Most people think he's English, but Christopher Plover was actually born in Chicago in 1885. He built his father's dry-goods (which are what? E-mail me if you know) business into an empire and sold it and moved to Cornwall when he was in his forties. He bought a house there, Darras House (Darras means Door in Cornish) and he lived there for the rest of his life.

Plover never said anything about wanting to be a writer, so it was a surprise when he published The World in the Walls in 1933. He said he based it on stories that were told to be him by the Chatwin children, who rented a house down the road in the summertimes. He always claimed that they would just come over and tell him stories about their adventures, and he would just write them down and publish them.

Plover wrote five Fillory books in all before he died in 1939. He never married anyone. Some people think he was gay. He was famous for giving parties at his house in Cornwall up until Martin Chatwin disappeared in 1935. After that Plover became sadand reclusive. He may have committed suicide.

After he died they went through his papers to see if there was another book in the series, because The Wandering Dune doesn't really feel like the end. But they never found it.

Visit the official Christopher Plover website.