Editing Val Guest (section)

==Early life and career==
Guest was born to John Simon Grossman and Julia Ann Gladys Emanuel in [[Sutherland Avenue]] in [[Maida Vale]], London. He later changed his name to Val Guest (officially in 1939).<ref>{{cite web |title=London Gazette |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/34614/supplement/2392/data.pdf |publisher=London Gazette}}</ref> His father was a [[jute]] broker, and the family spent some of Guest's childhood in India before returning to England. His parents divorced when he was young, but this information was kept from him. Instead he was told that his mother had died.<ref name="Val Guest">{{cite web |title=Val Guest |url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b9eef304b |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717061633/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b9eef304b |archive-date=2012-07-17 |work=BFI}}</ref> He was educated at [[Seaford College]] in Sussex, but left in 1927 and worked for a time as a bookkeeper.

Guest's initial career was as an actor, appearing in productions in London theatres. He also appeared in a few early sound film roles, before he left acting and began a writing career.

===Writer===
For a time, around 1934, he was the London correspondent for ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]'' (when the publication began a UK edition),<ref name="Gifford">{{cite web|last1=Gifford|first1=Denis|last2=Hearn|first2=Marcus|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/val-guest-478294.html|title=Val Guest|work=The Independent|date=15 May 2006|access-date=7 January 2015|location=London}}</ref><ref>[[Wheeler Winston Dixon]], Rutgers University Press, 11 July 2007, [https://books.google.com/books?id=bgXQ7qaC7nYC&dq=%22Film+Talk%22+%22Directors+at+Work%22+Dixon&pg=PR4 Film Talk: Directors at Work], Retrieved 10 November 2014 (see page 26 paragraph two), {{ISBN|978-0-8135-4077-1}}</ref> before beginning work on film screenplays for [[Gainsborough Pictures]].

This came about because the director [[Marcel Varnel]] had been incensed by comments Guest had made in his regular column, "Rambling Around", about the director's latest film. Challenged to write a screenplay by Varnel, Guest co-wrote his first script, which became ''[[No Monkey Business]]'' (1935) directed by Varnel.<ref name="Gifford"/> This was to be the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership between the two men.<ref name=ChibnallBFI /> Guest was placed under contract as a staff writer at Gainsborough's [[Islington Studios]] in Poole Street.<ref name="Gifford"/>

Guest wrote screenplays for the rest of the decade. His credits included ''[[All In (film)|All In]]'' (1936) for Varnel; ''[[Public Nuisance No. 1]]'' (1936); ''[[A Star Fell from Heaven (1936 film)|A Star Fell from Heaven]]'' (1936); ''[[O-Kay for Sound]]'' (1937) for Varnel with [[Crazy Gang (comedy group)|The Crazy Gang]]; ''[[Alf's Button Afloat]]'' (1938) with Flanagan and Allen. He also wrote the [[Will Hay]] comedies ''[[Oh, Mr Porter!]]'' (1937) and  ''[[Ask a Policeman]]'' (1939). He wrote ''[[Hi Gang! (film)|Hi Gang!]]'' (1941) for [[Ben Lyon]] and [[Bebe Daniels]].<ref name="Hawtree" /> Guest often worked with producer Ted Black.<ref name="edward">{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-film-moguls-ted-black/|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|date=1 December 2024|access-date=1 December 2024|title=Forgotten British Film Moguls: Ted Black}}</ref>