Anthony Hope

Anthony Hope Hawkins (1863–1933) was an English author and barrister educated at Balliol College, Oxford. While practicing law under future Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, he began writing fiction, gaining early critical acclaim for The Dolly Dialogues (1894). His massive success with The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) pioneered the Ruritanian romance genre and enabled him to become a full-time author. In 1908, he married Elizabeth Somerville. Knighted in 1918 for creating British state propaganda during World War I, Hope published over thirty works before dying of throat cancer in Surrey aged seventy.