Crescent and Iron Cross

E. F. Benson is well known for his 'Lucia and Mapp' series but here we see a different side to his work. 'Iron Cross and Crescent' is a scholarly and well researched history of the relationship between Turkey and Germany in the decades before the First World War. This early work was originally published in 1918 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography.

Edward Frederic Benson OBE was an English author who lived from July 24, 1867, to February 29, 1940. He wrote novels, biographies, memoirs, histories, and short stories. E. F. Benson was born at Wellington College in Berkshire. He was the fifth child of Edward White Benson, who was teacher and later became chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral, bishop of Truro, and archbishop of Canterbury, and Mary Sidgwick ("Minnie"), who was born. There were three brothers named E. F. Benson: Arthur Christopher Benson wrote the words to "Land of Hope and Glory"; Robert Hugh Benson wrote several stories and works defending Roman Catholicism; and Margaret Benson (Maggie), who wrote books and liked learning about Egypt. I lost two other siblings very young. There were six kids and no grandkids in Benson's family. Benson went to Temple Grove School and then Marlborough College for his education. It was there that he wrote some of his earliest works and the ideas for his book David Blaize came from. He went to King's College, Cambridge, to finish his education. In college, he was a part of the Pitt Club at Cambridge. Later in life, he was made a senior fellow of Magdalene College.