Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie

Compton Mackenzie (1883–1972), formally Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, was a Scottish novelist and playwright. Born in West Hartlepool, England, he graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford. He wrote more than a hundred books, including the two-volume Sinister Street, The Early Life and Adventures of Sylvia Scarlett, The Altar Steps, Rich Relatives, Poor Relations, Guy and Pauline and Plashers Mead: A Novel. His fiction often deals with young people coming of age in the city, family ties and local life, in a style both realistic and satirical. In 1923 he founded The Gramophone, and he was a co-founder of the Scottish National Party. He was awarded the OBE in 1919, was knighted in 1952, and died in Edinburgh in 1972.