John Aubrey was an influential English writer, antiquary, and naturalist, best known for his collection of short biographical sketches, 'Brief Lives'. Born into a prosperous gentry family in Wiltshire, he studied at Trinity College, Oxford, but his formal education was interrupted by the English Civil War. Throughout his life, he meticulously documented the lives of his contemporaries and the antiquities of Britain, pioneering a gossip-based, anecdotal style of biography. Although his work was often disorganized and left unpublished in his lifetime, his candid observations have made him a vital source for 17th-century English history.