After reading both History and Geography at Merton College Oxford, A. W. Hurst became a master at Monkton Combe School whilst deciding what to do with his life. It was then that he wrote The Armadillo. The outbreak of the 2nd World War rather made the decision for him. He joined the Royal Artillery and after a spell defending Newcastle with anti-aircraft guns, he was posted to India for three and a half years. Returning to civilian life, he became Divisional Education Officer responsible for the schools in South Buckinghamshire. He was at heart a naturalist with an encyclopaedic knowledge and abiding love for the English countryside. He was a founder member of the Bucks, Berks and Oxon Naturalist Trust and an advocate for protecting the environment well ahead of his time. He loved poetry, wrote the words of the Aylesbury Grammar School Song – and was still writing poetry into his nineties.