Five Hundred Carats

George Chetwynd Griffith-Jones was born on 20th August, 1857, in Plymouth, South-West England to a clergyman father who was frequently moved to different parishes. Although Griffith did briefly attend school there were only limited funds to provide a formal education for him and his elder brother. Consequently, they were primarily home schooled with their father teaching them Latin and Greek and their mother, French. There was also an extensive family library which Griffith devoured. At 15 he joined a ship as an apprentice but deserted when it arrived in Australia to travel around for 4 years before working his passage back to England. He settled in Sussex, to teach English at a prep school and studied at night to gain formal qualifications. After a further year of study at a German university he taught in Brighton but now his passion for writing also led him to journalism. He contributed to various pamphlets, newspaper and periodicals, writing on secularism and socialism as well as travelogues, volumes of poetry and, of course, short stories. His vivid writing style and knack for storytelling paved the way for his success as a novelist. In 1893, Griffith published his first novel, ‘The Angel of the Revolution’, an instant success of dystopia featuring advanced aerial warfare and anarchist revolutionaries. Griffith's output of over a dozen novels and numerous short stories influenced later science fiction writers and left a lasting legacy in place. He also wrote romance, adventure and supernatural stories. His writing was not always successful, and he often faced personal and financial difficulties. George Griffith died at his home in Port Erin, Isle of Man of cirrhosis of the liver on 10th June, 1906. He was 48.