Arthur Quiller-Couch Arthur Quiller-Couch Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (; 21 November 186312 May 1944) was a Cornish writer who published using the pseudonym Q. Although a prolific novelist, he is remembered mainly for the monumental publication "The Oxford Book Of English Verse 1250–1900" (later extended to 1918) and for his literary criticism. He influenced many who never met him, including American writer Helene Hanff, author of "84, Charing Cross Road" and its sequel, "Q's Legacy". His "Oxford Book of English Verse" was a favourite of John Mortimer fictional character Horace Rumpole. Arthur Quiller-Couch was born in the town of Bodmin, Cornwall, by
Arthur Quiller-Couch an enormous relief to these two gentlemen when the War Office took over the 10th Battalion on 24 August 1915. In 1887, while he was attending Oxford, he published "Dead Man's Rock", a romance in the style of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island", and later "Troy Town" (1888), a comic novel set in a fictionalised version of his home town Fowey, and "The Splendid Spur" (1889). Quiller-Couch was well known for his story "The Rollcall of the Reef", based on the wreck of HMS "Primrose" during 1809 on the Cornish coast. He published during 1896 a series of critical articles,