Theodore Hook
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Theodore Edward Hook was an English writer, intellectual, prankster and civil servant. One of the first writers of the English fashionable novel, he is best known for his practical jokes, particularly
Portrait by Eden Upton Eddis
c. 1810 portrait of Hook
Caricature of the Berners Street hoax
Berners Street hoax
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The Berners Street hoax was perpetrated by the writer Theodore Hook in Westminster in 1810. After several weeks of preparation he made an apparently spontaneous bet with a friend that he could transfo
Theodore Hook
…prankster and civil servant. One of the first writers of the English fashionable novel, he is best known for his practical jokes, particularly the Berners Street hoax in 1810. The world's first postcard was received by Hook in 1840; he likely posted it to himself. Hook was born in Charlotte Street, Bedford Square…
Illustration of the hoax