Robert Hichens was an English journalist, novelist, music lyricist, short story writer, music critic and collaborated on successful plays. He is best remembered as a satirist of the "Naughty Nineties." Hichens was born in Speldhurst in Kent, the eldest son of a clergyman. He was educated at Clifton College, the Royal College of Music and early on had a desire to be a musician. Later in life he would be a music critic on the World, taking the place of George Bernard Shaw. He studied at the London School of Journalism. Hichens was a great traveller. Egypt was one of his favourite destinations - he first went there in the early 1890s for his health. For most of his later life he lived outside England, in Switzerland and the Riviera. He never married.