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 London and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and was called to the bar in 1880, but fiction quickly pulled him in a different direction.

His breakthrough came with Vice Versa in 1882, a body-swap comedy between a father and son that became his most famous book. He went on to write many humorous and fantastical stories, often mixing ordinary settings with one strange twist, which gave his work an easy charm that still feels fresh.

Alongside his fiction, he also worked as a journalist and was associated with Punch, the celebrated British humor magazine. He died in 1934, leaving behind a body of comic writing that helped shape light fantasy and English humorous fiction.