AustLit

C. K. Thompson was born and lived most of his life in the Hunter region of New South Wales. A journalist by profession, he was for several decades a court reporter and sub-editor at the Newcastle Sun.

He drew on this experience in writing a number of books of crime fiction and courtroom humour. Some of his novels are set in the Hunter region, but promotional material for The Tram Ticket Mystery suggests settings 'in streets, police courts, and buildings that many people in Australia and New Zealand will be able to identify.' Thompson's work experience also informed his books of courtroom humour, Yes, Your Honour! offering a collection of anecdotes from Australian and overseas court cases.

Thompson also wrote children's books for Dymock's 'Australian Books for Boys and Girls' series. An amateur naturalist, he acknowledged the writer Will Lawson as the source of much of his material for these books. These are animal stories with melodromatic plots that employ 'sympathetic humans . . . to keep the plots moving, to interpolate lessons on natural science and conservation, and to castigate those who keep wild animals or birds in captivity.' (Saxby, 171)

Thompson was president of the Northern NSW Federation of Justices of the Peace from 1948 until his death in 1980. He wrote A Guide for Justices of the Peace that appeared in its fourth edition in 1983.