Anthony Hope

Born in London in 1863 as Anthony Hope Hawkins, he trained as a lawyer before fiction pulled him into literary fame. His breakthrough came with The Prisoner of Zenda in 1894, a hugely popular novel set in the fictional kingdom of Ruritania, followed by its sequel Rupert of Hentzau.

Although those books remain his best-known work, he was a prolific novelist and playwright. His fiction was especially associated with adventure, political intrigue, and romantic drama, and his success was strong enough that he eventually left legal practice behind.

He was later knighted, and he died in Surrey in 1933. Even now, he is remembered above all for the wit, pace, and irresistible high adventure of the Zenda stories.