Hammond Innes, Ralph

▪ British author

pseudonyms  Ralph Hammond  or  Hammond Innes  

born July 15, 1913, Horsham, Sussex, Eng.

died June 10, 1998, Kersey, Suffolk

      English novelist and traveler known for adventure stories in which suspense and foreign locations are prominent features.

      Hammond Innes began his career in teaching and publishing. He worked for the newspaper Financial News from 1934 to 1940 and served in the British Royal Artillery from 1940 to 1946. He traveled widely and had a lifelong love of yachting, and in 1978 he was made a Commander of the British Empire.

      His books often pit characters against an extreme environment—such as the sea, polar regions, or desert—in some trial they must endure in order to be redeemed. Hammond Innes's best-known books include The White South (1949), Campbell's Kingdom (1952), The Wreck of the “Mary Deare” (1956), The Doomed Oasis (1960), Atlantic Fury (1962), The Conquistadors (1969), The Black Tide (1982), High Stand (1985), Medusa (1988), Isvik (1991), and Delta Connection (1996). He also wrote television and motion-picture scripts, and several of his books have been made into films.

* * *