Saki (1870-1916) is the well-known pseudonym adopted by Hector Hugh Munro (H. H. Munro), who was born in Burma but moved with his family to their native England three years later. Munro began writing for a living in 1896. In 1900, he teamed with illustrator Francis Carruthers Gould for a series of satirical political sketches collected as "The Westminster Alice" (1902). These sketches were bylined 'Saki,' the name Munro would sign to all of his fiction thereafter. For much of the next decade he wrote fiction prolifically while serving as a journalist for several newspapers. The stories he collected in "Reginald" (1904), "Reginald in Russia, and Other Sketches" (1910), "The Chronicles of Clovis" (1911), and "The Toys of Peace" (1919) are memorable for their depictions of ironic twists of fate and subtly vicious behaviors that discompose genteel upper class British households. He also wrote the novels "The Unbearable Bassington" (1912) and "When William Came" (1914). -- From book jacket.