Hugh Walpole

Biography

Hugh Walpole (1884–1941) was a New Zealand-born British novelist who became one of the most popular and prolific English writers of the early 20th century. Born in Auckland, he was educated in England and ordained before abandoning the church for writing. He published over thirty novels, including the Herries Chronicle, a four-volume family saga set in the English Lake District. During World War I he served with the Russian Red Cross, an experience that inspired The Dark Forest and The Secret City (which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize). Though enormously popular in his lifetime, his reputation has faded, though his Russian war novels retain critical respect.