The writing career of Percy F. Westerman allegedly began with a sixpence bet made with his wife that he could write a better story than the one he was reading to his son, who was at the time ill with chickenpox.A Lad of Grit, his first book, was the result—a thrilling sea adventure first published by 1908. In the same year, Baden-Powell founded the Scouting movement, which strongly influenced many of Westerman''s books—he was a keen supporter of the Sea Scouts.
