Alfred Ollivant (1874âÂÂ1927) was an English novelist, known for his novel Owd Bob. Ollivant also published about a dozen other novels ranging from small-scale cautionary tales to grand historical stories.
Alfred Ollivant was born in Nuthurst, West Sussex, in 1874 and became a writer after a horse-riding injury ended his brief military career.
Owd Bob, his first novel, was published in 1898. Set in rural Cumbria, in northern England, the novel concerns a suspected sheep-killing collie, Bob. Even though most of the book's dialogue is written in the Cumbrian dialect, it became popular in the United States. Ollivant published a sequel, Danny, in 1902.
He was also a short-story contributor to the magazines The Atlantic Monthly and the Boston Evening Transcript.
Alfred Ollivant died in London on 19 January 1927.