13 Facts About Anthony Hope

Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, better known as Anthony Hope, was a British novelist and playwright.

Anthony Hope was a prolific writer, especially of adventure novels but he is remembered predominantly for only two books: The Prisoner of Zenda and its sequel Rupert of Hentzau.

Anthony Hope trained as a lawyer and barrister, being called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1887.

Anthony Hope had time to write, as his working day was not overfull during these early years and he lived with his widowed father, then vicar of St Bride's Church, Fleet Street.

Anthony Hope stood as the Liberal candidate for Wycombe in the election of 1892 but was not elected.

Anthony Hope wrote 32 volumes of fiction over the course of his lifetime and he had a large popular following.

Anthony Hope went on a publicity tour of the United States in late 1897, during which he impressed a New York Times reporter as being somewhat like Rudolf Rassendyll: a well-dressed Englishman with a hearty laugh, a soldierly attitude, a dry sense of humour, "quiet, easy manners", and an air of shrewdness.

One of Anthony Hope's plays, The Adventure of Lady Ursula, was produced in 1898.

Anthony Hope wrote Tristram of Blent in 1901, The Intrusions of Peggy in 1902, and Double Harness in 1904, followed by A Servant of the Public in 1905, about the love of acting.

Anthony Hope wrote and co-wrote many plays and political non-fiction during the First World War, some under the auspices of the Ministry of Information.

Anthony Hope married Elizabeth Somerville in 1903 and they had two sons and a daughter.

Anthony Hope published an autobiographical book, Memories and Notes, in 1927.

Anthony Hope died of throat cancer at the age of 70 at his country home, Heath Farm at Walton-on-the-Hill in Surrey.