Egyptian-born English author who wrote the twelve-volume Horatio Hornblower series, as well as the 1935 novel The African Queen. Two of his other novels -- Flying Colours and A Ship of the Line -- received the prestigious James Tate Black Memorial Prize. After dropping out of his London secondary school, he traveled to the United States, where he spread British World War II-era propaganda to American citizens to encourage Americans to join the war effort.
