Ernest Bramah

Ernest Bramah (1868–1942), born Ernest Bramah Smith, was an intensely private English writer who worked as a farmer and then a journalist before turning to fiction; he gave interviews rarely if at all, and even his own publishers reportedly had few verified details of his life. He is remembered for two very different series: the Kai Lung stories, beginning with The Wallet of Kai Lung (1900) and continuing in Kai Lung's Golden Hours, elaborate comic fables narrated in a mock-formal, ornately courteous English style meant to evoke Chinese storytelling convention; and the Max Carrados mysteries, featuring a blind detective whose other senses render his disability almost an advantage — an unusual and influential figure in the genre. He died in Weston-super-Mare, England.