Hugh Walpole was born in 1884 in Auckland, New Zealand, the son of Somerset Walpole, Canon of St. Mary’s Cathedral, Auckland, and later Bishop of Edinburgh. The family left New Zealand in 1889. He was educated in Truro, Marlow, Canterbury, Durham and Cambridge. His father hoped he would then enter the ministry, and he did spend a year in 1906 as lay minister at the Mersey Mission to Seamen in Liverpool, but was not happy there. He then became a tutor in Germany to the children of novelist Elizabeth von Arnim, before spending a year as schoolmaster at Epsom college in Surrey.
Moving to London he wrote book reviews for the London Standard, and then in 1908 he published his first novel The Wooden Horse. He became friendly with Arnold Bennett, Henry James and Joseph Conrad. More novels followed.
Rejected for military service in the First World War because of poor eyesight he served in Russia as a Red Cross sanitar, and after rescuing a wounded soldier was awarded the Cross of Saint George. Later he was appointed head of the Anglo-Russian Propoganda Bureau in Petrograd (St. Petersburg). He was in Russia during the first 1917 revolution. His experience served two of his novels The Dark Forest (1915) and The Secret City (1919), the latter winning the James Tait Black memorial prize. He was appointed CBE in 1918.
After the war he settled in Piccadilly in London, and in the 1920s bought a house by Derwentwater in Cumberland. He continued writing, notably the series of Herries stories, all set in Cumberland. He went on five extensive lecture tours of the United States. These were very successful and made him a lot of money. He served as President of the Book Society, and wrote film scripts in Hollywood, playing a minor role in David Copperfield. He was knighted in 1937.
He continued writing, but died in 1941 aged 57. He is buried in Keswick. After the war his work was seen as dated and his popularity rapidly declined.