Max Afford

Malcolm R. Afford (8 April 1906 – 2 November 1954) known as Max Afford, was an Australian playwright and novelist.

Afford was born in Adelaide, South Australia, the youngest son of Robert D. Afford of "Glenleigh", Stamford street Parkside, an inner suburb.

He left school when he was 16, and started writing novels and plays.

He worked as a reporter at the News and Mail from 1926 to 1931.

His first story was published in Smith's Weekly in 1928.

A science fiction story, The Gland Men of the Island, appeared in Wonder Stories in January 1931.

Afford was one of the first contract writers to be engaged by the ABC.

After winning the centenary competition in Adelaide, he moved to Sydney in 1936, on contract to the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) as a playwright and producer in the Federal Productions Department.

In 1936 he won the Advertiser's centenary play competition with William Light The Founder (later titled Awake My Love).

His 'Jeffrey and Elizabeth Blackburn' novels included Blood on His Hands! (London, 1936) and Death's Mannikins (London, 1937).

Many were dramatised for radio, variously starring Peter Finch and Neva Carr Glyn, Nigel Lovell and Lyndall Barbour or Peter Finch and Bettie Dickson as the husband-and-wife detective team.

Afford wrote eight crime novels, usually employing English settings, and more than sixty radio and stage plays, usually stories of crime involving the sifting of situations that ultimately uncover the perpetrators.

He was considered somewhat of a pioneer of the "whodunit" in radio broadcasting.

In 1936, he won three playwriting awards, and was appointed Staff Dramatist by the ABC, with whom he was contracted for six years.

During this time he wrote 30 one-and-a-half-hour plays, 15 serials, more than 100 play adaptations, and produced a number of his own plays.

Max married Thelma Thomas on 16 April 1938 at St Michael's church, Vaucluse, Sydney.

Thelma, a costume designer whom he met on the set of Colonel Founder / Awake my Love two years earlier, was originally from Broken Hill, then Adelaide, and had moved to Sydney to design the costumes for the New South Wales sesqui-centenary pageant.

Max and Thelma did not have children.

From 1941 he wrote children's and adult radio serials including Hagen's Circus (800 episodes) for radio 2GB and 2UE.

In 1942, Afford resigned from the ABC and joined the radio station 2GB, for whom he wrote two long-running commercial serials: First Light Fraser (400 episodes), and Digger Hale's Daughters (208 episodes).

Afford's play Lady in Danger (1942), successfully produced at Sydney's Independent Theatre by Doris Fitton, was then staged by J. C. Williamson Ltd and was staged in the US, adapted to American tastes by Jack Kirkland.

The Broadway production received poor reviews and closed after 12 performances.

In 1945, Afford created an all-time record in Australian theatrical history by having two three-act plays presented professionally by the J. C. Williamson theatre company at the Theatre Royal, Sydney.

These two plays were Lady in Danger and Mischief in the Air, and were presented within two months of one another – a significant feat, as prior to the production of Lady in Danger, Williamson had not presented a locally written play for 20 years.

He also wrote Mischief in the Air and co-wrote with Ken G. Hall the story for the Columbia Film Corporation's film, Smithy (1946), based on the aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith.

Afford was president of the Sydney PEN Club in 1950.

His play, Dark Enchantment, toured England's provincial theatres in 1950.

Other radio plays included Lazy in the Sun and Out of This Nettle, and the long-running 1951 A.B.C. serial, Stranger Come In, which explored the subject of immigration.

In 1952, Afford signed a contract with the A.B.C. engaging his services as a radio writer for 26 weeks, during which time he was to write five 15-minute installments based on immigration, as a serial on 5 days of the week, twice per day if required.

Afford's radio plays and serials have been re-broadcast in Canada, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Poland, and Egypt.

Afford died of cancer on 2 November 1954 at Mosman, Sydney, and was cremated.

Thelma Afford survived him until 1996.

Numerous condolence letters from his friends, colleagues and admirers were sent to his wife from around Australia and from overseas including the US, the UK and Hong Kong.

Many are held in the Fryer Library at the University of Queensland and express sadness about his death, admiration for his literary achievement and regret for the great loss to the Australian literary world.

"Max was one of the sweetest, gayest and most endearing people I have ever encountered", Betty Roland wrote.

Tom Inglis Moore said, "He was such an attractive person in himself, and he had outstanding gifts. As a writer he was at the top of the profession as a dramatic writer for radio, a first-class craftsman. His stage plays showed that if he had gone on, he would have become an important playwright. I felt that Max had the talent to have gone even further in achievement. He had such a vitality that it is very hard to realize the truth."

Then Chairman of ABC, Sir Richard Boyer, wrote,"Max was not only the most valued contributor to some of the best of our broadcasts, but was held in great respect and affection by all of us in the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission)."

David Carver, the International Secretary and General Secretary of English PEN expressed gratitude for his contributions to Australian literary life: "The Sydney P.E.N. owed him a great deal for all the hard work and enthusiasm of his years as President."

Ernest William Burbridge, Representative of the British Council in Australia, wrote that "(Max) was so devoted to his art, and had such passionate belief in the cause of Drama."

Max Afford wrote three novels while in his twenties, which were later published in England and America.