Saki

Saki was born Hector Hugh Munro on December 18, 1870 to a colonial British family living in Akyab, Burma (now Sittwe, Myanmar). Saki’s father, Charles Munro, was stationed as an Inspector General in Burma’s military police. In 1872, during a home visit to Pilton on England’s North Devon Coast, Saki’s mother, Mary Munro, was charged by a cow; she miscarried her fourth child and later died after the tragic accident. Upon Charles Munro’s return to Burma, Saki and his older brother and sister remained in Pilton where they were raised by their strict paternal aunts and grandmother. Saki’s childhood was characterized by an intense dislike of his authoritarian aunts alongside regular bouts of illness that saw him primarily home-schooled. During Saki’s late teenage years his father returned home and took the children traveling to Europe. In 1983 Saki was briefly stationed in Burma with the military police before illness sent him home. At the age of 26 he began publishing the satirical short stories that he is now best known for, while also working as a journalist and political satirist in London. He began work as a foreign correspondent for The Morning Post in 1982, subsequently living in Russia, the Balkans, and France, before returning to London. At age 43 he voluntarily enlisted in the British Army during World War I, where he refused a commission in the belief that soldiers should serve under officers with war-time experience. After rising to the position of corporal and then lance sergeant during his years serving in the War, he was fatally shot by a German sniper in the Battle of Ancre on November 14, 1916, and has no known grave. Throughout his adult life, Saki lived a gay but closeted experience. He is most remembered for his crisp and witty short stories that satirized middle- and upper-class Edwardian society.