Edward Harold Begbie (1871 – 8 October 1929), also known as Harold Begbie, was an English journalist and the author of nearly 50 books and poems. Besides studies of the Christian religion, he wrote numerous other books, including political satire, comedy, fiction, science fiction, plays and poetry. He died in London on 8 October 1929. Early career Begbie was born in 1871, the fifth son of Mars Hamilton Begbie, rector of Fornham St Martin, Suffolk. Though initially a farmer, Begbie moved to London and worked for the Daily Chronicle and later the Globe. In addition to children's literature, he wrote popular works of poetry. He was a close friend of journalist Arthur Mee. When Mee embarked on his Children's Encyclopædia in its initial fortnightly serial form, he gave to Begbie the task of writing a series on "Bible Stories". At the outbreak of World War I Begbie wrote a number of recruiting poems and visited America on behalf of his paper. Religious views Begbie had a strong religious bent: he was involved in the Oxford Group (which later became Moral Re-Armament) and with the Salvation Army. His concern with social reform appeared strongly in his book The Little that is Good (1917), where he wrote about charitable work among the poor of London. He raised large sums of money for East End charities. Begbie might be described as a Broad Church Anglican, who was interested in the ways in which modern science seemed to cast doubt on materialism by showing matter was more complicated than previously believed. He was hostile to Anglo-Catholic Ritualism and to Roman Catholicism; several pre-First World War novels portray Ritualists as sinister and dishonest crypto-Catholic conspirators. His 1914 book The Lady Next Door, however, supports Irish home rule and gives an idealised portrayal of Catholicism in Ireland as a genuinely popular religion. His hostile view of urban industrial society in Belfast was criticised by many Ulster Unionists including the writer St. John Ervine. In the preface to the American edition of his book The Glass of Fashion (1921), Begbie attacked Darwinism. However, he was not anti-evolution. In his book The Proof of God (1914), he endorsed theistic evolution. Begbie strongly defended the reality of the alleged apparition of the Angels of Mons and attacked Arthur Machen for claiming they derived from his story "The Bowmen". Begbie printed numerous accounts of the "Angels" in his book On