The author Edward Frederick Benson Edward Frederick Benson (1867-1940) was born on 24 July, 1867 at Wellington College in Berkshire, where his father was Headmaster. He was the fifth of six children born to Mary Sidgwick Benson and Edward White Benson, later Chancellor and Canon of Lincoln Cathedral, Bishop of Truro in Cornwall during the construction of the cathedral there, and finally Archbishop of Canterbury (1883-1896). Known to his family as Fred, young Benson was educated first at Temple Grove in East Sheen, Surrey, where his developing love of music and the English language did not prevent him from finishing near the bottom of his class, probably because he was very lively and naughty. His next school was Marlborough in Wiltshire where he studied for six years and played many sports. At the age of 20, he became an undergraduate at King s College, Cambridge. Benson graduated at Cambridge with honours in archaeology and a passion for all Greek things. His first major excavation was at the walls of the city of Chester, where he made a number of important discoveries. From there he went to Athens to attend the British School of Archaeology. His first book, Sketches from Marlborough, was privately published in 1888 and reflects on his teenage school days lovingly. His first novel, Dodo, appeared in 1893 to great acclaim and success. In it Benson introduced, as the central character, a woman who would appear many times in different guises in future books: a glamorous, entertaining, humorous, heartless, amoral person who charmed many of those around her but caused great distress to others. Benson, when he was not travelling and participating in archaeological excavations, lived primarily with his parents at the various homes assigned to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He always continued to write, producing about 100 books, along with dozens of short stories, articles, and pamphlets during his productive life. The Confession of Charles Linkworth was first published in The Room in the Tower and Other Stories in 1912. After the Archbishop s death, the family left Lambeth Palace, moving first to Winchester and then to a house called Tremans near Horsted 115