Alfred Ollivant (1874-1927) was an English novelist best known for his children's classic Bob, Son of Battle. He also wrote about a dozen other novels ranging from small-scale cautionary tales to grand historical epics. Ollivant was born in Manchester, England, in 1874 and became an author after a horse-riding injury ending his brief military career. Bob, Son of Battle, his first novel, was published in 1898. Set in rural Cumbria, in northern England, the novel centres on a suspected sheepkilling collie Bob. Even though most of the book's dialogue is written in the Cumbrian dialect, it gained a popular following in the United States. He even published a sequel, Danny, in 1903.