C S Forester was born in Cairo in 1899, where his father was stationed as a government official. He studied medicine as Guy’s Hospital, and after leaving Guy’s without a degree he turned to writing as a career. His first success was payment Deferred, a novel written at the age of twenty four and later dramatized and filmed with Charles Laughton in the leading role. In 1932 Forester was offered a Hollywood contact, and from then until 1939 he spent thirteen weeks of every year in America. On the outbreak of war he entered the Ministry of information and later he sailed with the royal Navy to collect the material for The Ship.