Hector Bolitho

New Zealand writer Henry Hector Bolitho was born in Auckland in 1897. At 18 years of age he got a job as a reporter for a newspaper in New Zealand. In 1922 he moved to England, and it was there he published his first novel. He wrote extensively on historical matters, but especially the history of the British Royal Family. He traveled widely before the war, to Europe, Africa and North America, and during the war he became a Squadron Leader with the RAF--from 1939-45--in addition to being editor of the RAF Journal. Upon war's end he gave lecture tours of the US from 1947-49, then returned to England. He died in Brighton in 1974.