An undisputed masterpiece - Daily Telegraph

A poet, a rebel, a philosopher, a genius far ahead of his time, [Stevenson] has given us some of the most powerful characters of English literature - Daily Mail

What I didn't anticipate was the power of Stevenson's prose. His ability to bring everything vividly to life is still astonishing. It was probably the first time for me that reading became as exciting as messing about. The pirate has a dangerous glamour to him, a degenerate dandyism, something, once I was in my teens, that I would admire in people like David Bowie and Sid Vicious' -- Jake Arnott - Daily Telegraph

Reading Treasure Island at the age of seven or eight was my real awakening as a reader...it is all as frightening and exciting when read for the umpteenth time in middle age as when first discovered in childhood -- A.N.Wilson, - Daily Telegraph

I believe Treasure Island to be Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece. The very opening - the murder-bent Blind Pew, tapping his way towards the isolated inn - is designed to make our flesh creep. Long John Silver is a great literary creation. Re-reading the book, it gripped me as firmly now as it did under the torch-lit blankets 60 years ago -- George Melly - Sunday Telegraph

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh in 1850. Chronically ill with bronchitis and possibly tuberculosis, Stevenson withdrew from Engineering at Edinburgh University in favour of Studying Law. Although he passed the bar and became an advocate in 1875, he knew that his true work was as a writer.

Between 1876 and his death in 1894, Stevenson wrote prolifically. His published essays, short stories, fiction, travel books, plays, letters and poetry number in dozens. The most famous of his works include Travels With A Donkey in the Cevennes (1879), New Arabian Nights (1882), Treasure Island (1883), The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1887), Thrawn Janet (1887) and Kidnapped (1893).

After marrying Fanny Osbourne in 1880 Stevenson continued to travel and to write about his experiences. His poor health led him and his family to Valima in Samoa, where they settled. During his days there Stevenson was known as ‘Tusitala’ or ‘The Story Teller’. His love of telling romantic and adventure stories allowed him to connect easily with the universal child in all of us. ‘Fiction is to grown men what play is to the child,’ he said.

Robert Louis Stevenson died in Valima in 1894 of a brain haemorrhage.

Andrew Motion is the former Poet Laureate, co-founded the Poetry Archive and was knighted for his services to literature in 2009. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and lives in London.