Joseph Hocking

Born on November 7, 1860, in St Stephen-in-Brannel, Cornwall, Joseph Hocking became known both as a novelist and as a United Methodist Free Church minister. He wrote prolifically in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, building a wide readership with fiction that blended drama, faith, and regional atmosphere.

Many of his novels are closely connected to Cornwall, and that local setting helped give his work its distinctive character. Alongside his literary career, his background in ministry shaped the moral and spiritual themes that run through much of his writing.

He died on March 4, 1937. Though not as widely read today as he once was, he remains a notable figure in Cornish literature and in the tradition of popular Victorian and Edwardian storytelling.