A popular novelist best-known for Magnolia Street (1932) and The Glory of Elsie Silver (1945), Louis Golding was an avid traveler who wrote important travel narratives about the Mediterranean region and the Middle East. He was also a spokesperson for British Jews and principal opponent of anti-Semitic behavior. In addition to writing fiction and travel books, he was a poet, a lecturer, a Hollywood scriptwriter, a sportswriter, and an essayist.

Louis Golding was born in Manchester on 19 November 1895, the third son of Phillip and Yetta Golding. Golding described his early school days at Waterloo Road Elementary School in his novel The Pursuer (1936) and his later education at Manchester Grammar School in his first novel, Forward from Babylon (1920). During his schooldays he became known as a clever young poet. He wrote for the school magazine and won literary awards. In 1914 he received a scholarship from Manchester Grammar School to attend Queen's...