Reilly 51. This book not in Reilly. Tipped in: "The Naval Brigade", a poem; and an erratum slip


Edward Harold Begbie (1871–1929), also known as Harold Begbie, was an English author and journalist who published nearly 50 books and poems and contributed to periodicals. Besides studies of the Christian religion, Begbie wrote numerous other books, including political satire, comedy, fiction, science fiction, plays and poetry. At the outbreak of World War I Begbie wrote a number of recruiting poems and visited America on behalf of his paper. Some of the articles he wrote there were used as propaganda.

Before the First World War Begbie was an outspoken Liberal social reformist, but he moved rapidly to the right in the post-war period. The "Gentleman with a Duster" books denounce sexually suggestive literature (such as the early plays of Noel Coward), lament the precarious economic state of the middle classes and the prospective disintegration of the British Empire, and call for a strong hand against left-wing subversives even if this means restricting some traditional British liberties.