Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, who wrote all his fiction as Anthony Hope, is best known as the author of The Prisoner of Zenda (1894). While the popularity of this novel eclipsed that of all his other works, Hawkins also wrote more serious novels of analysis. All his work demonstrates a command of dialogue and an acute observation of character. While Hawkins was one of the most popular novelists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, his popularity declined after World War I because he found invention more difficult as he grew older and because his novels worked best in a society with clear rules, whether observed or broken.

Anthony Hope Hawkins was born in Clapton on 9 February 1863, the second son and third child of the Reverend Edwards Comerford Hawkins and Jane Isabella Grahame Hawkins. Reverend Hawkins was headmaster of Saint John's Foundation School for the Sons of Poor...