Erskine Childers (author)
Robert Erskine Childers, usually known as Erskine Childers, was an English-born Irish nationalist who established himself as a writer with accounts of the Second Boer War, the novel The Riddle of the Sands about German preparations for a sea-borne invasion of England, and proposals for achieving Irish independence.
Childers in uniform of the CIV, 1899
Driver Childers, Honourable Artillery Company
Molly Childers (left) and Mary Spring Rice (right) with rifles on Asgard, July 1914
Childers (second from left) together with members of the negotiation team in London
The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service is a 1903 novel by Erskine Childers. The book, which enjoyed immense popularity in the years before World War I, is an early example of the espionage novel and was extremely influential in the genre of spy fiction. It has been made into feature-length films for both cinema and television.
First edition