Mason, A(lfred) E(dward) W(oodley) (1865–1948)

English novelist. He is best known for a tale of cowardice redeemed in the Sudan, The Four Feathers (1902) (filmed 1939); historical novels such as Fire Over England (1936); and a series featuring the popular detective Inspector Hanaud of the Paris Sûreté, including At the Villa Rose (1910), The Winding Stair (1923), The House of the Arrow (1924), The Prisoner of the Opal (1929), and The House in Lordship Lane (1946).

Mason was born in Dulwich, London, and educated at Dulwich College and Trinity College, Oxford. He worked as an actor, but gave up the stage to become a Conservative political agent; he also occupied himself with church work. He was Liberal member of Parliament for Coventry 1906–10 and a secret agent, with the rank of major, in World War I.

He produced his first novel, A Romance of Wastdale (1895) (which he afterwards suppressed), and in 1896 achieved success with his second, The Courtship of Morrice Buckler. Among other early novels were Running Water (1907), which describes the famous Brenva ice arête on Mont Blanc, and The Broken Road (1907), introducing Inspector Hanaud. Among his later novels are No Other Tiger (1927), The Dean's Elbow (1930), and Musk and Amber (1942).