Bruce was a close friend of Kingsley Amis. Both had been at St John’s, together with Philip Larkin.
Bruce was regarded as wealthy. He was already composing musical scores for British movies. Kingsley would say jokingly that while he and Larkin had to drink beer in The Bird and Baby (aka The Eagle and Child, a famous Oxford pub, used by the Inklings et al), Bruce drank whisky in the elegant environs of the Randolph Hotel.
Indeed, Bruce would invite me to drink with him in the Randolph. He always picked up the bill. With his whiskies would go Canadian Club. The Randolph kept a supply of Canadian Club especially for Bruce, I became curious and asked him, Why Canadian Club?
He answered with some scorn at my lack of knowledge. “It advertises on the back cover of Astounding, of course.”
Of course. Astounding was sacred screed in those days, in the fifties.
Some times we drank in the Thistle Hotel in Abingdon, where Bruce’s girl friend lived. She was persuaded to draw a frontispiece for my first collection of short stories. Bruce compiled fantasy anthologies, under the name Edmund Crispin, in competition with me.
Bruce, despite his success, seemed a lonely person. I went with him on the train down to Totnes where he had a comfortable house equipped with two grand pianos. Bruce would settle in First Class and immediately tip the train attendant generously. When I questioned this foible, he said it was to guarantee good service all the way.
Harry Harrison and I once drove down to explore Stonehenge. We got there at 4 p.m. This was autumn, and the country was growing dark. The vast monument was entirely wired off. We climbed the fence and roamed about, silent, bemused.
Next morning, before returning to Oxford, we called on Bruce. He was still in bed. We woke him. He crawled to the end of the bed. On a small table stood a whiskey bottle, its top off.
Bruce took a long swig. He then became ready to speak to us. I believe he had got married. The bride was not in evidence. One did not enquire.
He died in September 1978.
Bruce’s best known and loved crime novel was The Moving Toyshop.
