Edward Verrall Lucas was born in 1868 of a Quaker family and at the age of sixteen was an apprentice in a Brighton book shop before joining the staff of the Sussex Daily News as a reporter. In 1904 he published Highways and Byways in Sussex and on the strength of the popularity of the book E.V. Lucas came to be regarded as an authority on the county. He became a prolific writer on travel and paintings and his humorous verses in Punch and his books of nonsense and parody tickled the country. He wrote on cricket and he annotated the works of Charles and Mary Lamb. He received the Companion of Honour in 1932 and an honorary doctorate at Oxford and St Andrews as well as numerous other testimonials to his work.