Gilbert Frankau Gilbert Frankau ( 21 April 1884 – 4 November 1952 ) was a popular British novelist . He was known also for verse ( he was a war poet of World War I ) including a number of verse novel s , and short stories . He was born in London into a Jewish family , but was baptised as an Anglican at the age of 13 . After education at Eton College , he went into the family cigar business , and became Managing Director on his twenty - first birthday , his father Arthur Frankau having died in November 1904 . A few months before his death , at sixty - eight , from lung cancer , he converted to Roman Catholicism . Career . Frankau served in the British Army from the outbreak of war in 1914 . He was first commissioned in the 9th Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment on 6 October 1914 , and was later a Staff Captain – experiences that he later used in novels . He fought in major battles of the British Expeditionary Force in France and wrote for the " Wipers Times " before being invalided out on 22 February 1918 . The family business not having survived the war , he became a writer . His novels , while having conventional romantic content , also contained material from his own conservative politics and meditations on Jewish identity in the climate of the times . Some of them were filmed ( see " Christopher Strong " ; " If I Marry Again " was based on a short story ) . His status as a divorcé ( he married three times ) frustrated his political ambitions – the Conservative Party of the time did not regard divorce as acceptable . His outspoken criticism of Stanley Baldwin also did nothing to endear him to the Tory leadership . Recalling the 1920s , Gilbert Frankau wrote : " Political journalism meant more to me than my novels and short stories . Only fiction , however , could make me enough money to gratify my supreme ambition – a seat in the House . " In 1928 , he was invited by the then proprietor of " The Great Eight " – a group of weeklies including " Tatler " , " The Graphic " , and the " Illustrated London News " – to launch a new Right - wing weekly newspaper , " Britannia " . Frankau threw himself into this venture with characteristic energy , but it was not a success . After he had been unceremoniously removed from his post , " TIME " gleefully reported : " Twirling his glass of sherry , Gilbert ' Swankau ' Frankau alibied : " ' As the founder of " Britannia " [ sip ] , I said what I thought , without fear or favor . Evidently I am against lots of people [ sip ] , for I believe in everything British ! That was what " Britannia " stood for while I held her helm . ' " Actually the Frankau weekly " Britannia " stood not for but against everything British or foreign which did not come within the extreme Fascist fringe of the little Semite ' s whims . He was ' agin ' the Government of Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin , ' agin ' the David Lloyd George Liberals , ' agin ' the Ramsay MacDonald Laborites . . . " In the aftermath of this disappointment , Gilbert Frankau – according to his own account – approached a Tory politician he " knew to be rather close to Stanley Baldwin " , offering to stand for Parliament at his own expense in the forthcoming General Election , but was advised : " ' I ' d better be frank with you . As a divorced man , you could never be adopted by the Conservative party . If you ' re so keen on a political career , I should try the Labour people . They ' re not so particular . ' " Frankau remained a staunch Right - winger , however . In 1933 his notorious " Daily Express " article " As a Jew I am Not Against Hitler " was published shortly after Adolf Hitler had come to power in Germany ; he later retracted his position . In fact , this particular piece was more balanced than the headline now appears : " Time alone will tell whether the little Austrian with the Charlie Chaplin moustache is a mere spellbinder or a statesman " , comments Frankau , ending with the poignant question , " who are we , the great expounders of democracy , and how are we , already disarmed to the point of national danger , to interfere ? " His autobiography , completed in August 1939 , includes emphatically anti - German comments , such as : " The Pomper of Potsdam looked all of a war lord , even if he did bolt to Doorn like a rabbit . The Neurasthenic of Nuremberg and his gangster stooges look — the hooligans they are . " Few of his literary works have survived in reputation . Family . His mother Julia Frankau ( 1859 – 1916 ) , sister of Mrs Aria and Owen Hall , wrote under the name Frank Danby ( and is said to have collaborated with George Moore ) . His daughter Pamela Frankau from his first marriage was at least as successful as a writer . Another daughter also wrote , and Timothy d ' Arch Smith , writer and bibliographer , is a grandson . His brother was comedian Ronald Frankau . His sister was the Cambridge don Joan Bennett ( 1896 – 1986 ) , one of the " constellation of critics " called by the defence in the Lady Chatterley Trial . His niece is the actress Rosemary Frankau .