Erskine Childers intended The Riddle of the Sands (1903) to be a warning, in the guise of a light adventure story, about England's vulnerability to invasion by sea. Today it is viewed by many as the first important British spy novel, a genre that runs from Childers to John Le Carré. Its steady popularity is reflected in numerous reprintings, including translation into French, American republication (1976), and a British film version (1979).

Robert Erskine Childers was born in London on 25 June 1870, the son of Anna Mary Henrietta Barton Childers and Robert Caesar Childers, the famous Orientalist. On the death of his father from consumption in 1876, Childers was sent from England to live with relatives at Glendalough House, County Wicklow, Ireland. He seemed destined to enjoy the privileged life of an Anglo-Irish gentleman. Educated at Haileybury and Trinity College, Cambridge, he became a clerk in the House of Commons and spent...