Lad of Grit

The writing career of Percy F. Westerman allegedly began with a sixpence bet made with his wife that he could write a better story than the one he was reading to his son, who was at the time ill with chickenpox. A Lad of Grit, his first book, was the result a thrilling sea adventure first published by 1908. In the same year, Baden-Powell founded the Scouting movement, which strongly influenced many of Westerman's books he was a keen supporter of the Sea Scouts.