Hammond Innes is the pen name of the English novelist Ralph Hammond Innes, who was born in Horsham, Sussex, in 1913. Innes is well-known for his mystery and thriller novels, children's books, and travel non-fiction books. He gained a reputation for his meticulous attention to detail in his scene descriptions and for creating protagonists who were ordinary men, rather than traditional heroes. His characters were often placed in hostile environments and had to rely on their own wits and intelligence to extricate themselves from dangerous situations.
Innes was educated at Cranbrook School in Kent and began his career as a journalist with the Financial Times. He published his first novel, The Doppelganger, in 1937. During World War II, Innes served in the Royal Artillery and rose to the rank of Major. His wartime experiences informed several of his books, including Wreckers Must Breathe (1940), The Trojan Horse (1941), and Attack Alarm (1941), which was based on his experiences as an anti-aircraft gunner during the Battle of Britain. After being discharged in 1946, Innes became a full-time writer and achieved a number of early successes.
Innes' novels are known for their fine attention to accurate detail in descriptions of places, such as in Air Bridge (1951), which is set partially at RAF Gatow, RAF Membury after its closure, and RAF Wunstorf during the Berlin Airlift. He had a regular writing routine, with six months of travel and research followed by six months of writing. Many of his works featured events at sea, and he became interested in ecological themes in the 1960s. He continued writing until just before his death, with his last novel, Delta Connection, published in 1996.
Four of Innes' early novels were made into films, including Snowbound (1948) from The Lonely Skier (1947), Hell Below Zero (1954) from The White South (1949), Campbell's Kingdom (1957), and The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). His 1973 novel Golden Soak was adapted into a six-part television series in 1979. Innes' writing style, with its attention to detail and ordinary protagonists, has had a lasting impact on the thriller genre.