Horace Annesley Vachell was a prolific English author of novels, plays, short stories, essays, and autobiographies. Vachell was born on October 30, 1861, in Sydenham, Kent, as the eldest of three sons of erstwhile landowner Richard Tanfield Vachell (died 1868) of Coptfold Hall, Essex, and Georgina (died 1910), daughter of Arthur Lyttelton Annesley of Arley Castle, Staffordshire. He was a distant relative of Edward Lyttelton, a schoolmaster and preacher, and his brother Alfred Lyttelton, a politician, both sons of George Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton. Vachell was educated at Harrow and Sandhurst. After a brief stint in the Rifle Brigade, he moved to California and became a partner in a land company. He is supposed to have brought the game of polo to Southern California. After 17 years overseas, Vachell returned to England in 1900. He went on to write over 50 books of fiction, including The Hill (1905), a popular school story that depicts an idealized version of life at Harrow and the relationship of two boys.
