Richard Hughes

Born in Weybridge, Surrey, in 1900, Richard Arthur Warren Hughes became one of the most distinctive British writers of the 20th century. He wrote across several forms—novels, plays, poems, short stories, and books for children—and built a reputation for elegant, surprising storytelling.

His best-known book, A High Wind in Jamaica (published in 1929, originally as The Innocent Voyage), remains the work most closely associated with him. He also wrote the much-admired play A Comedy of Danger, often noted as an early radio drama, along with later fiction including In Hazard and The Fox in the Attic.

Hughes died in 1976 near Harlech, Gwynedd, Wales. Though he published relatively little compared with some of his contemporaries, his writing has lasted because it feels both adventurous and psychologically observant, with a style that stays lively and readable.