Geoffrey Household(1900-1988)

Educated at Clifton and Magdalen College, Oxford, novelist Geoffrey Household spent four years as a merchant banker in Romania. Bored, he left for Spain to sell bananas, and then arrived in the US in time for the Depression. After writing children's plays for US radio, he returned to the UK, but shortly afterward was traveling again, selling printer's inks in Europe and South America. Meanwhile, encouraged by "Atlantic Monthly" he started to write professionally. His first novel, "The Third Hour", appeared in 1937, followed by a collection of short stories. One of his most successful novels was 1937's "Rogue Male", but he was unable to profit from its success as he had already been posted to Romania as an intelligence officer by the time it appeared. He was later transferred to the Middle East and remained there until 1945, after which he had almost to start again as a writer.