The British novelist and short story writer Olivia Mary Manning was born in Portsmouth in 1908 (although some sources say 1911 due to her tendency to be vague about her age). Her father was a naval officer at a time when Britain still ruled the waves, which meant that Olivia was brought up with a firm belief in the virtues of Empire. The family lived in modest circumstances near her mother’s more affluent relatives in Northern Ireland while her father was at sea. As a result, Olivia did not feel she belonged anywhere and she was not close to her mother.