It is a well-known fact that very often, putting the period of boyhood out of the argument, the older we grow the more cynical and hardened we become; indeed, many of us are only saved by timely death from moral petrification, if not from moral corruption.

He was also involved in agricultural reform around the British Empire. Sir Henry Rider Haggard KBE (22 June 1856 – 14 May 1925) was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations predominantly Africa and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. His stories situated at the lighter end of Victorian literature continue to be popular and influential.