Sidney Esmond

Sidney Esmond (nee Fredrick Rudd) was manager of a high street chemist in Bury St. Edmunds, journalist and a prolific writer of fiction, poetry and even an opera – now a lost work. Six of his novels were published during his life time -Verboten (Hutchinson 1940) being the first - as well as several short stories which appeared in various local newspapers round the country, including: The Daily Record and Mail, The Advertiser and Echo and The Star. He wrote on a range of subjects from World War Two – the setting for all but two of his published novels – to contemplation of the afterlife in his epic poem Death, which he wrote at the age of twenty-one. Several articles about Sidney, including reviews of his work, appeared in the regional press and his obituary in 1955 made the front page of The Bury Free Press. Despite courting the limelight, Fredrick Rudd was a private man, the most likely reason that he chose to write under a pseudonym. As per his wishes he was buried in an unmarked grave in the village of Ixworth, Suffolk; where he had raised his family. We at Xadrum choose to believe he wanted Fredrick .W. Rudd to fade into obscurity and let the works of Sidney Esmond be their own legacy.