Hugh Walpole

Born in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1884, Hugh Walpole was raised in a clerical family and educated in England, including at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. After a short period teaching, he turned to writing and built a remarkably prolific career as a novelist, critic, memoirist, and lecturer.

He found major success with Fortitude and went on to publish dozens of books, becoming one of the best-known British novelists of his day. His fiction often mixed sharp observation with a gift for atmosphere and plot, and later readers have been especially drawn to works such as The Cathedral and the Herries series.

Walpole was closely associated with the Lake District, where the landscape helped inspire some of his best-loved writing. He was appointed CBE, later knighted, and remained an energetic figure in British literary life until his death in 1941.