish fanatics. After the thefts of several jewels and a set of airplane plans, Hambledon unravels the mess with his usual talent for policing and penchant for play."

The Man in the Green Hat

Manning Coles

1955

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

"A British diplomat, looking natty in a green hat, walks into the brooding hills above Lake Como and disappears. The police investigate but can uncover no clues or evidence. This is a job for British Intelligence in the person of none other than the intrepid Tommy Hambledon. Hambledon takes on Italy's vicious underworld, is diverted by some society types, and side-steps some unrepentant fascists in this rapid-transit chase for a mastermind and a hidden treasure."

The Basle Express

Manning Coles

1956

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

"British Intelligence agent Tommy Hambledon had the mistaken notion when he arrived at Innsbruck that he had left behind all connections with Herr Bastien, who had been shot in the railway compartment they shared on the Anglo-Swiss Express. But when he was commanded by a belligerent Austrian taxi driver to disrobe, and then forced at gunpoint to hike barefoot over the Alps, Hambledon ruefully decided that his vacation was over."

The Three Beans

Manning Coles

1956

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

Published in the US as Birdwatcher's Quarry.

"A fatal accident that was no accident, a telephone number in a new notebook and three dried beans in a silver box, plus rumours of an international conspiracy with its headquarters in little French village, make as tricky a problem as Tommy Hambledon has ever had to work out."

Death of an Ambassador

Manning Coles

1957

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

No Entry

Manning Coles

1958

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

Crime in Concrete

Manning Coles

1960

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

Published in the US as Concrete Crime.

Nothing to Declare

Manning Coles

1960

A Tommy Hambledon short story collection. Only published in the US.

Search for a Sultan

Manning Coles

1961

Written by Cyril Coles and Tom Hammerton.

A Tommy Hambledon novel.

The House at Pluck's Gutter

Manning Coles

1963

Written by Cyril Coles and Tom Hammerton.

A Tommy Hambledon novel.