Books with title The Riddle of the Robin

Erskine Childers was an Irish nationalist who smuggled guns to Ireland in his yacht. Childers was executed during the Irish Civil War. Childers is now best remembered for writing The Riddle of the Sands in 1903. The Riddle of the Sands is a very influential novel in the genre of spy fiction. The book was extremely popular in the years leading up to World War I and is still widely read today. Many movies have been based off this classic book.

Edition perfect as a gift. "Together we repaired to the quay, where the pilot stood, looking like a genial ball of worsted, and bawled hoarse directions while we shifted the 'Dulcibella' to a berth on the farther shore close to the other vessels. We returned with our guns, and the interval for refreshments followed. It was just dusk when we sallied out again, crossed a stretch of bog-land, and took up strategic posts round a stagnant pond. Hans had been sent to drive, and the result was a fine mallard and three ducks. It was true that all fell to the pilot's gun, perhaps owing to Hans' filial instinct and his parent's canny egotism in choosing his own lair, or perhaps it was chance; but the shooting-party was none the less a triumphal success. It was celebrated with beer and music as before, while the pilot, an infant on each podgy knee, discoursed exuberantly on the glories of his country and the Elysian content of his life. 'There is plenty beer, plenty meat, plenty money, plenty ducks,' summed up his survey."

"The first real thriller." —Ken Follett While on a duck-hunting holiday sailing in the Frisian Isles, Carruthers and his friend Davies become suspicious of German naval activity off the North Sea Coast. The pair decide to investigate, are soon embroiled in a world of suspense and intrigue, and set about foiling nothing less than a plot to invade England. Initially published in 1903, this thriller proved a prescient vision of the Anglo-German conflict that was to culminate in World War I. This adventure is now regarded as the first—and one of the best—spy novels ever written, inspiring such later masters of the genre as John Buchan, Ian Fleming, and John le Carré.

Carruthers, a minor official in the Foreign Office, is contacted by an acquaintance, Davies, asking him to join in a yachting holiday in the Baltic Sea. Carruthers agrees, as his other plans for a holiday have fallen through. He arrives to find that Davies has a small sailing boat (the vessel is named Dulcibella, a reference to Childers's own sister of that name), not the comfortable crewed yacht that he expected. However Carruthers agrees to go on the trip and joins Davies in Flensburg on the Baltic, whence they head for the Frisian Islands, off the coast of Germany. Carruthers has to learn quickly how to sail the small boat.

Brimming with heart-stopping action, The Riddle of the Sands is one the earliest spy novels. This spell-binding story is set in the period before the start of the First World War. A gem of the thriller genre! While on a sailing trip in the Baltic Sea, two young adventurers-turned-spies uncover a secret German plot to invade England. Written by Childers—who served in the Royal Navy during World War I—as a wake-up call to the British government to attend to its North Sea defenses, The Riddle of the Sands accomplished that task and has been considered a classic of espionage literature ever since, praised as much for its nautical action as for its suspenseful spycraft. Robert Erskine Childers DSC was the author of the influential novel The Riddle of the Sands and an Irish nationalist who smuggled guns to Ireland in his sailing yacht Asgard. He was executed by the authorities of the nascent Irish Free State during the Irish Civil War. He was the son of British Orientalist scholar Robert Caesar Childers; the cousin of Hugh Childers and Robert Barton; and the father of the fourth President of Ireland, Erskine Hamilton Childers. Childers’s first published work seems to have been some light detective stories he contributed to the Cambridge Review while he was editor. His first book was In the Ranks of the C. I. V., an account of his experiences in the Boer War, but he wrote it without any thought of publication: while serving with the Honourable Artillery Company in southern Africa he composed many long, descriptive letters about his experiences to his two sisters, Dulcibella and Constance. They, together with Elizabeth Thompson, daughter of George Smith of the publishing house Smith, Elder and a friend of the family, edited the letters into book form. The print proofs were waiting for Childers to approve on his return from the war in October 1900 and Smith, Elder published the work in November. It was well-timed to catch the public’s interest in

The Riddle of the Sands is an espionage novel that was written by Erskine Childers. The book was published in 1903 and was extremely popular before World War I and it is seen as one of the most influential works in the genre of spy fiction. The book has been adapted into film and television. Erskine Childers was a British writer and Fenian revolutionary. Childers smuggled guns to Ireland and ended up being executed by the Irish Free State during the Irish Civil War. Childers is now best known for being the father of the fourth President of Ireland and for writing The Riddle of the Sands.