Cirrus@Austlit

This thesis considers the relationship between authors, publishers and the First World War and the role they played in the development of mass thriller culture in Britain between 1898 and 1945. As a result of the First World War, the publishing trade altered the way readers consumed mass thriller fiction; in turn, this laid the basis for modern mass media. In the vanguard of these changes was Hodder Stoughton, a foremost British publisher of thriller fiction with its well known Yellow Jacket novels. An analysis of the publishing, sales and advertising records of Hodder Stoughton, and of the novels of its three principal authors, reveals the emergence of distinct genres of fiction and an aggressive approach to advertising that focused on the 'star novelist'. Notably, these thriller novels also had a huge circulation in Australia.