During a prolific literary career that spanned the reigns of five monarchs, Eden Phillpotts wrote novels, stage and radio plays, memoirs, essays, poetry, short stories, fables, and mystery fiction. He published his first book, My Adventure in the Flying Scotsman: A Romance of London and North-Western Railway Shares, in 1888, possibly as an advertisement of the railway. The evil half brother of the narrator steals his valuable railway shares. There is a fight on the train, but the hero is finally triumphant in the yards at Carlisle.

Phillpotts was still writing novels and radio plays in the 1950s, by which time his output totaled more than 250 books. He was successful from the beginning of his career. His first significant novel was Lying Prophets (1897), a work commended by James Payn, an influential editor and essayist. Children of the Mist (1898) sold in even greater numbers. It was praised by R. D...