F. Anstey

Born in Kensington, London, on August 8, 1856, Thomas Anstey Guthrie wrote under the pen name F. Anstey. He studied at King’s College School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and was called to the bar in 1880 before literature drew him away from law.

His breakthrough came with Vice Versa (1882), a lively body-swap story about a father and son that became his best-known book. He went on to write other comic fantasies, including The Tinted Venus and The Brass Bottle, building a reputation for stories that mixed everyday life with absurd or magical twists.

Anstey was also a longtime contributor to Punch, where his humor and gift for parody found a wide audience. He died on March 10, 1934, but his work still stands out for its playful imagination and its influence on later comic fantasy.