Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) was born in Dublin to Anglo-Irish Protestant parents. His father died before he was born, and Swift’s childhood was spent partly in the care of relatives before he was educated at Kilkenny College and Trinity College Dublin. 

After moving to England, he became secretary to the statesman Sir William Temple, through whom he entered literary and political circles. Swift later returned to Ireland, where he became Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, and one of the most formidable satirists in the English language. His writings include 

 (1729), which remains a touchstone of deadpan political satire to this day. 

 (1726) for which he is chiefly remembered. Presented as voyage literature, it uses maps, invented islands, and imagined societies to skewer politics, science, imperialism, and human pride. Its imaginary geographies anticipate later traditions of speculative fiction, in which invented worlds are used to estrange and anatomise our own.