Publisher's Synopsis
George Alfred Henty (8 December 1832 - 16 November 1902) was a prolific English novelist and war correspondent.He is best known for his historical adventure stories that were popular in the late 19th century. His works include The Dragon & The Raven (1886), For The Temple (1888), Under Drake's Flag (1883) and In Freedom's Cause (1885).Biography--G.A.Henty was born in Trumpington, near Cambridge. He was a sickly child who had to spend long periods in bed. During his frequent illnesses he became an avid reader and developed a wide range of interests which he carried into adulthood. He attended Westminster School, London, and later Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was a keen sportsman. He left the university early without completing his degree to volunteer for the Army Hospital Commissariat when the Crimean War began. He was sent to the Crimea and while there he witnessed the appalling conditions under which the British soldier had to fight. His letters home were filled with vivid descriptions of what he saw. His father was impressed by his letters and sent them to The Morning Advertiser newspaper which printed them. This initial writing success was a factor in Henty's later decision to accept the offer to become a special correspondent, the early name for journalists now better known as war correspondents. Shortly before resigning from the army as a captain in 1859 he married Elizabeth Finucane. The couple had four children. Elizabeth died in 1865 after a long illness and shortly after her death Henty began writing articles for the Standard newspaper. In 1866 the newspaper sent him as their special correspondent to report on the Austro-Italian War where he met Giuseppe Garibaldi. He went on to cover the 1868 British punitive expedition to Abyssinia, the Franco-Prussian War, the Ashanti War, the Carlist Rebellion in Spain and the Turco-Serbian War.He also witnessed the opening of the Suez Canal and travelled to Palestine, Russia and India. Henty was a strong supporter of the British Empire all his life; according to literary critic Kathryn Castle: "Henty...exemplified the ethos of the new imperialism, and glorified in its successes."Henty's ideas about politics were influenced by writers such as Sir Charles Dilke and Thomas Carlyle.Henty once related in an interview how his storytelling skills grew out of tales told after dinner to his children. He wrote his first children's book, Out on the Pampas in 1868, naming the book's main characters after his children. The book was published by Griffith and Farran in November 1870 with a title page date of 1871. While most of the 122 books he wrote were for children, he also wrote adult novels, non-fiction such as The March to Magdala and Those Other Animals, short stories for the likes of The Boy's Own Paper and edited the Union Jack, a weekly boy's magazine. Paul Hardy (baptised David Paul Frederick Hardy) (2 August 1862 nr Bath, Somerset - 2 January 1942 Storrington), was an English illustrator, well known for his regular illustrations in The Strand Magazine and his painting of "Canterbury Pilgrims" (1903), and his drawings were associated with the serials of the writer Samuel Walkey (1871-1953). Paul was the son of David Hardy, also an artist, as was his grandfather, all from an old Yorkshire family.Paul Hardy received his education in Clifton, West Yorkshire. He settled in Chelsea, London in 1886, and married in 1888, whereupon he moved back into the country, living at The Cottage, Church Street, Storrington.He designed and made the original galleon weathervane, now kept inside St Mary's church in Storrington. Hardy's illustrations were used in many magazines and books, such as The Story of Susan by Alice Dudeney (1903). (Hardy's affair with Alice Dudeney contributed to the separation of the Dudeneys in 1913).
