(John Frederick) Norman Lewis (1908 – 2003) was an influential British journalist and a prolific author. He was born in Enfield, north London but sent away to Wales to stay with three aunts because he was bullied at school. By his mid-20’s, travelling and writing were Lewis’ primary occupations and he published Spanish Adventure in 1935, and Sand and Sea in Arabia in 1938, the beginning of his travel writing.

In 1959, Lewis was working for the Sunday Times and MI6, as was Ian Fleming. Fleming sent Lewis to Cuba where he met the model for James Bond, Ed Scott. The meeting with Scott was observed by Graham Greene, who recorded it in his novel, Our Man in Havana (1958). On the same trip, Lewis met Ernest Hemingway, who, apparently, taught Lewis “more than I wanted to know.” Norman Lewis also wrote an autobiography in several volumes and around 12 novels.