Raleigh Trevelyan was born in the Andaman Islands on July 6, 1923 and moved to Great Britain when he was eight years old. During World War II, he commanded a platoon in Italy. He worked as an editor at Collins and later at Jonathan Cape and Michael Joseph, which is now a part of Penguin Random House. He wrote several books including The Fortress, Shades of the Alhambra, A Pre-Raphaelite Circle, Rome '44, The Golden Oriole, and A Hermit Disclosed. He also wrote a biography of his ancestor Sir Walter Raleigh. He died on October 23, 2014 at the age of 91.