author
Hawley Smart
1833–1893
A soldier turned popular Victorian novelist, he brought cavalry life, racing, hunting, and clubland straight onto the page. Writing as Capt. Hawley Smart, he became known for fast-moving stories drawn from the worlds he knew first-hand.
1 Audiobook
Belles and Ringers
by Hawley Smart
About the author
Born in Dover on 3 June 1833, Henry Hawley Smart served in the British Army before becoming a novelist. He fought in the Crimean War, later served in India during the uprising of 1857, and also spent time in Canada. Those experiences gave his fiction a practical, lived-in feel that readers recognized at once.
He published under the name Capt. Hawley Smart and became a well-known writer of Victorian popular fiction. Contemporary accounts especially praised his realistic scenes of racing, hunting, and military life, and many of his novels draw on those circles with confidence and speed. Among his better-known titles are Breezie Langton, Bound to Win, and The Great Tontine.
Smart died in January 1893. Although he is less widely read now than some of his contemporaries, he remains an interesting figure for listeners who enjoy 19th-century fiction with soldiers, sportsmen, social rivalry, and plenty of momentum.