Under the pseudonym Peter Towry, Piper wrote a number of novels, including Trial by Battle (1959), a story based on his experiences as an officer in the Indian army, training in Bangalore and then seeing action against the Imperial Japanese Army in Malaya during World War II. He was subsequently a prisoner of war in Japan for three years.[8]
In 1945, Piper married Anne Horatia (1920–2017), daughter of Oliffe Richmond, classics professor at Edinburgh University. She was a novelist and playwright. They had three daughters – Evanthe, Ruth, and Emma –[9][10] and a son, theatre designer Tom Piper (born 1964).
Piper died in Wytham, Oxfordshire, on 29 December 1990.[2]
Publicationsedit
His publications include:
Petre Family Portraits. Essex Record Office Publication No 26. 1956.
The English Face. Thames & Hudson. 1957.
The Companion Guide to London. Collins. 1964.
As Peter Towry:
Richard said no ... Morrow. 1953.
It's Warm Inside. Chatto and Windus. 1953.
Lord Minimus, a Heroic Comedy. Chatto and Windus. 1955.
Trial by Battle. Hutchinson. 1959. (reprinted in 2019 by the Imperial War Museum but as by David Piper)[11]
Please Count Your Change. Macmillan. 1962.
Referencesedit
^"Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. p475: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948
^ ab"Piper, Sir David Towry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39819. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 16 October 2019. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)(subscription required)
^Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, Volume 95, Kelly's Directories, 1969, p. 1585
^"Oxford Slade Professors, 1870–present" (PDF). University of Oxford. 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 February 2015. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
^Piper, David (1956). Petre family Portraits. Essex Record Office Publication No 26.
R. J. B. Walker, 'Piper, Sir David Towry (1918–1990)', rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2007 accessed 5 March 2013
"Piper, Sir David (Towry)". Who's Who & Who Was Who. Vol. 1920–2008 (November 2012 online ed.). A & C Black. Retrieved 5 March 2013. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)