Erskine Childers was an Irish nationalist who smuggled guns to Ireland in his yacht 'Asgard'. He was executed during the Irish Civil War, but before his death he managed to write a novel called 'The Riddle of the Sands', an early example of the classic spy story that ranks with the work of John le Carre and John Buchan, the latter of whom was in fact highly influenced by it. The gripping plot concerns two English sailors who uncover a militarist conspiracy in the Frisian Islands."