By: James Aitchison

Few British novelists have captured the world’s imagination as completely as C. S. Forester.  And, in the process, his cinematic writing style inspired major Hollywood movies.

Born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1899, as Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, Forester wrote more than 40 books, a dozen of which became major motion pictures: Payment Deferred starring Charles Laughton (1932), Eagle Squadron with Robert Stack and Commandos Strike at Dawn with Paul Muni (1942), Captain Horatio Hornblower with Gregory Peck and The African Queen with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn (1951), The Pride and the Passion with Cary Grant (1957) and Sink the Bismarck! with Kenneth More (1960).

Most recently, Tom Hanks starred in a new film Greyhound, adapted from Forester’s 1955 novel The Good Shepherd, about the commander of a North Atlantic convoy in World War II.  Great adventure stories, it seems, never go out of fashion.

What set Forester apart was firstly his attention to detail.  He was never a naval officer — in fact, he was prone to seasickness — yet wrote thrilling sea stories rich in historical accuracy and technical knowledge.  He threw himself into meticulous research.

Secondly, he wrote cinematically.  His novels literally begged to become films.  Forester said he would imagine a scene in his mind’s eye, looking at it not only three-dimensionally, but in four dimensions, since he could be both inside and outside the character at the same time.  “I can run through a scene like a Hollywood director in his chair in a projection room.”

His father was an English teacher at a college for upper-class Egyptian boys.  When his parents separated his mother brought him to England.  He studied medicine at Guy’s Hospital London but left before completing his degree.  In 1921, at age 22, he began his writing career and adopted his pen name.

By 1932 he was in Hollywood writing movie scripts.  When war broke out he failed his army physical in 1940 and was told he would never be accepted.  Back in Berkeley, California in 1942, Forester worked for the British Ministry of Information writing propaganda to encourage the United States to join the Allies.  On a visit to Washington that year Forester met a young British diplomat and encouraged him to write about his experiences as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force.  Suitably motivated, Roald Dahl started a literary career of his own.

Forester himself developed a very exhausting writing regimen.  Ideas for novels and screenplays gradually matured in his mind for months on end.  Ready to write at last, he worked on legal pads with a fountain pen.  Beginning with page one he wrote with few breaks until the end — usually three months of intense mental energy — after which he was “drained and empty … sick, weary, with a flat feeling of exhaustion”.

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Arguably, Forester is best remembered for his books of naval warfare.  Despite his own seasickness, Forester’s work boasts an intimate knowledge of naval protocol and technology.  His experience at sea was limited; he lived for a while on a small boat in the 1930s, travelled by tramp steamer from South America to Britain, and once voyaged on board an American destroyer to learn the workings of the ship. 

The 12-book Horatio Hornblower series — published between 1937 and 1962 — related the career of a fictional Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic Wars.  Hornblower rises from a seasick midshipman to become Admiral of the Fleet.  Despite his initial poverty and lack of powerful friends, Hornblower’s skill and daring always win out in the end.  The books became international bestsellers and a 1951 movie starring Gregory Peck.

Forester confessed that his hero’s name was inspired by Horatio in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Arthur Hornblow Jr., a Hollywood producer.

While Hornblower’s adventures were based on historical events, Forester took care not to challenge world history.  For example, had a great naval battle taken place in a certain location, he ensured that Hornblower was hundreds of miles away on another mission.

Forester’s “seamanship” is extraordinary: the navigation of the era, old-time naval battles complete with broadsides and manoeuvres, how landing parties worked, the work of the marines, and the ever-present shadows of British politics.

Forester once explained the concept behind Hornblower as “the man alone”.  Beyond the thrilling action, the novels took readers into the mind of Hornblower himself.  He was so often isolated, beyond communication with his superiors, forced to make vital decisions by himself no matter the consequences.  Readers came to understand the man’s moral and psychological dimensions and shared in his internal debates.  Hornblower’s introspection and self-doubt were endearing.  Here was a fully drawn hero, a man who regarded himself as cowardly and dishonest, when he was the complete opposite.  Reserved, guarded, unaware of his fellow sailors’ admiration, he becomes clear and incisive the moment it comes to his duty as a king’s officer.

It was a technique Forester frequently employed.  In Brown on Resolution, filmed as Sailor of the King, a young British sailor escapes captivity on a German warship while it was undergoing repairs in the shelter of an island.  He takes a rifle, scales a rocky peak, and opens fire on the work parties.  By delaying the repairs, he seals the German warship’s fate.

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The African Queen delivered Forester one of his greatest successes.  The novel was first published in 1935.  Sixteen years were to pass before producer Sam Spiegel (calling himself S. P. Eagle) snapped up the movie rights for a bargain price.

The plot is familiar to every avid movie buff.  Humphrey Bogart plays the coarse Canadian Charlie Allnut who delivers mail and supplies by steamboat to Samuel Sayer (Robert Morley) and his sister Rose (Katharine Hepburn) at their riverside missionary post in German East Africa.

He warns them that Britain and Germany are now at war and that they should leave.  They refuse.  Later, German soldiers destroy the village, press the villagers into service, and beat Samuel.  He becomes delirious and dies.  With the soldiers gone, Allnut returns and helps Rose bury her brother.  Together they escape downriver in The African Queen. 

The relationship between the crude, disreputable Charlie and the prim, proper Rose develops on their voyage.  James Agee’s sensitively crafted script gives Bogart and Hepburn opportunities for masterful performances. 

Along the way, and much to Charlie’s horror, Rose hatches a plan to turn the old steamboat into a torpedo boat and sink the large German gunboat which patrols a large lake into which the river flows.  When the steamboat sinks in a storm, Charlie and Rose are captured and sentenced to hang as spies.  However, the German captain agrees to marry them first.  No sooner has he done so than the German gunboat strikes the submerged torpedos on The African Queen and capsizes.  Charlie and Rose swim to safety together. 

The movie was brilliantly directed by the legendary John Huston.  Location filming in the Belgian Congo presented almost insurmountable problems.  Jack Cardiff’s massive Technicolor cameras using three-strip films were mounted on a special pontoon attached to the steamboat.  It was the first time Technicolor cameras had worked in such hazardous conditions.  The crew and cast endured sickness, except Bogart and Huston who drank whiskey!  In one scene, Katharine Hepburn was so ill she vomited into a bucket off camera between takes.  She also insisted on a floating loo which once sailed off on its own.

Newly married Bogart brought his young bride Lauren Bacall on location.  She had no role in the film but frequently helped out with cooking and makeup.

Humphrey Bogart won his only Oscar for The African Queen.

In 1990, Clint Eastwood produced, directed and starred in White Hunter Black Heart, based on real-life director John Huston’s activities during the filming of The African Queen.  Huston was determined to shoot an elephant and the movie explored Huston the man.

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C. S. Forester died at the age of 66 in Fullerton, California.  His books and work ethic stand as an inspiration to all young novelists.