R.D. Blackmore

R.D. Blackmore (1825–1900), English novelist and fruit grower wrote Lorna Doone (1869)

With his elder brother Henry (1824–1875), Blackmore spent much of his childhood in the lush and pastoral "Doone Country" of Exmoor, Devon, England, and along the Badgworthy Water (where there is now a memorial stone in Blackmore's honour) and among the future fictional Doone Valley's towering hills. The severe and remote rocky areas of Devon provided protection for many fugitives at the time where justice was swift and penalties harsh. Blackmore would hear of many tales of highway robbery and murder among illiterate half-wild men living on the edge of survival.