Pasó su infancia en Clovelly, Devon, y fue educado en Magdalene College, Cambridge, antes de decidir seguir un ministerio en la Iglesia Episcopal.

[1]​ Frederick Denison Maurice influyó en este autor, que estuvo cercano a muchos pensadores y escritores victorianos como George MacDonald.

I believe there are not only many of them than of old, but they are happier, better, more confortably fed and lodged under our rule than they ever were.

But to see white chimpanzees is dreadful; if they were black, one would not feel it so much, but their skins, except where tanned by exposure, are as white as ours. "

En España sólo se han publicado Hypatia, Water-babies, como Los niños del agua; The Heroes, Greek fairy tales como Cuentos de hadas griegos.