DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Erskine Childers Author & Editor

Robert Erskine Childers was born in London to a Protestant Irish family. He wrote his only novel, The Riddle of the Sands, upon his return from the Second Boer War, for which he volunteered for action. He later became a fervent Irish nationalist, and was executed in 1922 by the authorities of the newly independent Irish Free State during the Irish Civil War.

Robert Giddings is a well-established literary critic who regularly reviews for many publications including the Sunday Times, the Guardian and the New Statesman.