Percival Christopher Wren

Born in England, P. C. Wren is remembered chiefly as an adventure novelist whose most famous book, Beau Geste (1924), became an international success and was adapted for film more than once. He wrote many novels and story collections, often centered on soldiers, empire, and North Africa.

Wren's books are known for fast-moving plots, high drama, and a strong sense of honor and comradeship. The Beau Geste stories in particular became closely associated with the popular mythology of the French Foreign Legion, giving his work a place in the history of early 20th-century popular fiction.

Some reference sources disagree about details of his life, including his birth year, so it is safest to say that he lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and died in 1941. Whatever the biographical uncertainties, his influence as a writer of classic imperial adventure fiction is clear.