George Alfred Henty was born near Cambridge in 1832, and educated at Westminster School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He volunteered for service in the Crimean War, and after some varied experiences adopted a journalistic career. He served as war correspondent of the _Standard_ during the Austro-Italian campaign of 1866, and was afterwards a correspondent in the Abyssinian War, the Franco-German War, the Ashanti War, &c. His first book for boys was published in 1868, and was followed by a long and very successful series, including _The Young Franc-Tireurs_ (1872), _In Times of Peril_ (1881), _Under Drake's Flag_ (1883), _With Clive in India_ (1884), _The Lion of the North_ (1886), _Orange and Green_ (1888), _The Lion of St. Mark_ (1889), _By Pike and Dyke_ (1890), _By Right of Conquest_ (1891), _With Moore at Corunna_ (1898), _With Kitchener in the Soudan_ (1903), and _With the Allies to Pekin_ (1904). He died in 1902.