Hammond Innes

Ralph Hammond Innes was born in Horsham, Sussex. Educated at Cranbrook School in Kent he left in 1931 to work as a journalist, initially with the Financial Times (at the time called the Financial News). The Doppelganger, his first novel was published in 1937. In WW II he served in the Royal Artillery, eventually rising to the rank of Major. During the war a number of his books were published including Wreckers Must Breathe (1940), Attack Alarm (1941) and Dead and Alive (1946). After being demobbed in 1946 he worked full-time as a writer, achieving a number of early successes. He had sixteen further novels published before 1960, producing books in a regular sequence of six months travel and research and then six months of writing, many featuring the sea. He rate of work was reduced from the 1960s but was still substantial, he became more interested in ecological themes. He continued writing until just before his death, his last novel was Delta Connection (1996).

four of his earlier novels were made into films - Snowbound (1948) from The Lone Skier (1947); Hell Below Zero (1954) from The White South (1949); Campbell's Kingdom (1957) from the book of the same name (1952); and The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959) also from the book of the same name (1956).