Silas K. (Silas Kitto) Hocking

Born in Cornwall in 1850, Silas Kitto Hocking became both a novelist and a Methodist preacher. He is best remembered for Her Benny (1879), a novel for young readers that became an enormous success and helped make his name known far beyond religious circles.

Hocking came from a notably literary family: his brother Joseph Hocking and his sister Salome Hocking were also novelists. Alongside his ministry, he built a remarkably productive writing career, publishing fiction that often reflected his religious beliefs, concern for working people, and gift for lively storytelling.

He died in 1935, leaving behind a large body of popular fiction that gives a clear sense of late Victorian and Edwardian moral and social reading tastes. For listeners today, his work offers a mix of earnest feeling, readable plot, and a strong sense of the world he wrote for.