Whishaw, Frederick: - Frederick James Whishaw, a British novelist, historian, poet, and musician, was born in the Russian Empire. Between 1884 and 1914, he authored almost forty books of children's fiction, making him a well-known novelist of the time. He was a prolific historical author, with many of his books set in Czarist Russia, and his "schoolboy" and adventure serials were published in numerous boys' periodicals of the time. Several of them were published as full-length novels, including Gubbins Minor and Some Other Fellows (1897), The Boys of Brierley Grange (1906), and The Competitors: A Tale of Upton House School (1906). Frederick James Whishaw was born on March 14, 1854, in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, to English-born parents Bernard Whishaw of Cheltenham and Isabel Maria Cattley; he was the eighth child. His family had lived in the Russian Empire since the 18th century. Eight weeks after his birth, his parents returned to Great Britain and settled in Paignton, Devon, where Whishaw spent the most of his youth. He attended Leamington College before moving on to Uppingham, where he excelled as a tenor and athlete. He was also well-known among his classmates for the food boxes he often got from Russia.