Sir
Thomas Henry Hall Caine CH, KBE (1853 – 1931) Enormously Popular
and Best-Selling Author.
Sir Hall Caine (as he was known) was born in Runcorn, his father worked
in the Runcorn Docks.
He authored over 40 books and countless newspaper and magazine
articles. In 1897 he wrote The Christian,
it was the first novel in Britain to sell over a million copies.
King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra enjoyed his books and met with him
on several occasions.
16 films have been made from his works, Alfred Hitchcock made a
film of his most famous novel,
The Manxman in 1929.
Caine counted Ruskin, Rossetti, George Bernard Shaw, William Morris,
and Bram Stoker among his friends - Stoker dedicated his famous novel
Dracula to Caine, under his nickname ‘Hommy-Beg’. The bat
has been
added in honour of this.