Hugh Kingsmill was a biographer, critic, anthologist, and lover of English literature whose personality is enshrined in his own works and in the recollections of his friends Hesketh Pearson and Malcolm Muggeridge. Both men testified to the impact made upon them by Kingsmill, his robustness, wit, and humor, as well as his impatience with cant and affectation. These are precisely the qualities which animate Kingsmill's works. Michael Holroyd remarked that "behind the big names of twentieth-century literature there stands a shadow cabinet of writers waiting to take over once the Wind of Change has blown. My own vote goes to Hugh Kingsmill as leader of this opposition."

Hugh Kingsmill Lunn was born in London on 21 November 1889. He was the second son of Sir Henry Lunn, founder of the Lunn travel agency. Kingsmill did not enjoy his school days at Harrow; nor did he derive conspicuous benefit from his...