Maurois was born in Elbeuf and educated in Rouen, both in Normandy. During World War I he joined the French army and served as an interpreter and later a liaison officer to the British army. His first novel, Les silences du colonel Bramble, was a witty but socially realistic account of that experience. It was an immediate success in France. It was translated and also became popular in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries as The Silence of Colonel Bramble. Many of his other works have also been translated into English (mainly by Hamish Miles (1894 - 1937)), as they often dealt with British people or topics, such as his biographies of Disraeli, Byron, and Shelley.