Robert Louis Stevenson was the kind of writer who would probably find it an adventure even to go shopping for bread. Born in 1850 in cold Scotland, he was destined to follow the family tradition of building lighthouses, but he preferred to enlighten readers' minds with stories full of pirates, double identities and lots of Victorian drama.

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He suffered from ill health, but that didn't stop him from writing classics such as "Treasure Island" and "The Doctor and the Beast" - the latter a literary spoiler about what happens when you ignore your internal B.O.s.

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He travelled the world in search of better weather and less boredom, and ended up settling in Samoa, where he became something of a local celebrity. He died in 1894, but left so much adventure on paper that it seems he's still out there, hiding on a mysterious island or in a sinister laboratory.