The Lion of St. Mark

George Alfred Henty (1832–1902) was born in Trumpington, England. He studied at Cambridge but left without his degree to volunteer for service in the Crimean War. After several failed attempts at careers, he decided in 1865 to become a writer, beginning as a correspondent for the Standard. He wrote his first boys’ adventure, Out of the Pampas, in 1868, and its popularity spurred him to write some eighty more children’s books. Drawing on his own experiences fighting in the Crimean War and as a foreign correspondent in Europe and Africa, Henty fashioned stories for children that combined realism and what he called a “manly tone.” His novels encompass an array of times and places from the early days of Egypt to the mines of the California Gold Rush. He died in 1906, having left a legacy of 144 books and several short stories.

Geoffrey Howard (a.k.a. Ralph Cosham) (1936–2014) was a British journalist who changed careers to become a narrator and screen and stage actor. He performed in more than one hundred professional theatrical roles. His audiobook narrations were named “Audio Best of the Year” by Publishers Weekly, and he won seven AudioFile Earphones Awards, and in 2013 he won the coveted Audie Award for Best Mystery Narration for his reading of Louise Penny’s The Beautiful Mystery.