Hugh Kingsmill Lunn (1889–1949), who used the pseudonym Hugh Kingsmill, was a versatile British writer and journalist. He wrote criticism, essays and biographies, parodies and humour, as well as novels, and edited a number of anthologies. Arnold Lunn and the writer Brian Lunn were his brothers.

He is remembered for saying 'friends are God's apology for relations', with the flavour of Ambrose Bierce that is noticeable. He was a friend of Malcolm Muggeridge, and one of his influences; Muggeridge drew a darker attitude from Kingsmill's sardonic wit. 'What, still alive at twenty-two?' is the initial line of one of the poetic parodies. Dawnist was his word for those infected with unrealistic or utopian idealism — the enemy as far as he was concerned.

He was born in London and educated at Harrow School and the University of Oxford. After graduating he worked for a brief period for Frank Harris, who edited the publication Hearth and Home in 1911/2, alongside Enid Bagnold; Kingsmill later wrote a debunking biography of Harris, after the spell had worn off.

He fought in the British Army in World War I from 1916, being captured France in 1917. He began to write after the war, initially both science fiction and crime fiction. In the 1930s he was a reviewer for the English Review.

Works

• The Will To Love (1919) novel
• The Dawn's Delay (1924) stories
• Blondel (1927)
• Matthew Arnold (1928) biography
• After Puritanism, 1850-1900 (1929)
• An Anthology Of Invective And Abuse (1929)
• The Return of William Shakespeare (1929) novel
• Behind Both Lines (1930) autobiographical
• More Invective (1930) anthology
• The Worst of Love (1931) anthology
• After Puritanism (1931)
• Frank Harris (1932) biography.
• The Table Of Truth (1933)
• Samuel Johnson (1933) biography
• The Sentimental Journey (1934) biography of Charles Dickens
• The Casanova Fable: A Satirical Revaluation (1934) with William Gerhardi
• What They Said At The Time (1935) anthology
• Parents and Children (1936) anthology
• Brave Old World (1936) humour, with Malcolm Muggeridge
• A Pre-View Of Next Year's News (1937) humour, with Malcolm Muggeridge
• Skye High: The Record Of A Tour Through Scotland In The Wake Of The Samuel Johnson And James Boswell.(1937) travel, with Hesketh Pearson
• Made On Earth (1937) anthology on marriage
• The English Genius: a survey of the English achievement and character (1938) editor, essays by W. R. Inge, Hilaire Belloc, Hesketh Pearson, William Gerhardi, E .S. P. Haynes , Douglas Woodruff , Charles Petrie, J. F. C. Fuller, Alfred Noyes, Rose Macaulay, Brian Lunn , Rebecca West, K. Hare , T. W. Earp
• D. H. Lawrence (1938) biography
• Next Year's News (1938) humour, with Malcolm Muggeridge
• Courage (1939) anthology
• Johnson Without Boswell: A Contemporary Portrait of Samuel Johnson (1940 editor
• The Fall (1940)
• This Blessed Plot (1942) travel, with Hesketh Pearson
• The Poisoned Crown (1944) essays on genealogies
• Talking Of Dick Whittington (1947) travel, with Hesketh Pearson)
• The Progress Of A Biographer (1949)
• The High Hill of the Muses (1955) anthology
• The Best of Hugh Kingsmill: Selections from his Writings (1970) edited by Michael Holroyd
• Bernard Shaw, His Life and Personality

Reference

• Hugh Kingsmill: A Critical Biography (1964) Michael Holroyd