The McGuffin

5 November 1924 – 18 April 2019

John Griffith Bowen, born in Calcutta, India, was a British playwright and novelist. Bowen was the son of a British business manager working in India. He spent much of his childhood in England but returned to India during World War II, serving as a captain in the Maratha Light Infantry (1943–47). After attending Pembroke and St. Anthony’s College, Oxford (B.A., 1951; M.A., 1952), he went to Ohio State University for a year’s study. While there, he was revolted by the investigations of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. That experience inspired his first novel, *The Truth Will Not Help Us* (1956). Back in England, Bowen worked in journalism and advertising (1953–60) and was a television drama consultan…