Educated at Merchant Taylor's School and Trinity College, Cambridge, Shanks entered the army at the outbreak of World War I and served in France. He was wounded and invalided out in 1915. He was one of the minor poets of the war and published Songs in 1915. In 1920, he published The People of the Ruins a science fiction work which was well-received. He worked as a literary reviewer at the London Mercury during the 1920's. He was a journalist and critic for the Evening Standard during the 1930's. In 1936, he published the novel Old King Cole, which had moderate success. His other works include Queen of China and Other Poems (1919), Bernard Shaw (1924), Fairy Hill (1931), Queer Street (1932), Enchanted Village (1933), Tom Tiddler's Ground (1934), The Dark Green Circle (1936), Edgar Allan Poe (1937), My England (1938) and Elizabeth Goes Home (1942). |
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