William Tufnell Le Queux (1864-1927) was an Anglo-French journalist and writer. He was also a diplomat (honorary consul for San Marino), a traveller in Europe, the Balkans and North Africa, a flying buff, and a wireless pioneer. His best-known works are the invasion fantasies The Great War in England in 1897 (1894), and The Invasion of 1910 (1906), the latter becoming a bestseller. He was born in London and educated in Europe, studying art in Paris, and undertook a walking tour of Europe as a young man before supporting himself writing for French newspapers. In the late 1880s he returned to London where he edited the magazines Gossip and Piccadilly before joining the staff of The Globe as a parliamentary reporter in 1891. Two years later he abandoned journalism to concentrate on writing and travelling. He became a prolific author in the genres of mystery, thriller and espionage, producing numerous spy stories, many of which were included in his story collections, and invasion literature in the years leading up to WWI. He also wrote widely on wireless broadcasting and produced a number of travel books. The Mysterious Three (1915) is an adventure thriller that unfolds after a visit to the home of Sir Charles and Lady Thorold, in their absence, by a mysterious stranger calling himself Smithson whom their butler describes as looking like a man in a portrait they own.