Stephen McKenna

Born in Beckenham, Kent, on 27 February 1888, Stephen McKenna became a remarkably productive novelist, publishing dozens of novels as well as nonfiction. He studied at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, and his first novel, The Reluctant Lover, appeared in 1912.

During the First World War he served in the War Trade Intelligence Department, and public life and international affairs would remain important parts of his writing. His best-known book, Sonia: Between Two Worlds (1917), helped make him a major popular success, and much of his fiction explored upper-class English society, often blending personal relationships with questions of politics and morality.

McKenna continued writing for many years and left behind a large body of work. He died on 26 September 1967. Though he is less widely read today than in his heyday, his novels still offer a vivid window into the social world and anxieties of his era.