British novelist A.J. Cronin was born in Dumbartonshire, Scotland, in 1896. In 1914 he entered Glasgow University to study medicine, but his studies were interrupted by World War I, in which he served in the British Navy as a surgeon sublieutenant. He received his M.B. and Ch.B. in 1919, and took a job as a ship's surgeon on a passenger liner. He afterwards took positions at several hospitals, and in 1921 he married and moved to south Wales to start a medical practice. He received his MD degree in 1925 from the University of Glasgow, and he moved to London to start a practice there.

In 1930 he began to have health problems, and while recuperating in the Scottish Highlands he wrote a story called "Hatter's Castle", which was published in 1931. It was a best-seller, was translated into five languages and later became a film (Hatter's Castle (1942)). The book's success convinced Cronin to pursue writing full-time. Probably his most famous novel, "The Citadel", which was written in 1937, has been made into several theatrical films and a few television series. His other best-known work, "Keys of the Kingdom", was a story about a priest helping Chinese villagers survive under the brutal Japanese occupation of their country during World War II. It was also a best-seller and was made into a successful film starring Gregory Peck, The Keys of the Kingdom (1944).

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A.J. Cronin

Writer