{"id":22530,"date":"2026-04-09T10:00:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T14:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/?p=22530"},"modified":"2026-04-01T10:57:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:57:55","slug":"strange-escapes-by-h-bedford-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/2026\/04\/09\/strange-escapes-by-h-bedford-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Strange Escapes’ by H. Bedford-Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Strange Escapes<\/em> is another of H. Bedford-Jones<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s short story series from Blue Book<\/em><\/a> magazine. It is an eight-story series that appeared under his Gordon Keyne<\/strong> pseudonym and ran from February 1938 through September 1938. None of these stories were cover-featured, so a cover tied to his \u201cWarriors in Exile\u201d series from the January 1938 issue was used for the reprint volume from Steeger Books<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Strange<\/a>This adventure series tells of strange and thrilling escapes from prisons or captivity, with an interesting framing story. These are a mix of history and fiction. We meet a pair of convicts in the first story: Cotterel<\/strong>, an innocent man convicted of murder, and Manning<\/strong>, a forger. No first names are given. As Manning sees that Cotterel is thinking of escaping, which may fail and get him sent to Alcatraz, he tells him of a different escape in each story to lift his spirits.<\/p>\n

The first is centered around Mont St. Michel, also known as the “Ocean Bastille,” and one prisoner who works to escape. Bedford-Jones actually used this location twice for other stories: “Rodomont: A Romance of Mont St. Michel in the Days of Louis XIV” (Adventure<\/em><\/a>, Sept. 30, Oct. 10, and Oct. 20, 1925) and “The Ocean Bastille” (Popular Fiction Magazine<\/em><\/a>, February 1932).<\/p>\n

The second story uses the real story of the escape of Porfirio D\u00edaz<\/strong> (1830-1915), a Mexican general who became dictator of Mexico from 1876 to 1911. In 1862, he was captured in the Battle of Puebla by the French but escaped.<\/p>\n

The following stories tell of a man escaping from England\u2019s Fleet Prison, next a trio of Austrian soldiers during the Napoleonic era who escape along with a dog from the French, heading to Switzerland. Then we have a prisoner of France\u2019s Toulon prison colony who works to escape, next an Englishman who escapes from the Moroccans.<\/p>\n

In the next-to-the-last story, where we learn of a Confederate escaping from Union hands, Cotterel is released to get a new trial, thanks to the efforts of Manning. In the last story, Cotterel returns to visit Manning, and, in a twist, Cotterel tells Manning a story of Sir Sidney Smith<\/strong> (1764-1840) escaping from the French during the French Revolution. And he has engineered Manning\u2019s freedom from prison as well.<\/p>\n

Overall, this is yet another interesting series from Bedford-Jones. The framing device makes this series more interesting than just being a series of unconnected stories. And I like that he actually gives finality to Cotterel and Manning at the end.<\/p>\n

I have never been disappointed by anything I\u2019ve read by Bedford-Jones. Another winning series by him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Strange Escapes is another of H. Bedford-Jones\u2019s short story series from Blue Book magazine. It is an eight-story series that appeared under his Gordon Keyne pseudonym and ran from February 1938 through September 1938. None of these stories were cover-featured, so a cover tied to his \u201cWarriors in Exile\u201d series from the January 1938 issue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":22686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_has_post_settings":{"highlight_sharing":"default","image_sharing":"default","headline_sharing":"default"},"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Pulp Super-Fan looks at 'Strange Escapes' by H. Bedford-Jones.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[1,135,14],"tags":[619,546,153,2578,939],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-22530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pulps","category-reprints","category-review","tag-adventure","tag-blue-book","tag-h-bedford-jones","tag-popular-fiction-magazine","tag-steeger-books"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2026\/03\/strange-escapes-featured.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3eLo8-5Ro","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22530"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22721,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22530\/revisions\/22721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22530"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=22530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}