JEROME K. JEROME (1859–1927) was an English writer and humourist, best known for the comic travelogue Three Men in a Boat (1889). He wished to go into politics or be a man of letters, but the death of his father when Jerome was 13 and of his mother when he was 15 forced him to quit his studies and find work to support himself. He was employed at the London and North Western Railway, was a stage actor, school teacher, a packer, and a solicitor’s clerk. Having some success with comic essays and memoirs, his most famous work was inspired by his honeymoon, spent in a boat on the Thames. He was  chosen to edit The Idler magazine over Rudyard Kipling. Amongst his varied works are a scattering of weird tales and comical ghost stories.