Sir Thomas Willes Chitty, 3rd Baronet (born 1926), better known as Thomas Hinde, is a British novelist.

Life

Thomas Hinde was born in Felixstowe, Suffolk, and educated at Winchester School and University College, Oxford

University College, Oxford

.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...

. After service in the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, he worked briefly for the Inland Revenue

Inland Revenue

The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation tax, petroleum revenue tax and stamp duty...

 and then for the Shell

Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...

 Petroleum Company, before becoming a full-time writer. He became a baronet

Baronet

A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...

 on the death of his father in 1955. He is married to Susan Chitty.

Works

His first novel, Mr Nicholas, was published in 1953. His second, Happy As Larry, the story of a disaffected, unemployable, aspiring writer with a failed marriage, led critics to associate him with the Angry Young Men

Angry young men

The "angry young men" were a group of mostly working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. The group's leading members included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis.The phrase was originally coined by the Royal Court Theatre's press officer to promote John...

 movement. An excerpt from Happy As Larry appeared in the popular paperback anthology Protest: The Beat Generation and the Angry Young Men.

Hinde published thirteen further novels before turning to non-fiction. Since 1980, he has published books on English stately homes and gardens, English court life, and the forests of Britain, as well as histories of English schools.

Novels

• Mr. Nicholas (1953)
• Happy as Larry (1958)
• For the Good of the Company (1961)
• A Place Like Home (1962)
• The Cage (1962)
• Ninety Double Martinis (1963)
• The Day the Call Came (1964)
• Games of Chance: The Interviewer, The Investigator (1965)
• The Village (1966)
• High (1968)
• Bird (1970)
• Generally a Virgin (1972)
• Agent (1974)
• Our Father (1975)
• Daymare (1980)

Nonfiction

• On Next to Nothing: A Guide to Survival Today (1976, with Susan Chitty)
• The Great Donkey Walk (1977, with Susan Chitty)
• The Cottage Book: A Manual of Maintenance, Repair, and Construction (1979)
• Sir Henry and Sons: A Memoir (1980)
• A Field Guide to the English Country Parson (1983)
• Stately Gardens of Britain (1983)
• Forests of Britain (1985)
• Just Chicken (1986, with Cordelia Chitty)
• Capability Brown: The Story of a Master Gardener (1987)
• Courtiers: 900 Years of English Court Life (1986)
• Tales from the Pump Room: Nine Hundred Years of Bath: The Place, Its People, and Its Gossip (1988)
• Imps of Promise: A History of the King's School, Canterbury (1990)
• Paths of Progress: A History of Marlborough College (1992)
• Highgate School: A History (1993)