Edmund Barclay was, according to an interview in Wireless Weekly, 'born in India, taken to England, educated, and sent to the War' ('He Has Written', p.11). He left the Flying Corps in 1919, and began reporting for the Daily Mail. He founded his own newspaper, Brighter London, in 1921, but it lasted only nine months: to recoup costs, he 'began to avenge himself upon a cruel world by writing Sexton Blake stories, short splays, and articles on the South Coast in Summer' (ibid). He arrived in Australia in 1925, intending to stay for a year.
Barclay's career in Australian theatre was primarily in the area of radio, for which he wrote numerous plays and serials. The Australian Broadcasting Commission employed Barclay as a writer in 1933 under Lawrence H. Cecil, the head of drama production. The following year, while still at the ABC, Barclay and composer Varney Monk had their romantic musical, The Cedar Tree, staged in Melbourne under the auspices of F. W. Thring's EFFTEE productions. It played in Sydney the following year. Also involved in the creation of The Cedar Tree was Helen Barclay, who, along with Jock McLeod (and Varney Monk), provided the lyrics the music.
Throughout 1933, he wrote radio revues for the ABC Revue Company, sometimes in collaboration with other authors and almost always with music by Alf J. Lawrance.
In 1934 Barclay co-wrote the screenplay (with Gayne Dexter) for Ken G. Hall's motion picture adaptation of The Silence of Dean Maitland. Three years later Barclay provided the story for Hall's Lovers And Luggers (1937), having adapted the narrative from the novel by Gurney Slade.
Barclay's contribution to Australian radio drama includes Murder In The Silo, Job (adapted from the bible story), Spoiled Darlings, The Man Who Liked Eclairs (with Joy Harper), His Excellency Governor Shirtsleeves, The Ridge and The River (adapted from T. A. G. Hungerford's novel) and As Ye Sow. Barclay also adapted into radio dramas many novels, including The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, The Idiot and Les Miserables. Among his collaborations, too, was the song 'Night in the Bush' (1933), with music by Alfred J Lawrence.
Sources include:
'He Has Written 14 Radio Revues Since March', Wireless Weekly, 8 September 1933, pp.11-12.
