Thomas Hood was born in London in 1799, the son of a Scottish bookseller. In 1815, following poor health, he was sent to Dundee, where he wrote for the local newspaper whilst recuperating with his father's relatives. He returned to London in 1818 and, after a period working as an engraver, in 1821 he was appointed sub-editor of the London Magazine, where he met Hazlitt, Lamb and John Reynolds. In 1829 he became editor of The Gem and published works by Tennyson, among others.

It would be easy to dismiss Hood as a lesser poet of the Romantic Era and early Victorian age, but his contribution went far beyond than that. Recognised during his lifetime for his comic writings, many self-published, it is for his more serious writings that he is best known today. His major serious work 'The Song of the Shirt', a powerful attack on worker exploitation, was published anonymously in Punch in 1843 and was immediately reprinted in the London Times and other newspapers across Europe. Hood died in London in 1845.