Angus Reach
| Angus Bethune Reach | |
|---|---|
| Born | 23 January 1821 Inverness |
| Died | 25 November 1856 (aged 35) Camberwell Green |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Inverness Academy, Edinburgh University |
| Years active | 1841–1855 |
| Notable credit(s) | Morning Chronicle, Punch, Illustrated London News |
Angus Bethune Reach (23 January 1821 – 15 November 1856) was a 19th-century British writer, noted for both his journalism and fiction. He was an acquaintance of such contemporary novelists as William Makepeace Thackeray and Edmund Yates, and counted the journalist and novelist Shirley Brooks as his greatest friend.
Reach was born in Inverness, Scotland, to solicitor Roderick Reach and his wife Ann. He attended school at Inverness Academy, beginning early in life to contribute a series of articles to the local Inverness Courier. Following a short period of study at Edinburgh University he moved in 1841 to London, where he gained a job as a court reporter for the Morning Chronicle newspaper. Reach's early duties included coverage of events at the Old Bailey and later the House of Commons, before he gained greater recognition contributing to an investigative journalism series on the conditions of the urban poor in the manufacturing districts of England. He subsequently became the Chronicle's arts critic, a post he held for over ten years.
In addition to his work for the Chronicle, Reach wrote the gossip column Town and Table Talk for the Illustrated London News and corresponded from London for the Inverness Courier. He later joined the staff of the celebrated satirical journal Punch, having contributed previously to two of its rivals, The Man In The Moon and The Puppet Show. He developed a reputation as a humourist, including for his satires The Comic Bradshaw and The Natural History of Humbugs.
Reach's novel, originally serialised as Clement Lorimer, or, The Book with the Iron Clasps, ran in monthly instalments through 1848–9, before being collected in a single volume and later republished in two parts as Leonard Lindsay, or, The Story of a Buccaneer. The work, a crime thriller set in the world of horseracing, has been described as a "template for the pulp tradition." He also published works of travel writing, including Claret and Olives, an account of a tour of France originally serialised in the Chronicle.
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