Nat The Naturalist

"Nat the Naturalist-A Boy's Adventures in the Eastern Seas" from George Manville Fenn. English novelist, journalist, editor and educationalist (1831-1909).

"I don't know what to do with him. I never saw such a boy-a miserable little coward, always in mischief and doing things he ought not to do, and running about the place with his whims and fads. I wish you'd send him right away, I do." My aunt went out of the room, and I can't say she banged the door, but she shut it very hard, leaving me and my uncle face to face staring one at the other. My uncle did not speak for some minutes, but sat poking at his hair with the waxy end of his pipe, for he was a man who smoked a great deal after dinner; the mornings he spent in his garden, being out there as early as five o'clock in the summer and paying very little attention to the rain. He was a very amiable, mild-tempered man, who had never had any children, in fact he did not marry till quite late in life; when I remember my poor father saying that it was my aunt married my uncle, for uncle would never have had the courage to ask her. I say "my poor father," for a couple of years after that marriage, the news came home that he had been lost at sea with the whole of the crew of the great vessel of which he was the surgeon.

George Manville Fenn (3 January 1831 in Pimlico - 26 August 1909 in Isleworth) was a prolific English novelist, journalist, editor and educationalist. Many of his novels were written with young adults in mind. His final book was his biography of a fellow writer for juveniles, George Alfred Henty. Fenn was largely self-educated, teaching himself French, German and Italian. After studying at Battersea Training College for Teachers (1851-1854), he became the master of a national school at Alford, Lincolnshire. He later became a printer, editor and publisher of some short-lived periodicals. Fenn's first story for boys, Hollowdell Grange, appeared in 1867. It was followed by a succession of other novels for juveniles and adults. He also wrote for the theatre and authored many historical fiction novels.