Charles Percy Snow was born in Leicester, in 1905. He was a novelist, critic and scientist, and was educated as a chemist and physicist at the universities of Leicester and Cambridge. He did scientific work in the 1930s and during the Second World War was the chief of scientific personnel for the ministry of labour. He was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1943, he was knighted in 1957, and created a life peer in 1964. He was the parliamentary secretary to the minister of technology between 1964 and 1966. 

Lord Snow is best known for a series of novels about English life between 1920 and 1950. The series is named Strangers and Brothers. The first book was published in 1940, and the last and 11th book was published in 1974. He died in 1980.

By Daniel J Spencer