P. C. Wren

P. C. Wren (1875–1941) was an English novelist and educator best known for vigorous adventure stories set in British India and French North Africa. His reputation rests chiefly on Beau Geste (1924), in which the three Geste brothers become entangled in the disappearance of a valuable jewel before separately joining the French Foreign Legion. Wren’s descriptions of desert forts, brutal discipline and comradeship helped establish the popular image of the pre-First World War Legion. Although he suggested that he had served as a legionnaire, this has never been confirmed, and his knowledge may instead have come from research and encounters with former soldiers.

The story begun in Beau Geste continued in Beau Sabreur and Beau Ideal, while Good Gestes provided further stories about the brothers and their comrades. Wren returned repeatedly to military life in books such as The Wages of Virtue, Stepsons of France, Port O’Missing Men, Valiant Dust and Dead Men’s Boots. His novels combine mysteries, concealed identities, family loyalty, sacrifice and action in remote colonial settings. They offer a strongly romanticised and distinctly British view of empire, but they remain valuable examples of early twentieth-century adventure fiction and of the mythology that grew around the French Foreign Legion.