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R. M. Ballantyne

Robert Michael Ballantyne lived from 1825 – 1894. He was born into a well-to-do Edinburgh literary family – his father published a newspaper and his uncle published and printed the books of Sir Walter Scott. The family made bad investments and lost their money so, in 1841, the young Robert was apprenticed as a clerk with the Hudson Bay Fur Company in Canada. Canada gave him a taste for adventure and lots of ideas for his later career as a writer, painter and lecturer back in Britain. He used exotic souvenirs from Canada – bows and arrows, animals skins, snow-shoes and more - to illustrate his talks which often ended with the firing of a rifle at a stuffed eagle suspended from the roof of the hall. Ten years after his return to Scotland he started his writing career.

R M Ballantyne is best-known for his third novel, Coral Island, a wonderful castaway adventure – it has never been out of print since its first publication in 1857. He was one of the first writers to allow children their own adventures, free from adult control.

Ballantyne was really an adventurer who was able to write. He always researched his books very carefully – if he wanted to write about the life of a tin-miner, he would spend time living and working as a tin-miner. He did the same as a detective, lighthouseman, lifeboat crewman and explorer. He wrote over forty books.

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