It was only one of the many caves along that particular part of the Atlantic coast of northern Spain. Dick Garland had explored lots of them, but not the Cave of the Angels. His Spanish friends were evasive about that one grotto, and when the young countess Lola dared him to spend the night there alone, he had to accept the challenge. As a result, Dick's entire life was to change, because there was something in the cave—something improbable, overwhelming and terrifying—and it very nearly cost not only Dick's life, but that of his older brother, of Lola, and of some of the finest seafaring men in all Asturias! [Originally published in 1936 as The Terror of the Villadonga.]
Author
British author of mostly thrillers, though among 37 books he also published children's fiction. Household's flight-and-chase novels, which show the influence of John Buchan, were often narrated in the first person by a gentleman-adventurer. Among his best-know works is' Rogue Male' (1939), a suggestive story of a hunter who becomes the hunted, in 1941 filmed by Fritz Lang as 'Man Hunt'. Household's fast-paced story foreshadowed such international bestsellers as Richard Condon's thriller 'The Manchurian Candidate' (1959), Frederick Forsyth's 'The Day of the Jackal' (1971), and Ken Follett's 'Eye of the Needle' (1978) . In 1922 Household received his B.A. in English from Magdalen College, Oxford, and between 1922 and 1935 worked in commerce abroad, moving to the US in 1929. During World War II, Household served in the Intelligence Corps in Romania and the Middle East. After the War he lived the life of a country gentleman and wrote. In his later years, he lived in Charlton, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, and died in Wardington. Household also published an autobiography, 'Against the Wind' (1958), and several collections of short stories, which he himself considered his best work.
