Hornung, E(rnest) W(illiam) (1866-1921)

English novelist. Prompted by Conan Doyle, he created A J Raffles, the gentleman burglar, and his assistant Bunny Manders, in The Amateur Cracksman (1899). Further collections of adventure stories include Raffles (1901), A Thief in the Night (1905), and Mr Justice Raffles (1909).

Hornung was born in Middlesbrough, northeast England. He lived in Australia 1884-86 and later wrote two novels with an Australian background, A Bride from the Bush (1890) and The Boss of Taroomba (1894). Returning to England, he married a sister of Conan Doyle in 1893. During World War I he travelled in France with a mobile library for the use of the troops, and later wrote Notes of a Camp Follower on the Western Front (1919).