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]
Publications
His publications include:
Petre Family Portraits. Essex Record Office Publication No 26. 1956.
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