RADDALL, THOMAS HEAD

born Nov. 13, 1903, Hythe, Kent, Eng. English-Canadian novelist who accurately depicted the history, manners, and idiom of Nova Scotians. Raddall immigrated to Nova Scotia in 1913 and became a bookkeeper in a paper mill in 1922. He began writing as a hobby and by 1938 was writing full time. John Buchan, the British author and then governor-general of Canada, wrote a laudatory introduction to his first volume of short stories, The Pied Piper of Dipper Creek (1939). His first novel, His Majesty's Yankees (1942), set in Nova Scotia during the American Revolution, was followed by other carefully researched historical romances. He also published The Nymph and the Lamp (1950), a story of contemporary life at a Canadian wireless station, and a historical work, Halifax, Warden of the North (1948). Other novels include Hangman's Beach (1966) and Pride's Fancy (1974). His autobiography In My Time appeared in 1976.