Eric Robert Russell Linklater (March 8, 1899-November 7, 1974) was a British writer, known for more than 20 novels, as well as short stories, travel writing and autobiography, and military history.
He was born in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, but was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and Aberdeen University. He spent many years in Orkney, and identified strongly with the islands, where his father had been born. His mother was the daughter of a Swedish-born sea captain[1] who had become a naturalized British citizen and married an Englishwoman. He thus had Scandinavian origins through both parents (the name Linklater is a local Orkney name derived from the Old Norse), and throughout life he maintained a sympathetic interest in Scandinavia.
He was initially a medical student and then went into journalism, becoming a full time writer in the 1930s.
Eric's elder son, Magnus Linklater (born 1942) is a journalist and former editor of the The Scotsman. His second son, Andro Linklater, is also a writer and journalist. Eric Linklater's daughter is Kristin Linklater, the renowned actor, voice teacher and author of "Freeing the Natural Voice".
