About This Book
Major John Hay Beith, CBE (Ian Hay) (1876-1952) from Edinburgh, Scotland was a soldier, novelist, and playwright. He was educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh and St. Johns College, Cambridge. Beith joined Durham School in 1902 as junior science master, and also coached the rugby and boating crews. Durham featured in his The Housemaster (1936). He was a second-lieutenant in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and was in France in April 1915 and was one of the first 100,000 of Kitchener's Army. He was awarded the Military Cross. He was Director of Public Relations at the War Office (1938-1941). He served as Technical Advisor for Cecil B. DeMille's silent extravaganza, The Little American (1917), starring Mary Pickford, and was responsible for screenplays/dialogue of fifteen films, including Alfred Hitchcock's The Thirty-Nine Steps and Secret Agent. His works include: Pip (1907), The Right Stuff (1908), A Man's Man (1909), A Safety Match (1911), Happy-Go-Lucky (1913), A Knight on Wheels (1914), Getting Together (1917), The Last Million (1918), Tilly of Bloomsbury (1919), The Willing Horse (1921), The Happy Ending (1922) and The Lucky Number (1923).
