Henri de Monfreyd (1879 - 1974) - French writer who worked in the adventure genre.
He began his career as a diplomat in the French mission in Calcutta , then he went into business for some time - he sold leather and coffee. However, all his life he was attracted by sea adventures, and at 32, he finally left public service and went to the French colony of Djibouti , where he was engaged in pearl mining.
On the advice of the famous French writer Joseph Kessel, he wrote his first story "Secrets of the Red Sea" - about pearl hunters, which was enthusiastically received by readers, and the author won fame as a "corsair writer". His next novels “The Man Who Came Out of the Sea” and “Smuggling Flight” tell about the further adventures of the author, who decided to do business in the drug trade in Egypt . These stories are also written on the basis of personal experience: for smuggling drugs Monfreyd goes to prison, he is accused of murder, and he miraculously avoids punishment.