White Prophet: 'It was perhaps the first act of open hostility''

Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine CH KBE was better known as Hall Caine. Born on the 14th May 1853 in Runcorn Cheshire Caine would become, in late Victorian Britain, the most highly feted and highly paid author of his day.His fame and sales spread quickly throughout the world with such hits as 'The Manxman' and 'The Eternal City'He wrote fifteen novels on such 'delicate for their times' subjects as adultery, divorce, domestic violence, illegitimacy, infanticide, religious bigotry and women's rights. Caine was also a prolific playwright and turned many of his novels into plays, staged in both the West End and on Broadway. He wrote many short stories, and whole shelves of non-fiction. Many of his works were eagerly snapped up by the infant movie business and turned into films.By the time of his death on August 31st, 1931 he was already heading into obscurity. Today his reputation is as 'the best-known author from the Isle of Man'. It is only now that his literary reputation is being re-evaluated and offered once more to a wider audience.