About the Author

Rayner Unwin spent his working life in book publishing. He succeeded his father Sir Stanley Unwin as Chairman of George Allen & Unwin Ltd in 1968. But before he became a publisher, towards the end of the Second World War, he served on tank landing ships in the Far East. His experience of life in the navy sparked a life-long interest in seafaring, inspiring two of the five books he was to later write, The Defeat of John Hawkins and A Winter away from Home. After the war he completed his degree at Oxford, going on to study English Literature as a Post Graduate at Harvard. As a publisher he edited many distinguished authors including Roald Dahl and JRR Tolkien with whom he developed a close friendship. He retired from book publishing in 1990 when Allen & Unwin was taken over by HarperCollins. He died in 2000.