William Hope Hodgson was born on 15th November 1877 in Blackmore End near Braintree in Essex, the son of an Anglican priest and the second of 12 children. By the time he was 13 Hodgson ran away from his boarding school to become a sailor. He was caught and returned to his family, but was eventually allowed to be apprenticed for 4 years as a cabin boy. Bullying at sea caused him to take up self-defence through body-building which he would eventually...