Simon Dale

Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, as Anthony Hope (9 February 1863 - 8 July 1933), was a British novelist and playwright. He was a prolific writer, particularly of adventure stories, yet he is best known for only two works: The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) and its sequel Rupert of Hentzau (1898). These writings, considered "minor classics" of English literature, are set in the contemporaneous fictional kingdom of Ruritania and gave rise to the Ruritanian romance genre, which includes books set in fictional European places comparable to the novels. Zenda has inspired numerous adaptations, most notably the 1937 Hollywood film of the same name and the 1952 remake. Hope attended St John's School, Leatherhead, Marlborough College, and Balliol College, Oxford. In an intellectually distinguished career at Oxford, he earned first-class honours in Classical Moderations (Literis Graecis et Latinis) in 1882 and Literae Humaniores ('Greats') in 1885. Hope studied law and became a barrister in 1887, when the Middle Temple called him to the Bar. He studied under the future Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, who saw him as a potential barrister but was disillusioned by his decision to pursue a career in writing.