Who said: "Education is the period during which you are being instructed by somebody you do not know, about something you do not want to know."

"Education is the period during which you are being instructed by somebody you do not know, about something you do not want to know."
— Gilbert K. Chesterton

The critic, novelist and poet, Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), was born in London, England. He studied at the Slade School of Art before starting to write. Much of his work was in the form of articles for periodicals, including his own publication which he took over from his brother in 1916 - originally named The New Witness, he renamed it The G.K. Weekly in 1925 and edited it up until his death. He is best known today for his 50 or so short stories about the seemingly benign Father Brown (who uses his distinctive style of deduction to solve the seemingly unsolvable - his cherubic face, thick glasses and air of outward confusion disguising an amazing perspicacity,) which he wrote between 1911 and 1935. Chesterton converted to Catholism in 1922, after which he devoted much of his time to writing on religious topics.

According to those who knew him, he had an extraordinary mind. He could quote entire chapters of Dickens and other authors from memory and proved on a dare that he remembered the plots of all the 10,000 novels he had evaluated while working as a publisher's reader. Several of his secretaries reported that he was able to simultaneously dictate one essay while writing another by hand on a different subject. He was able to connect ideas by tracing their logical, philosophical and historical basis, while also projecting their practical implications for human behavior - his writings are full of such connections.

He maintained lifelong friendships with many including, to his credit, some of those who were his antagonists in journalism, including George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells and J.M. Barrie.

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