Gulliver's encounters - with the crude giants of Brobdingnag, the philosophical Houyhnhnms and brutish Yahoos - give him new, bitter insights into human behaviour. Swift's savage satire views mankind in a distorted hall of mirrors as a diminished, magnified and finally bestial species, presenting us with an uncompromising reflection of ourselves.

Jonathan Swift - Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 - 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then for the Tories), poet and cleric who became Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin. He is remembered for works such as Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, Drapier's Letters, The Battle of the Books, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, and A Tale of a Tub.

Swift originally published all of his works under pseudonyms — such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier — or anonymously. He is also known for being a master of two styles of satire; the Horatian and Juvenalian style. He is regarded as one of the most influential political writers of his time.

Jeremy Paxman - Jeremy's Paxman's probing intelligence and wit, used so effectively in his role as a current affairs broadcaster, are applied here to the classic Swiftian satires. Jeremy has written a number of books, including The English: a Portrait of a People and Fish, Fishing and the Meaning of Life.

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