Frederick Marryat was a novelist, for both adults and children, between Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. He was also known as Captain Marryat, naval hero of the great war with France, who went on to become a celebrated figure in Dickens' literary circle. A man about town, a journalist, duellist, courtier, and an acutely observant traveller in the United States, he finally settled as a farmer deep in the English countryside. This is his biography.