Rafael Sabatini

Rafael Sabatini (Jesi, 1875 – Adelboden, Switzerland, 1950) was an Italian-born writer who made his career in English and became one of the best-known popular novelists of his era. Known for romance and adventure stories set mostly in earlier centuries, he is remembered today both for his books and for the many films made from them.

His parents were Italian and English opera singers, and he grew up speaking several languages after living with his grandfather in Britain and studying in Portugal and Switzerland. He chose English, his mother's language, because he believed the best stories were written in it. After a short spell in business he turned to writing, publishing short stories from the 1890s and his first novel in 1902. Success took about a quarter of a century to arrive, with Scaramouche in 1921, set in pre-revolutionary France, followed a year later by Captain Blood.

He wrote at a steady pace, often producing a book each year, with plots built from intrigue, duels, pirates and carefully researched history. During the Second World War he worked as a translator for British intelligence. In the early 1940s illness forced him to slow down, and he died in Switzerland in 1950.

His legacy lies chiefly in the swashbuckling historical novel, where later writers acknowledge his influence, and in the many film versions of his work, including the Errol Flynn adaptations of the 1930s and 1940s.