Hector Hugh Munro (Saki, 1870 - 1916)

Hector Hugh Munro

Hector Hugh Munro, known by his pen name Saki, is a British writer and journalist.

Born in Akyab, Burma (now known as Myanmar), Munro was sent to England to live with his grandmother after his mother died two years later. At the age of 20, he served as an officer in the colonial Burmese military police before returning to England.

In 1899 Munro published his only serious book under his own name, The Rise of the Russian Empire, and then began writing witty, mischievous, and sometimes macabre stories mocking Edwardian society and culture. He worked as a journalist for various publications, publishing political sketches in the style of Lewis Carroll. He is considered a master of the short story and is often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker.

From 1902 to 1908 Munro worked as a foreign correspondent for The Morning Post in the Balkans, Russia, and Paris. Shortly thereafter, he would publish a collection of his short stories, The Chronicles of Chlodwig (1911) and The Unbearable Bassington (1912). One of Saki's best-known short stories, "Sredni Vashtar," was screened several times. At the age of 44, Munro enlisted as a volunteer and was soon killed by a sniper's bullet on the front lines of World War I.