Edward Frederick Knight
| Edward Frederick Knight | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
23 April 1852 England |
| Died | 7 March 1925 (aged 72) England |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | British |
Edward Frederick (E. F.) Knight (23 April 1852 – 3 July 1925) was an English barrister, soldier, journalist, and author of 20 books, many based on his dispatches as a war correspondent.
Knight was born in England, and travelled with his family to British India at an early age. He was educated at Westminster School and Caius College, Cambridge, where he pursued legal studies. He was called to the Bar from Lincoln's Inn in 1879. However, he abandoned the legal profession to pursue a career in journalism instead, writing primarily for the Morning Post and The Times.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, while living in France at his fathers house in Honfleur he attempted to enlist with the French Army near Rouen, but was turned down as he was an alien. In 1878, he explored Albania and Montenegro, returning to the Balkans during the Russo-Turkish War.
In 1889 Knight sailed to the island of Trindade off the coast of Brazil in a 64-foot cutter named the Alerte. He was in search of treasure. (He had previously visited the island in his first boat the Falcon I). He wrote the book The Cruise of the Alerte about his journey with detailed descriptions of Trindade. He was an influence on children's author Arthur Ransome who used Knight's book Sailing to teach himself how to sail; and in the Swallows and Amazons series as a resource for his fictional characters, who often refer to Knight on Sailing. Ransome also used Knight's descriptions of Trindade as a model for his fictional Crab Island in the book Peter Duck.
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