William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta in 1811. His parents returned to England in 1817 and Thackeray was educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge. However, Thackeray became addicted to gambling and left Cambridge in 1830 without a degree and heavily in debt.

At first Thackeray tried to make a living as a painter but after this ended in failure he turned to journalism. Thackeray moved to Paris where he became the French correspondent for the radical newspaper, The Constitutional. When The Constitutional ceased publication, Thackeray moved back to England and began contributing articles to a wide variety of newspapers and journals, including The Times, The Morning Chronicle, Fraser's Magazine and Punch Magazine.

Thackeray also began writing novels and in 1844 Fraser's Magazine serialised Barry Lyndon. In 1847 Thackeray published his most famous novel, Vanity Fair. This was followed by The History of Henry Esmond (1852), Newcomes (1853) and The Virginians (1857).

Although a successful novelist, Thackeray continued to write articles for journals such as Punch Magazine. In 1859 he became editor of the Cornhill Magazine, a monthly literary journal published by George Smith. William Makepeace Thackeray died in 1863.

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