G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was a prolific writer, poet, and satirist; a powerful journalist; and one of the most respected Catholic authors of the twentieth century. He converted to Catholicism in 1922 at the age of forty eight.

Chesterton's book Orthodoxy is one of the classics of Christian apologetics. His novel The Man Who Was Thursday probably influenced Franz Kafka, and his clerical detective Father Brown was featured in dozens of stories and is second only to Sherlock Holmes as the most loved amateur fictional sleuth in history. Chesterton lived in London.