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British actor/playwright Norman Lee spent most of the 1920s in South Africa, where along with many projects he directed the earliest (1923) film version of H. D. Stacpoole's The Blue Lagoon. Lee also kept busy in the theater as a director and revue writer until his permanent return to England in 1928, when he signed with Elstree Studios. From 1932 to 1941, he directed scores of low-budget British productions; one of his better projects was The Farmer's Wife, the 1941 remake of a 1928 Hitchcock silent which Lee had co-scripted. After 1943, he cut back on his film activities to concentrate on writing plays and novels. Norman Lee also wrote several fascinating and informative books about the filmmaking process: Money for Film Stories (1937), A Film is Born (1945), My Personal Log (1949) and Log of a Film Director (1949).