Alfred Ollivant (1874 – 1927) was an English novelist best known for his children's classic Bob, Son of Battle. Ollivant also wrote about a dozen other novels ranging from small-scale cautionary tales to grand historical epics. Alfred Ollivant was born in Manchester, England, in 1874 and became an author after a horse-riding injury ending his brief military career. Bob, Son of Battle, his first novel, was published in 1898. Set in rural Cumbria, in northern England, the novel centers on a suspected sheepkilling collie Bob. Even though most of the book's dialogue is written in the Cumbrian dialect, it gained a popular following in the United States. Ollivant even published a sequel, Danny, in 1902. He was also a short story contributor to The Atlantic Monthly and the Boston Evening Transcript. Alfred Ollivant died in London on January 19, 1927.
Bibliography
- Bob, Son of Battle (complete name Owd Bob - Being the story of Bob, son of Battle, the last of the grey dogs of Kenmuir) (1898)
- Danny (1902)
- The Redcoat Captain: A Story of that Country (1907)
- The Gentleman: A Romance of the Sea (1908)
- The Taming of John Blunt (1911)
- The Royal Road (1912)
- The Brown Mare, and other studies of England under the cloud (1916)
- Boy Woodburn: A story of the Sussex Downs (1917)
- Two Men: A romance of Sussex (1919)
- One Woman: Being the second part of a romance of Sussex (1921)
- Devil Dare (1923)
- "Old For-ever": an epic of beyond the Indus (1923)
- Boxer & Beauty: A tale of two cart-horses (1924)
- Tomorrow (1927)
