Gilbert Abbott à Beckett (9 January 1811 – 30 August 1856) was an English humorist.
He was born in London, the son of a lawyer, and belonged to a family claiming descent from Thomas Becket. He was educated at Westminster School and was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1841.
He edited the comic paper Figaro in London and was one of the original staff of Punch and a contributor until his death. He was an active journalist on The Times and The Morning Herald, contributed a series of light articles to The Illustrated London News, conducted in 1846 The Almanack of the Month and found time to produce some fifty or sixty plays, among them dramatized versions of Charles Dickens's shorter stories, written in collaboration with Mark Lemon. He is perhaps best known as the author of Comic History of England, Comic History of Rome, Comic Blackstone, etc. --from Wikipedia
