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Ian Maclaren was the pen name for the Rev. Dr John Watson who was born in Manningtree, Essex on 3rd November 1850.

Watson was educated at Stirling in Scotland before studying at Edinburgh University. After graduating he then trained as a Free Church minister at New College in Edinburgh, as well as undertaking postgraduate studies at Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany a renowned centre for Theological and Religious Studies.

In 1874 he obtained his license from the Free Church of Scotland and became assistant minister of Edinburgh Barclay Church.

The following year, 1875, he was ordained as minister at Logiealmond in Perthshire before in 1877, transferring to St Matthews Free Church in Glasgow.

In 1880 Watson became minister of Sefton Park Presbyterian Church in Liverpool and became a prime instigator for the founding of the Westminster College in Cambridge.

Watson published his first volume of short stories, ‘Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush’, about rural Scottish life in 1894, under the pseudonym Ian MacLaren; the book became a best-seller with sales of over 700,000 copies.

Further works followed including ‘The Days of Auld Lang Syne’ (1895), ‘Kate Carnegie and those Ministers’ (1896), and ‘Afterwards and other Stories’ (1898).

Several volumes of sermons, under his own name, were also published including ‘The Upper Room’ (1895), ‘The Mind of the Master’ (1896) and ‘The Potter''s Wheel’ (1897).

In 1896 he was made the Lyman Beecher lecturer at Yale University, and in 1900 he was moderator of the synod of the English Presbyterian Church.

Whilst travelling in the United States he died from blood poisoning, following a bout of tonsillitis, on 6th May at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. He was 56.

His body was repatriated to England, and buried in Smithdown Cemetery in Liverpool.

George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier was born on 6th March 1834 in Paris.

Du Maurier was brought up believing his aristocratic grandparents fled France during the Revolution, leaving vast estates behind in France. However, his grandfather was only a tradesman who left Paris in 1789 to avoid charges of fraud and changed the family name to du Maurier.

He studied art in Paris before moving to Antwerp, Belgium where he lost the sight of his left eye. On consulting an oculist in Düsseldorf, Germany, he met his future wife, Emma Wightwick.

On 3rd January 1863, he married Emma at St Marylebone, Westminster. Over the next few years they had five children and several house moves.

He joined the satirical magazine Punch in 1865 and drew two cartoons a week. Du Maurier commonly made fun of the affected manners of Victorian society, the bourgeoisie and members of the expanding middle class.

As well as his black-and-white cartoons for Punch, he freelanced for several other periodicals: Harper''s, The Graphic, The Illustrated Times, The Cornhill Magazine, and the religious periodical Good Words. His reputation was such that he was also asked to illustrate several novels.

Owing to his deteriorating eyesight, du Maurier reduced his involvement with Punch in 1891. The family moved to Hampstead, and du Maurier began work on his life as a novelist. His first, ‘Peter Ibbetson’ (1891), was a modest success on publication and later adapted to a film, and an opera.

His second novel ‘Trilby’ appeared in 1894. Its publication coincided perfectly with the gothic horror revival and the book was hugely popular becoming the best-selling book of 1895. The story of the poor artist''s model Trilby O''Ferrall, transformed into a diva under the spell of the evil musical genius Svengali, created a sensation. It spawned soap, songs, dances, toothpaste, and even the city of Trilby in Florida, to be named after its heroine. The soft felt hat with an indented crown that was worn in the London stage production is still known as a trilby.

His third novel, a long, mainly autobiographical piece, ‘The Martian’, was published after his death in 1898.

George du Maurier died on 8th October 1898 at age 62 in Hampstead, London.

Francis Hopkinson Smith was born in Baltimore, Maryland on October 23rd, 1838, the grandson of Francis Hopkinson, a signatory to the Declaration of Independence.

Smith was educated at the Boys'' Latin School of Maryland and from there he built a very successful career as author, painter and engineer.

Initially he became a contractor in New York City and worked mainly for the federal government, helping to build the stone ice-breaker at Bridgeport, Connecticut, the jetties at the mouth of the Connecticut River, the foundation for the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, and many other works.

Smith liked to travel both within the US and abroad: to Cuba, Mexico, Venice, Constantinople, Spain and the Netherlands. On these trips he sketched and painted much of what he saw. His paintings of these times still command good prices at auctions.

As a writer his initial focus was on travelogues before branching out into short stories and novels.

And it was as a novelist that he created two sensational books, each becoming the best-selling work of fiction in their year of publication: ‘Tom Grogan’ (1896) and ‘Caleb West’ (1898)

Francis Hopkinson Smith died at the age of 76 on April 7th, 1915.

Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz was born on May 5th 1846, into an impoverished Polish noble family in Russian-ruled Congress Poland.

He normally published under the shortened version as Henryk Sienkiewicz.

It was only in 1866 that he completed his secondary-school diploma. At first he tried to study medicine, then law, at the Imperial University of Warsaw, but he soon transferred to the university''s Institute of Philology and History, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of literature and Old Polish language. His living circumstances meant he was living in poverty and existing only by tutoring the children of other families. In 1868 his circumstances improved when he became tutor to the princely Woroniecki family.

In 1869 his analysis of a play was published in the Weekly Review and shortly afterward The Illustrated Weekly printed his essay about the late-Renaissance Polish poet Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński.

Sienkiewicz completed his university studies in 1871, though he failed to receive a diploma because he did not pass the examination in Greek language. However, he was gaining some traction writing for such publications as Gazeta Polska (The Polish Gazette) and Niwa (magazine), under the pen name ‘Litwos’. In 1873 he began writing a column, ‘Bez tytułu’ (Without a title), in The Polish Gazette and, in 1874, one for Niwa, ‘Sprawy bieżące’ (Current matters), and in 1875 the column, ‘Chwila obecna’ (The Present Moment). He also collaborated on a Polish translation, published in 1874, of Victor Hugo''s last novel, ‘Ninety-Three’. In June of the same year he became co-owner of Niwa.

This was followed by ‘Humoreski z teki Woroszyłły’ (Humorous Sketches from Woroszyłła''s Files, 1872), ‘Stary Sługa’ (The Old Servant, 1875), ‘Hania’ (Sienkiewicz) (1876) and ‘Selim Mirza’ (1877). These last three are known as the ‘Little Trilogy’. Together these publications made him a prominent figure in Warsaw''s journalistic-literary world.

In the late 1870s he traveled to the United States, writing many travel essays which helped win him further popularity with Polish readers.

From the 1880s he also began serializing his novels and soon became one of the most popular Polish writers of the 19th and 20th centuries. His numerous translations gained him international renown.

In Poland he is best known for his ‘Trilogy’ of historical novels – ‘Fire and Sword’, ‘The Deluge’, and ‘Sir Michael’ all set in the 17th-century Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

However, in the rest of the world his fame is set with ‘Quo Vardis’ an epic in length and scope and set in Emperor Nero''s Rome. It easily became the best-selling book of 1897, a enduring and literary sensation.

In 1905 he won a Nobel Prize for his lifetime achievements as an epic writer. In his acceptance speech, he said this honor was of particular value to a son of Poland: "She was pronounced dead—yet here is proof that she lives on.... She was pronounced defeated—and here is proof that she is victorious."

Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz died on 15th November 1916, at the Grand Hotel du Lac in Vevey, Switzerland from ischemic heart disease.

Francis Hopkinson Smith was born in Baltimore, Maryland on October 23rd, 1838, the grandson of Francis Hopkinson, a signatory to the Declaration of Independence.

Smith was educated at the Boys'' Latin School of Maryland and from there he built a very successful career as author, painter and engineer.

Initially he became a contractor in New York City and worked mainly for the federal government, helping to build the stone ice-breaker at Bridgeport, Connecticut, the jetties at the mouth of the Connecticut River, the foundation for the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, and many other works.

Smith liked to travel both within the US and abroad: to Cuba, Mexico, Venice, Constantinople, Spain and the Netherlands. On these trips he sketched and painted much of what he saw. His paintings of these times still command good prices at auctions.

As a writer his initial focus was on travelogues before branching out into short stories and novels.

And it was as a novelist that he created two sensational books, each becoming the best-selling work of fiction in their year of publication: ‘Tom Grogan’ (1896) and ‘Caleb West’ (1898)

Francis Hopkinson Smith died at the age of 76 on April 7th, 1915.

Edward Noyes Westcott was born on September 27th, 1846 in Syracuse, New York.

His career offered two successful trajectories. The first was as a banker. The second was as the author of ‘David Harum, A Story of American Life’.

In 1895 Westcott contracted chronic tuberculosis and his rehabilitation necessitated a long absence from work.

Eager to fill the long hours and days he set to work on a novel. Set in upstate New York ‘David Harum’ focuses on his central character, a small-town banker and horse trader and his life philosophy expressed in the 19th Century dialect of rural central New York.

The manuscript was rejected by six publishers before it came to Ripley Hitchcock at D. Appleton & Company, an eclectic New York publisher in December 1897. Ripley asked for permission to make several minor changes to the book. Westcott agreed, the changes were made and plans for publication agreed.

Sadly, Edward Noyes Westcott died on March 31st, 1898. The book was published six months later in the fall of 1898. It sold an incredible 400,000 copies and became the best-selling book of 1899.

Mary Johnston was born in the small town of Buchanan, Virginia on November 21st, 1870. As a child she suffered from frequent illness and was educated at home by family and tutors. At times books were her solace and her devotion.

When Mary was 16, her father''s work on the railroad meant a move to Birmingham, Alabama. There Mary attended the Atlanta Female Institute and College of Music in Atlanta, Georgia. However, she only attended for three months and this was the only formal education she received.

After her mother''s death in 1889, Mary was both her father''s companion and took responsibility for bringing up her five younger siblings.

Mary’s first book dealt with Colonial times in Virginia and was published in 1898. ‘Prisoners of Hope’ was followed by another in the same vein in 1900; ‘To Have and to Hold’ was extremely successful and became the best-selling book of the year.

It was the beginning of a long line of further best-sellers, though none reached the commercial heights of ‘To Have and To Hold’. In all Mary wrote 23 novels, numerous short stories, two long narrative poems, and one play.

Her 1913 publication ‘Hagar’ eloquently captures the early days and struggles of women’s rights and is thought of today as one of the first feminist novels.

Mary’s writing and observation was so acute that even her friend Margaret Mitchell, author of ‘Gone with the Wind’, was moved to say "I hesitate to write about the South after having read Mary Johnston."

An early and active member of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia (ESL), Mary chaired the ESL''s legislative and lecture committees and served as vice president from 1911 to 1914.

Mary’s deep attachment to female suffrage is preserved in her letters and correspondence. Her writings in support of women''s suffrage appeared in national publications, including the Atlantic Monthly and Woman''s Journal and Suffrage News.

On May 9th 1936, at age 65, Mary Johnston died of Bright''s disease at her home in Warm Springs, Virginia.

Winston Churchill was born on November 10th, 1871 in St. Louis, Missouri, to parents Edward Spalding Churchill and Emma Bell Blaine. Tragically his mother died soon after his birth, and he was thereafter raised by Emma’s half-sister, Louisa and her husband.

He was educated at Smith Academy in Missouri and the United States Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1894. Whilst there he was recognised as a diligent student who took part in the complete range of offered activities. He became an expert fencer and also organized and captained, at Annapolis, the first eight-oared crew.

After leaving he became an editor of the Army and Navy Journal.

In 1895, Churchill became managing editor of the Cosmopolitan Magazine, but within twelve months he resigned in order to pursue his own writings full time.

Despite his own background of privilege and money this move to a literary career was undoubtedly supported in every way by his marriage in 1895 to the St Louis heiress, Mabel Harlakenden Hall.

However, despite the support of his wife and her monies, the motivation necessary for a full-time literary career was easily available to him given the scope of his talents. In time his writings would cover a spectrum from novels to poems to essays and plays.

His first novel to appear in book form was ‘The Celebrity’ (1898). However, ‘Mr Keegan''s Elopement’ had been published in 1896 as a magazine serial and only as a hardback in 1903. Churchill''s next novel—''Richard Carvel’ (1899)—was a phenomenal success, selling two million copies. It brought fame, a very appreciative audience and riches. He followed this with two further best sellers: ‘The Crisis’ (1901) and ‘The Crossing’ (1904).

These early novels were historical, but he gradually moved to setting later ones in more contemporary settings and to include his political ideas.

In the 1890s, Churchill''s writings came to be confused with those of the British writer/politician with the same name. At that time, the American was the far better known of the two. It fell to the Englishman to write to his counterpart regarding the confusion their name was causing. They agreed that the British Churchill should be styled "Winston Spencer Churchill", this was later reduced to the more familiar "Winston S. Churchill".

In 1898, Churchill commissioned a mansion, designed by Charles Platt, to be built in Cornish, New Hampshire. The following year he and his family moved there. It was named after his wife: Harlakenden House.

Churchill was keen on both the local art; he became involved in the Cornish Art Colony and its politics; he was elected to the state legislature, as a Republican, in 1903 and 1905.

In 1906 a tilt at the Republican nomination for governor of New Hampshire was unsuccessful. In 1912, he was nominated as the Progressive candidate for governor but again lost and thereafter never sought public office again.

In 1917, he toured the battlefields of World War I and wrote about the experience in his first non-fiction work: ‘A Traveller In War-Time’.

Sometime after this he started to paint in watercolors. Again his talents were ably demonstrated and he became known for his landscapes.

His books regularly topped the best seller lists. Publisher’s Weekly had begun to collate sales in the late 1890’s and between 1901-1915 he topped the Bestseller of the year charts six times.

In 1919, Churchill decided to stop writing and withdrew from public life. His sales fell and he became slowly forgotten. In 1940, ‘The Uncharted Way’, his first book in twenty years, based on his thoughts on religion, was published. It received little attention or sales.

After fifty years of marriage Mabel died in 1945.

Shortly before his death Churchill said, "It is very difficult now for me to think of myself as a writer of novels, as all that seems to belong to another life."

Winston Churchill died in Winter Park, Florida, on March 12th 1947 of a heart attack. He was 75.

Owen Wister was born on July 14th, 1860, in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Wister was educated for a brief time at schools in Switzerland and Britain before studying at St. Paul''s School in Concord, New Hampshire and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a member of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals and wrote its most successful show, ‘Dido and Aeneas’, the proceeds from which aided in the construction of their theater. Wister graduated from Harvard in 1882.

Wister began his literary work in 1882, publishing ‘The New Swiss Family Robinson’, a parody of the 1812 novel ‘The Swiss Family Robinson’. It was well received and praised by Mark Twain.

He now turned to expectations of a career in music and spent two years studying at a Paris conservatory. That avenue did not succeed and so he worked briefly at a bank in New York before studying law at Harvard Law school from where he graduated in 1888. He practiced with a Philadelphia firm but was never truly interested in pursuing that career. He was interested in politics, however, and was a staunch supporter of his school friend, U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt.

Wister had spent several summers in the American West, making his first trip to the Territory of Wyoming in 1885, planning to shoot big game, fish trout, meet the Indians, and spend nights in the wild. He was fascinated with the culture, lore and terrain of the region. Over the years as his various forays at careers panned out, he began to contemplate a career in writing. His early works were politely received but in reality, he was searching for a grand landscape on which to base his ideas.

It seemed to take some time in developing the obvious.

In 1898, he married his cousin, Mary Channing, and the union produced six children. Sadly, Mary died giving birth to the sixth child in 1913.

When he started writing, Wister inclined towards fiction set on the western frontier, his grand landscape. His most famous work remains the 1902 novel ‘The Virginian’, a complex mixture of people, places and events dramatized from experience, word of mouth, and his own imagination – ultimately creating the quintessential cowboy, who is a natural aristocrat, set against a highly mythologized version of the Johnson County War, and taking the side of the large landowners.

In 1904 Wister collaborated with Kirke La Shelle on turning ‘The Virginian’ into a play. It featured Dustin Farnum in the title role and ran successfully on stage. A decade later Farnum reprised the role in Cecil B. DeMille''s film.

Wister was a member of several literary societies, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University.

Owen Wister died on July 21st, 1938 at his home in Saunderstown, Rhode Island.

Mary Augusta Ward CBE (née Arnold) was born on 11th June 1851 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Her uncle was the famed poet Matthew Arnold.

When Mary was five the family returned to England. Mary now spent much of her time with her grandmother or at boarding schools before, at 16, returning to live with her parents at Oxford, where her father lectured in in history. Her schooldays were the basis for a later novel, ‘Marcella’ (1894).

On 6th April 1872, Mary married Humphry Ward, a fellow and tutor of Brasenose College, and a writer and editor. Mary was very proficient with languages; French, German, Italian, Latin and Greek. She was also developing an interest in education. After learning Spanish in 1877 she began the writing the lives of a large number of early Spanish ecclesiastics for the Dictionary of Christian Biography. Her translation of ‘Amiel''s Journal’ was published in 1885. All her published works were as Mrs Humphry Ward.

Mary wrote many articles for Macmillan''s Magazine over the years, a useful income whilst she wrote books. Her first, a children’s book ‘Milly and Olly’ (1881). In 1884 came ‘Miss Bretherton’, the story of an actress. Her novels were infused with strong religious tones of the Victorian age which she herself practiced. Mary’s popularity was widespread and in the United States her book ‘Lady Rose''s Daughter’ was the best-seller in 1903, and ‘The Marriage of William Ashe’ of 1905. Her most popular novel was ‘Robert Elsmere’, which narrated the emotional conflict between the young pastor Elsmere and his wife, whose parochial orthodoxy brings her faith and their love to a terrible impasse.

Mary helped found an organisation for working and teaching among the poor and worked as an educator in the residential settlement movements she set up. Mary declared aim was "equalisation" in society. However, she was also a significant campaigner against women getting the vote. In 1908 she was asked to be the founding president of the Women''s National Anti-Suffrage League. Mary took on the job and edited the Anti-Suffrage Review. She published many articles on the subject, and two of her novels, ‘The Testing of Diana Mallory’ and ‘Delia Blanchflower’, were used to criticise the suffragettes. In a 1909 Times article she opinioned that constitutional, legal, financial, military, and international problems were problems only men could solve.

During World War I, Mary was asked by the former US President Theodore Roosevelt to write articles to explain to Americans what was happening in Britain. Her work resulted in three books; ‘England''s Effort - Six Letters to an American Friend’ (1916), ‘Towards the Goal’ (1917), and ‘Fields of Victory’ (1919).

Mary was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1919.

Mary Augusta Ward died in London on 24th March 1920.

Winston Churchill was born on November 10th, 1871 in St. Louis, Missouri, to parents Edward Spalding Churchill and Emma Bell Blaine. Tragically his mother died soon after his birth, and he was thereafter raised by Emma’s half-sister, Louisa and her husband.

He was educated at Smith Academy in Missouri and the United States Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1894. Whilst there he was recognised as a diligent student who took part in the complete range of offered activities. He became an expert fencer and also organized and captained, at Annapolis, the first eight-oared crew.

After leaving he became an editor of the Army and Navy Journal.

In 1895, Churchill became managing editor of the Cosmopolitan Magazine, but within twelve months he resigned in order to pursue his own writings full time.

Despite his own background of privilege and money this move to a literary career was undoubtedly supported in every way by his marriage in 1895 to the St Louis heiress, Mabel Harlakenden Hall.

However, despite the support of his wife and her monies, the motivation necessary for a full-time literary career was easily available to him given the scope of his talents. In time his writings would cover a spectrum from novels to poems to essays and plays.

His first novel to appear in book form was ‘The Celebrity’ (1898). However, ‘Mr Keegan''s Elopement’ had been published in 1896 as a magazine serial and only as a hardback in 1903. Churchill''s next novel—''Richard Carvel’ (1899)—was a phenomenal success, selling two million copies. It brought fame, a very appreciative audience and riches. He followed this with two further best sellers: ‘The Crisis’ (1901) and ‘The Crossing’ (1904).

These early novels were historical, but he gradually moved to setting later ones in more contemporary settings and to include his political ideas.

In the 1890s, Churchill''s writings came to be confused with those of the British writer/politician with the same name. At that time, the American was the far better known of the two. It fell to the Englishman to write to his counterpart regarding the confusion their name was causing. They agreed that the British Churchill should be styled "Winston Spencer Churchill", this was later reduced to the more familiar "Winston S. Churchill".

In 1898, Churchill commissioned a mansion, designed by Charles Platt, to be built in Cornish, New Hampshire. The following year he and his family moved there. It was named after his wife: Harlakenden House.

Churchill was keen on both the local art; he became involved in the Cornish Art Colony and its politics; he was elected to the state legislature, as a Republican, in 1903 and 1905.

In 1906 a tilt at the Republican nomination for governor of New Hampshire was unsuccessful. In 1912, he was nominated as the Progressive candidate for governor but again lost and thereafter never sought public office again.

In 1917, he toured the battlefields of World War I and wrote about the experience in his first non-fiction work: ‘A Traveller In War-Time’.

Sometime after this he started to paint in watercolors. Again his talents were ably demonstrated and he became known for his landscapes.

His books regularly topped the best seller lists. Publisher’s Weekly had begun to collate sales in the late 1890’s and between 1901-1915 he topped the Bestseller of the year charts six times.

In 1919, Churchill decided to stop writing and withdrew from public life. His sales fell and he became slowly forgotten. In 1940, ‘The Uncharted Way’, his first book in twenty years, based on his thoughts on religion, was published. It received little attention or sales.

After fifty years of marriage Mabel died in 1945.

Shortly before his death Churchill said, "It is very difficult now for me to think of myself as a writer of novels, as all that seems to belong to another life."

Winston Churchill died in Winter Park, Florida, on March 12th 1947 of a heart attack. He was 75.

Mary Augusta Ward CBE (née Arnold) was born on 11th June 1851 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Her uncle was the famed poet Matthew Arnold.

When Mary was five the family returned to England. Mary now spent much of her time with her grandmother or at boarding schools before, at 16, returning to live with her parents at Oxford, where her father lectured in in history. Her schooldays were the basis for a later novel, ‘Marcella’ (1894).

On 6th April 1872, Mary married Humphry Ward, a fellow and tutor of Brasenose College, and a writer and editor. Mary was very proficient with languages; French, German, Italian, Latin and Greek. She was also developing an interest in education. After learning Spanish in 1877 she began the writing the lives of a large number of early Spanish ecclesiastics for the Dictionary of Christian Biography. Her translation of ‘Amiel''s Journal’ was published in 1885. All her published works were as Mrs Humphry Ward.

Mary wrote many articles for Macmillan''s Magazine over the years, a useful income whilst she wrote books. Her first, a children’s book ‘Milly and Olly’ (1881). In 1884 came ‘Miss Bretherton’, the story of an actress. Her novels were infused with strong religious tones of the Victorian age which she herself practiced. Mary’s popularity was widespread and in the United States her book ‘Lady Rose''s Daughter’ was the best-seller in 1903, and ‘The Marriage of William Ashe’ of 1905. Her most popular novel was ‘Robert Elsmere’, which narrated the emotional conflict between the young pastor Elsmere and his wife, whose parochial orthodoxy brings her faith and their love to a terrible impasse.

Mary helped found an organisation for working and teaching among the poor and worked as an educator in the residential settlement movements she set up. Mary declared aim was "equalisation" in society. However, she was also a significant campaigner against women getting the vote. In 1908 she was asked to be the founding president of the Women''s National Anti-Suffrage League. Mary took on the job and edited the Anti-Suffrage Review. She published many articles on the subject, and two of her novels, ‘The Testing of Diana Mallory’ and ‘Delia Blanchflower’, were used to criticise the suffragettes. In a 1909 Times article she opinioned that constitutional, legal, financial, military, and international problems were problems only men could solve.

During World War I, Mary was asked by the former US President Theodore Roosevelt to write articles to explain to Americans what was happening in Britain. Her work resulted in three books; ‘England''s Effort - Six Letters to an American Friend’ (1916), ‘Towards the Goal’ (1917), and ‘Fields of Victory’ (1919).

Mary was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1919.

Mary Augusta Ward died in London on 24th March 1920.

Winston Churchill was born on November 10th, 1871 in St. Louis, Missouri, to parents Edward Spalding Churchill and Emma Bell Blaine. Tragically his mother died soon after his birth, and he was thereafter raised by Emma’s half-sister, Louisa and her husband.

He was educated at Smith Academy in Missouri and the United States Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1894. Whilst there he was recognised as a diligent student who took part in the complete range of offered activities. He became an expert fencer and also organized and captained, at Annapolis, the first eight-oared crew.

After leaving he became an editor of the Army and Navy Journal.

In 1895, Churchill became managing editor of the Cosmopolitan Magazine, but within twelve months he resigned in order to pursue his own writings full time.

Despite his own background of privilege and money this move to a literary career was undoubtedly supported in every way by his marriage in 1895 to the St Louis heiress, Mabel Harlakenden Hall.

However, despite the support of his wife and her monies, the motivation necessary for a full-time literary career was easily available to him given the scope of his talents. In time his writings would cover a spectrum from novels to poems to essays and plays.

His first novel to appear in book form was ‘The Celebrity’ (1898). However, ‘Mr Keegan''s Elopement’ had been published in 1896 as a magazine serial and only as a hardback in 1903. Churchill''s next novel—''Richard Carvel’ (1899)—was a phenomenal success, selling two million copies. It brought fame, a very appreciative audience and riches. He followed this with two further best sellers: ‘The Crisis’ (1901) and ‘The Crossing’ (1904).

These early novels were historical, but he gradually moved to setting later ones in more contemporary settings and to include his political ideas.

In the 1890s, Churchill''s writings came to be confused with those of the British writer/politician with the same name. At that time, the American was the far better known of the two. It fell to the Englishman to write to his counterpart regarding the confusion their name was causing. They agreed that the British Churchill should be styled "Winston Spencer Churchill", this was later reduced to the more familiar "Winston S. Churchill".

In 1898, Churchill commissioned a mansion, designed by Charles Platt, to be built in Cornish, New Hampshire. The following year he and his family moved there. It was named after his wife: Harlakenden House.

Churchill was keen on both the local art; he became involved in the Cornish Art Colony and its politics; he was elected to the state legislature, as a Republican, in 1903 and 1905.

In 1906 a tilt at the Republican nomination for governor of New Hampshire was unsuccessful. In 1912, he was nominated as the Progressive candidate for governor but again lost and thereafter never sought public office again.

In 1917, he toured the battlefields of World War I and wrote about the experience in his first non-fiction work: ‘A Traveller In War-Time’.

Sometime after this he started to paint in watercolors. Again his talents were ably demonstrated and he became known for his landscapes.

His books regularly topped the best seller lists. Publisher’s Weekly had begun to collate sales in the late 1890’s and between 1901-1915 he topped the Bestseller of the year charts six times.

In 1919, Churchill decided to stop writing and withdrew from public life. His sales fell and he became slowly forgotten. In 1940, ‘The Uncharted Way’, his first book in twenty years, based on his thoughts on religion, was published. It received little attention or sales.

After fifty years of marriage Mabel died in 1945.

Shortly before his death Churchill said, "It is very difficult now for me to think of myself as a writer of novels, as all that seems to belong to another life."

Winston Churchill died in Winter Park, Florida, on March 12th 1947 of a heart attack. He was 75.

Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker, 1st Baronet PC, now better known as Gilbert Parker, was born on 23rd November 1862 at Camden East, Addington, Ontario.

Parker initial career path was as a teacher, initially at Marsh Hill and Bayside schools in Hastings County and then at the Ontario Institute for the Deaf and Dumb in Belleville before lecturing at Trinity College.

In 1886, he began to travel extensively, firstly to Australia, becoming the associate editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, and then across the Pacific, the South Sea Islands, Europe, Asia, Egypt and finally northern Canada.

By the early 1890s he had settled in London and was becoming known as a writer of romantic fiction.

Parker’s initial forays into novels were based on his knowledge of the history and life of the French Canadians. Indeed, his literary reputation is now enshrined in the fine descriptive and dramatic qualities of his Canadian stories.

In December 1895 he married a wealthy heiress, Miss Amy VanTine of New York City.

Parkers Canadian heritage and journeys to other parts of the British Empire had made him a devout Imperialist and contributed to a growing interest, and then election, as an MP in the British House of Commons as a Conservative member for Gravesend in 1900. He remained their MP until 1918.

In 1902 he was knighted by King Edward for his services to Canadian literature. Politically he made his reputation with work on Tariff Reform and Imperial Preference.

In 1907 ‘The Weavers’ was published to a phenomenal reception and became the best-selling book of that year.

Parker also became recognised for his poetry, in particular the sonnet ‘Reunited’. Sir Edward Elgar set three of his other poems: ‘Oh, soft was the song’, ‘Twilight’, ‘Was it some Golden Star?’ to music.

During World War I he helped organise British publicity toward the United States. He was created a baronet on 21st June 1915 and appointed as a Privy Councillor in 1916.

Much of Parker’s literary work was adapted and used for films in the infant movie business.

Gilbert Parker died in London, England on 6th September 1932.

Winston Churchill was born on November 10th, 1871 in St. Louis, Missouri, to parents Edward Spalding Churchill and Emma Bell Blaine. Tragically his mother died soon after his birth, and he was thereafter raised by Emma’s half-sister, Louisa and her husband.

He was educated at Smith Academy in Missouri and the United States Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1894. Whilst there he was recognised as a diligent student who took part in the complete range of offered activities. He became an expert fencer and also organized and captained, at Annapolis, the first eight-oared crew.

After leaving he became an editor of the Army and Navy Journal.

In 1895, Churchill became managing editor of the Cosmopolitan Magazine, but within twelve months he resigned in order to pursue his own writings full time.

Despite his own background of privilege and money this move to a literary career was undoubtedly supported in every way by his marriage in 1895 to the St Louis heiress, Mabel Harlakenden Hall.

However, despite the support of his wife and her monies, the motivation necessary for a full-time literary career was easily available to him given the scope of his talents. In time his writings would cover a spectrum from novels to poems to essays and plays.

His first novel to appear in book form was ‘The Celebrity’ (1898). However, ‘Mr Keegan''s Elopement’ had been published in 1896 as a magazine serial and only as a hardback in 1903. Churchill''s next novel—''Richard Carvel’ (1899)—was a phenomenal success, selling two million copies. It brought fame, a very appreciative audience and riches. He followed this with two further best sellers: ‘The Crisis’ (1901) and ‘The Crossing’ (1904).

These early novels were historical, but he gradually moved to setting later ones in more contemporary settings and to include his political ideas.

In the 1890s, Churchill''s writings came to be confused with those of the British writer/politician with the same name. At that time, the American was the far better known of the two. It fell to the Englishman to write to his counterpart regarding the confusion their name was causing. They agreed that the British Churchill should be styled "Winston Spencer Churchill", this was later reduced to the more familiar "Winston S. Churchill".

In 1898, Churchill commissioned a mansion, designed by Charles Platt, to be built in Cornish, New Hampshire. The following year he and his family moved there. It was named after his wife: Harlakenden House.

Churchill was keen on both the local art; he became involved in the Cornish Art Colony and its politics; he was elected to the state legislature, as a Republican, in 1903 and 1905.

In 1906 a tilt at the Republican nomination for governor of New Hampshire was unsuccessful. In 1912, he was nominated as the Progressive candidate for governor but again lost and thereafter never sought public office again.

In 1917, he toured the battlefields of World War I and wrote about the experience in his first non-fiction work: ‘A Traveller In War-Time’.

Sometime after this he started to paint in watercolors. Again his talents were ably demonstrated and he became known for his landscapes.

His books regularly topped the best seller lists. Publisher’s Weekly had begun to collate sales in the late 1890’s and between 1901-1915 he topped the Bestseller of the year charts six times.

In 1919, Churchill decided to stop writing and withdrew from public life. His sales fell and he became slowly forgotten. In 1940, ‘The Uncharted Way’, his first book in twenty years, based on his thoughts on religion, was published. It received little attention or sales.

After fifty years of marriage Mabel died in 1945.

Shortly before his death Churchill said, "It is very difficult now for me to think of myself as a writer of novels, as all that seems to belong to another life."

Winston Churchill died in Winter Park, Florida, on March 12th 1947 of a heart attack. He was 75.

William Benjamin Basil King was born on February 26th, 1859, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

After graduating from the University of King''s College in Nova Scotia, King served as an Anglican rector at St. Luke''s Pro-Cathedral in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and then Christ Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

After retiring from the clergy due to poor eyesight and a thyroid disease King took to writing. It was a very successful change of career and he achieved a number of best-selling works.

His fourth published work was ‘The Inner Shrine’ and was originally published anonymously. It became the best-selling book of 1909. It related the story of a French-Irish girl whose husband is killed in a duel.

His fascination with the spiritual world increased as he grew older and he wove it into the narratives of his novels. In ‘The Abolishing of Death’ (1919) King wrote about the transmission of messages from a deceased chemist. He moved closer to the parallels in his own life with ‘The Conquest of Fear’ (1921) which reflected his own struggle with ill health and his later spiritual growth, together with an explanation for his mystical approach to religious understanding.

Basil King died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 22, 1928.

Florence Louisa Charlesworth was born on 2nd December 1862 in Limpsfield, Surrey, England, one of three sisters.

In 1881, Florence married the Rev. Charles W. Barclay and they honeymooned in the Holy Land, where, in Shechem, they reportedly discovered Jacob''s Well, which according to the Gospel of St John, Jesus met the woman of Samaria (John 4-5).

The couple settled in Hertford Heath, Hertfordshire, where she fulfilled the necessary duties of being a rector''s wife. The couple had eight children.

Florence encountered a bout of ill-health that left her bed-ridden in her early forties. To while away the time she began to write again (she had previously published under a pen name in 1891 but then stopped). From this new beginning came the novel ‘The Wheels of Time’. Her next novel, ‘The Rosary’, a story of undying love, was published in 1909 to acclamation and massive sales. It was translated into eight languages and was the best-selling novel of 1910. It was also used as the basis for five motion pictures.

Florence eventually wrote eleven books in all, including one that was non-fiction.

Florence Louisa Barclay died on 10th March 1921 at the age of fifty-eight.

John Jeffery Farnol was born on 10th February 1878 in Aston, Birmingham, England.

Farnol’s childhood years were spent in London and Kent. After losing his job with a Birmingham metal-working company he returned to London and enrolled in the Westminster School of Art.

In 1900, he married Blanche Wilhelmina Victoria Hawley. She was only 16 and the daughter of the noted New York scenic artist H. Hughson Hawley. The couple decided to live in the United States, and Farnol found work as a scene painter. They had one daughter.

Obviously, life as a scene-painter was low-key and Farnol had writing talent. He published his first novel ‘My Lady Caprice’ in 1907. This moderate success was followed by ‘The Broad Highway’, a publishing sensation, which became the best-selling book of 1911.

Over his career he wrote some 40 novels and volumes of short stories together with some non-fiction and children''s books. Primarily he is known as a romantic writer of Georgian Era or English Regency.

In 1938 Farnol divorced, and married Phyllis Mary Clarke and adopted her daughter, Charmian Jane.

Jeffery Farnol died aged 73 on 9th August 1952 in Eastbourne, UK, after a long struggle with cancer.

Gene Stratton-Porter was born on August 17th 1863 as Geneva Grace Stratton in Wabash County, Indiana.

Gene was entirely self-taught as well as being highly skilled as both a nature photographer and naturalist.

Her first attributed novel was ‘The Song of the Cardinal’ (1903), about a red bird living along the Wabash River. The book explained how birds lived in their habitats and also included her photographs. It was a modest success.

For her next novel ‘Freckles’, Gene decided to combine nature and romance. Published in 1904 it became a best-seller.

Sales of her third novel, ‘At the Foot of the Rainbow’ in 1907, about two friends who enjoy fishing and trapping, were lackluster.

‘A Girl of the Limberlost’ (1909), which was highly successful and her best-known work to date brought her worldwide recognition.

As a successful author publishers were keen to tie her down to a long-term contract. In 1910, she signed a long-term agreement with Doubleday, Page and Company to publish one manuscript each year, alternating between novels and non-fiction nature books.

In 1911 came her wildly successful ‘The Harvester’, based on David Langston, who harvests and sells medicinal herbs, and Ruth Jameson, who embodies his ideal partner. It reached number one on the best-seller list in 1912.

Another best-seller followed in 1912 with ‘Laddie: A True Blue Story’. It was written while she helped supervised construction of her home at Sylvan Lake in Noble County, Indiana.

Whilst Gene continued to write her sales figures began their inexorable decline: ‘Michael O''Halloran’ (1915), ‘A Daughter of the Land’ (1918), ‘Her Father''s Daughter’ (1921), ‘The White Flag’ (1923), ‘The Keeper of the Bees’ (1925) and ‘The Magic Garden’ (1927) were the last of her novels. The latter two were written at her home on Catalina Island and published posthumously.

In 1919, after recovering from a serious bout of influenza and completing her nature book ‘Homing with the Birds’ (1919), she decided to move to Los Angeles. The sunshine and better social activities appealed to her. She continued to write novels and poetry, and in addition, a series of monthly articles for McCall''s magazine. For McCall’s she wrote so much that it was able to continue publishing for 3 years after her death.

Gene wrote somewhere in the order of twenty-six published books including twelve novels, eight nature studies, two books of poetry, and four collections of stories and children''s books.

In 1924 dissatisfied with the results of her novels that were being turned into films she founded Gene Stratton-Porter Productions, Inc., one of the first female-owned studios. It produced two films before her untimely death.

Gene Stratton-Porter died on December 6th, 1924 from injuries sustained in a car crash at the age of sixty-one, in Los Angeles, California.

Harold Bell Wright was born in Rome, New York on May 4th 1872. Wright had little to say that was good about his alcoholic father and his early years as he dragged "his wife and children from place to place, existing from hand to mouth, sinking deeper and deeper, as the years passed, into the slough of wretched poverty." His mother though introduced him to the great stories of literature and to appreciate the beauty of nature.

When Wright was 11, his mother died and his father abandoned them. Life was now time spent living with various relatives or strangers. He found odd jobs but frequently slept rough. In his late teens he found regular employment painting both pictures and houses but then turned to the Church. After two years at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio, Wright became a minister for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Pierce City, Missouri and then pastored in Pittsburg, Kansas; Forest Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri; Lebanon, Missouri; and Redlands, California.

In 1902, while at the Church in Pittsburg, Kansas, he wrote a melodramatic story, ‘That Printer of Udell''s’, to be read to his congregation. His church however serialised and published it in The Christian Century, their official journal. Wright despaired at the version printed but his parishioners encouraged him to write more. He took their advice. His second novel ‘The Shepherd of the Hills’ (1907) sold a million copies and established him as a best-selling author.

In 1909, pastors across America were incensed by his novel ‘The Calling of Dan Matthews’, which told a similar story to Wright’s of a young preacher who resigns from the ministry in order to retain his integrity. They saw it as an attack on the Church but he that the Church was not doing its job properly. The book quickly sold a million copies.

Wright now resigned as pastor and dedicated his life to full time literature. In 1911, he published ‘The Winning of Barbara Worth’, a historical novel set in the Imperial Valley of southeastern California. Another million-seller.

With his next novel ‘The Eyes of the World’, Wright had the best-selling book of 1914 and another million-seller. He was a literary phenomenon and although today largely ignored he is one of the best-selling writers of all time.

From 1914 to about 1933 Wright lived mostly in Tucson, Arizona and then from 1935 until his death in 1944, he lived on his ‘Quiet Hills Farm’ near Escondido, California.

Between 1902 and 1942 Wright wrote 19 books, several stage plays, and a number of magazine articles.

For Wright though health was a major issue and increasingly so. He had struggled for most of his life with lung disease.

Harold Bell Wright died of bronchial pneumonia on May 24th, 1944 in Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, California.

Booth Tarkington was born in America’s Mid-West in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 29th, 1869.

He is one of only three novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize on more than one occasion. When you look through the quality of his work it is easy to understand why. ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’, ‘Alice Adams’, ‘Penrod’ – all classics. The Penrod novels depict a typical upper-middle class American boy of 1910 vintage, revealing a fine, bookish sense of American humor. At one time, his Penrod series was as well-known and as highly regarded as Mark Twain’s ‘Huckleberry Finn’.

Much of Tarkington''s work consists of satirical and closely observed studies of the American class system and its foibles. Coming as he did from a patrician Midwestern family that lost much of its wealth after the Panic of 1873 the foundations for that outlook are clear.

Today, he is best known for his novel ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ but almost every book he published is a consummate literary example of his brilliance. Few authors can rival that.

Booth Tarkington was born in America’s Mid-West in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 29th, 1869.

He is one of only three novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize on more than one occasion. When you look through the quality of his work it is easy to understand why. ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’, ‘Alice Adams’, ‘Penrod’ – all classics. The Penrod novels depict a typical upper-middle class American boy of 1910 vintage, revealing a fine, bookish sense of American humor. At one time, his Penrod series was as well-known and as highly regarded as Mark Twain’s ‘Huckleberry Finn’.

Much of Tarkington''s work consists of satirical and closely observed studies of the American class system and its foibles. Coming as he did from a patrician Midwestern family that lost much of its wealth after the Panic of 1873 the foundations for that outlook are clear.

Today, he is best known for his novel ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ but almost every book he published is a consummate literary example of his brilliance. Few authors can rival that.

Herbert George Wells was born on September 21st, 1866 at Atlas House, 46 High Street, Bromley, Kent. He was the youngest of four siblings and his family affectionately knew him as ‘Bertie’.

The first few years of his childhood were spent fairly quietly, and Wells didn’t display much literary interest until, in 1874, he accidentally broke his leg and was left to recover in bed, largely entertained by the library books his father regularly brought him. Through these Wells found he could escape the boredom and misery of his bed and convalescence by exploring the new worlds he encountered in these books.

From these humble beginnings began a career that was, after several delays, to be seen as one of the most brilliant of modern English writers.

Able to write comfortably in a number of genres he was especially applauded for his science fiction works such as The Time Machine and War of the Worlds but his forays into the social conditions of the times, with classics such as Kipps, were almost as commercially successful. His short stories are miniature masterpieces many of which bring new and incredible ideas of science fiction to the edge of present day science fact. Wells also received four nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature

Despite a strong and lasting second marriage his affairs with other women also brought the complications of fathering other children. His writings and work against fascism, as well as the promotion of socialism, brought him into increasing doubts with and opposition to religion. His writings on what the world could be in works, such as A Modern Utopia, are thought provoking as well as being plausible, especially when viewed from the distressing times they were written in.

His diabetic condition pushed him to create what is now the largest Diabetes charity in the United Kingdom. Wells even found the time to run twice for Parliament.

It was a long, distinguished and powerfully successful career by the time he died, aged 79, on August 13th, 1946.

Pearl Zane Grey was born January 31st, 1872, in Zanesville, Ohio. From an early age, he was intrigued by history, fishing, baseball, and writing, all of which would stimulate his later success.

Grey was an avid reader of adventure stories, consuming dime store novels by the dozen. By age fifteen he had written his first story; Jim of the Cave. His father, a difficult man, tore it to shreds and then beat him.

He and his brother were keen fisherman and baseball players with aspirations of playing in the major leagues. Eventually, Grey was spotted by a baseball scout and received offers from colleges.

Grey took up an offer from the University of Pennsylvania to studied dentistry. Naturally arriving on a scholarship really meant you had to be able to play. He rose to the occasion by playing against the Riverton club, pitching five scoreless innings and a double in the tenth which tied down the win.

Sports scholarship kids can be average scholars. Grey certainly was. He preferred to spend his time outside class not trying to raise his grades but playing baseball, swimming, and writing.

At university he was shy and teetotal, more of a loner than a party animal. Grey struggled with the idea of becoming a writer or baseball player for his career, but unhappily resolved that dentistry was the practical choice.

Grey set up his dental practice in New York as Dr. Zane Grey after graduating in 1896. Though a dentist his real ambition now was to be a writer and New York had lots of publishers. Evenings were set aside for writing to offset the tedium of his dental practice.

His first magazine article, "A Day on the Delaware," a human-interest story about a Grey brothers’ fishing expedition, was published in the May 1902 issue of Recreation magazine.

After some rejections he wrote his first Western, The Heritage of the Desert in 1910. It was the breakthrough. It quickly became a bestseller. Here was Grey’s over arching themes; Manifest Destiny, the conquest of the Old West, and men wrestling with elemental conditions.

Two years later Grey produced his best-known book, Riders of the Purple Sage (1912), his all-time best-seller. With its publication Zane Grey became a household name.

Grey started his association with Hollywood when William Fox bought the rights to Riders of the Purple Sage for $2,500 in 1916. His writing career would now rise in sync with that of the movie industry.

During the crash and subsequent depression of the 1930s, the publishing industry was hard work. Sales fell off. Serializations were harder to sell. Grey was lucky. He had avoided investing in the Stock Market, he was still writing and very popular and continued to earn royalty income. This also coincided with the time that nearly half of the film adaptations of his novels were made.

Zane Grey died of heart failure on October 23rd, 1939, at his home in Altadena, California. He was interred at the Lackawaxen and Union Cemetery, Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania.

Harry Sinclair Lewis was born on February 7th, 1885 in the village of Sauk Centre, Minnesota.

Throughout his lonely boyhood, the ungainly Lewis—tall, extremely thin, stricken with acne and somewhat pop-eyed—had trouble gaining friends and pined after various local girls. By 13 he had unsuccessfully ran away from home, in an attempt to become a drummer boy in the Spanish-American War.

In late 1902 Lewis left home for a year at Oberlin Academy to qualify for acceptance by Yale University. While at Oberlin, he developed a religious enthusiasm that waxed and waned for much of his remaining teenage years. He entered Yale in 1903 but did not receive his bachelor''s degree until 1908, having taken time off to work at Helicon Home Colony, Upton Sinclair''s cooperative-living colony in Englewood, New Jersey, and to travel to Panama. Lewis''s unprepossessing looks, "fresh" country manners and seemingly self-importance made it difficult for him to win and keep friends but a number of students and professors made the effort, some of whom recognized his promise as a writer.

Lewis''s earliest published creative work—romantic poetry and short sketches—appeared in the Yale Courant and the Yale Literary Magazine, of which he became an editor. After graduation Lewis moved location and jobs constantly in an effort to make ends meet whilst writing fiction for publication.

In working for newspapers and publishing houses he developed a knack for churning our short popular stories for a variety of magazines. It was a very popular choice for writers whilst engaged on the gestation of the Great American novel. He also earned money by selling plots to Jack London, including one for the latter''s unfinished novel The Assassination Bureau, Ltd.

Lewis''s first published book was Hike and the Aeroplane, a Tom Swift-style pot-boiler that appeared in 1912 under the pseudonym Tom Graham.

By 1914 the first of his serious works was published—Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man, followed the following year by The Trail of the Hawk: A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life, and in 1917, The Job. That same year also saw the publication of another pot-boiler, The Innocents: A Story for Lovers, an expanded version of a serial story that had originally appeared in Woman''s Home Companion. Free Air, another refurbished serial story, was published in 1919.

In 1930, he became the first author from the United States to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters."

Sinclair Lewis died in Rome on January 10th, 1951, aged 65, from advanced alcoholism. His cremated remains were buried in Sauk Centre, Minnesota.

Arthur Stuart-Menteth Hutchinson was born on 2nd June 1879 in India, where his father was stationed at the time.

More frequently known by his initials A. S. M., Hutchinson became the editor of the London illustrated newspaper, The Daily Graphic.

As a writer his initial forays were published, but with only moderate success. With a number of years between releases it took him some time to find an audience for his romance and family novels.

In 1922 he published ‘If Winter Comes’, in many respects it was ahead of its time, taking on such difficult issues as an unhappy marriage, eventual divorce, and an unwed mother who commits suicide. But it found a huge audience and became the best-selling book of 1922.

A.S.M. was never afraid to invite controversy and that same year his novel ‘This Freedom’ was seen by many in the women''s rights movement as an anti-feminist novel. He was widely criticised and widely defended. It also became one of the best-sellers of 1923 and 1924.

He continued to write and garner sales. In 1930 his wife gave birth to a boy, Simon. A.S.M. was so delighted that he wrote a book all about it ‘The Book of Simon’.

A.S.M. Hutchinson died on March 14th, 1971, at age 91 in Uckfield, Sussex, England.