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Hadleigh Nub News delves into the life of former Kersey resident, novelist Hammond Innes.

Born Ralph Hammond Innes, he was born on July 15 1913 in Horsham, Surrey. He went to school at Feltonfleet School where he was head boy and later at Cranbrook School in Kent.

After leaving school, in 1931, he worked as a journalist, initially with the Financial News. Just six years later, his first novel named "Doppelganger" was published in 1937.

During World War II, he served in the Royal Artillery, eventually rising to the rank of Major. He continued to publish during the war with the books "Wreckers Must Breathe (1940)," "The Trojan Horse (1940)," and "Attack Alarm (1941)."

"Attack Alarm" was based on his experiences as an anti-aircraft gunner during the Battle of Britain at RAF Kenley. After the war, he worked as a writer full-time, achieving many successes early on.

His novels are notorious for their fine attention to detail in description of places, such as in "Air Bridge (1951)," set partially at RAF Gatow, RAF Membury after its closure and RAF Wunstorf during the Berlin Airlift.

Unusually for the thriller genre, Innes' protagonists were often not "heroes" in the typical sense, but ordinary men suddenly thrust into extreme situations by circumstance. Often, this involved being placed in a hostile environment (the Arctic, the open sea, deserts), or unwittingly becoming involved in a larger conflict or conspiracy.

The protagonist generally is forced to rely on his own wits and making best use of limited resources, rather than the weapons and gadgetry commonly used by thriller writers.

Four of his early novels were adapted into films: some include Snowbound (1948) from The Lonely Skier (1947), Hell Below Zero (1954) from The White South (1949) and Campbell's Kingdom (1957) from the book of the same name (1952).

In 1937, he married Dorothy Mary Lang. Innes and his wife, due to Innes' love for yachts and sailing both travelled and raced in their yachts Triune of Troy and Mary Deare. They lived together in Kersey for many years.

In 1978, Innes was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to literature.

After Lang's and Innes' deaths, 1989 and 1998 respectively, they left the bulk of their estate and all of their Public Lending Rights to the Association of Sea Training Organisations. This enabled young people to gain training and experience in sailing the element they both loved.