Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin in 1667 and died there in 1745. An Anglo-Irish writer, he was ordained in the Church of Ireland and spent much of his later life as Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. He also moved among the political and literary circles of London, where he wrote pamphlets for the Tory cause and befriended writers such as Alexander Pope.

Swift is remembered as the greatest prose satirist in English. His best-known works, Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal, use irony, invented worlds and a deadpan voice to attack folly, pride and injustice. In Ireland he is also honoured for his pamphlets defending the country's people against English economic neglect. His clear, forceful style still reads as fresh and sharp today.