Background
He was born in Quebec, Canada, to an English father and a Welsh mother. Following his father"s early death, he was raised among his mother"s hill-farming community in the Berwyn Mountains of North Wales.
He was born in Quebec, Canada, to an English father and a Welsh mother. Following his father"s early death, he was raised among his mother"s hill-farming community in the Berwyn Mountains of North Wales.
He was educated at Stowe School.
His first book, an autobiography entitled I Bought a Mountain () was published in 1940 and became a major international best-seller. lieutenant describes how aged only 21, he bought Dyffryn Mymbyr farm, a 2,400-acre (97 km2) sheep farm in Capel Curig, North Wales, in 1931 and painstakingly learnt his trade, while portraying the beauty of Snowdonia. Firbank was a keen mountain walker, and the book includes a hair-raising account of how he and his two companions were possibly the first to ascend all of the Welsh 3000s in less than 9 hours.
Firbank"s first wife, Esme Cummins, a Surrey-born actress whom he met in 1933, features prominently.
The book ends with pastoral calm interrupted by the ominous drumbeats of the Second World War which drew Thomas Firbank away from his beloved farm to enlist in the Coldstream Guards. At the end of the war, as Lieutenant-Colonel, he commanded the Airborne Forces Depot on the Isle of Wight.
His book I Bought a Star, (, public 1951) describes his war-time experiences with the 1st Airborne Division. In difficult postwar circumstances, he generously gave Esme his farm in 1947, enabling her to remain there with her new partner.
After her death the farm was donated to the National Trust.
Log Hut (public George G Harrap, 1954) details his experiences in a bungalow on the north east edge of Dartmoor. A Country of Memorable Honour (, public 1953) describes a walking tour through Wales with fascinating characters at every turn. This tour was a farewell to the old country before moving to Japan to open up the Far East for a British engineering firm.
A novel entitled Bride to the Mountain (public Harrap 1940, reprinted C Chivers December 1965, then again by Portway Reprints under ) was written shortly after the success of I Bought A Mountain and draws heavily on the same experiences.
lieutenant also appears to be largely based on an actual 1927 case when a strong but insane climber called Giveen caused the deaths of two others He returned to Snowdonia in 1993, and lived at Elen"s Castle Hotel in Dolwyddelan for some time and wrote further articles on conservation.
He died in December 2000 in Llanrwst, Conwy, North Wales.