Martin Armstrong

Born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1882, Martin Donisthorpe Armstrong was educated at Charterhouse and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He served in France during the First World War, first with the Artists' Rifles and later as an officer in the Middlesex Regiment.

Armstrong began his career as a poet and was included in the final Georgian Poetry anthology, but he became better known for fiction. His novels and stories were praised for their elegance and restraint, and his work won major notice in the 1920s and 1930s, including the Prix Femina-Vie Heureuse for Parish Register.

He kept writing across poetry, novels, and short stories over a long career, and he died in 1974 in Sussex. Though he is less widely read now, he remains an appealing figure for listeners interested in finely crafted English literary fiction from the period between the wars.