Henty once related in an interview how his storytelling skills grew out of tales told after dinner to his children. He wrote his first children's book, "Out on the Pampas" in 1868, naming the book's main characters after his children. The book was published by Griffith and Farran in November 1870 with a title page date of 1871. While most of the 122 books he wrote were for children, he also wrote adult novels, non-fiction such as "The March to Magdala" and "Those Other Animals", short stories for the likes of "The Boy's Own Paper" and edited the "Union Jack", a weekly boy's magazine.