Green cloth binding with tan title and black and tan river and moose image on the front board. Gilt and black ship and title on the spine.

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A mid Victorian boy’s story

William Henry Giles Kingston (28 February 1814 – 5 August 1880), often credited as W. H. G. Kingston, was an English writer of boys’ adventure novels.

His first book was The Circassian Chief, a story published in 1844. While still living in Oporto, he wrote The Prime Minister, a historical novel based loosely on the life of Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal, and Lusitanian Sketches, descriptions of travels in Portugal. Settling in England, he interested himself in the emigration movement, edited The Colonist and The Colonial Magazine and East India Review in 1844, was honorary secretary of a colonisation society, wrote Some Suggestions for a System of General Emigration in 1848, lectured on colonisation in 1849, published a manual for colonists entitled How to Emigrate in 1850, and visited the western highlands on behalf of the emigration commissioners. He was afterwards a zealous volunteer and worked actively for the improvement of the condition of seamen. But from 1850, his chief occupation was writing books for boys, or editing boys’ annuals and weekly periodicals. He started the Union Jack, a paper for boys, only a few months before his death. His stories number more than a hundred; the best known are:

• Peter the Whaler, 1851
• Blue Jackets, 1854
• Digby Heathcote, 1860
• The Cruise of the Frolic, 1860
• The Fireships, 1862
• The midshipman Marmaduke Merry, 1863
• Foxholme Hall, 1867
• Ben Burton, 1872
• The Three Midshipmen, 1873
• The Three Lieutenants, 1876
• The Three Commanders, 1876
• The Three Admirals, 1878
• Kidnapping in the Pacific, 1879
• Hendriks the Hunter, 1884