Background of the author H. H. Munro The British author Hector Hugh Munro(1870 1916) published under the pen name Saki. His father was an inspector general of the Burma police. His mother died in 1872 when Munro was only two years old. After her death he with his two older siblings a brother and sister were sent to England. Their childhood in England was not happy as their two maiden aunts, Charlotte and Augusta, were very strict disciplinarians who resorted not only to physical punishment but also cruelty which resulted in psychological trauma. Religion too played a strong role in the household. A fear of God and individual self- discipline was to be instilled in the children at a young age Munro s sister, E M. Munro, who wrote the Biography of Saki 1924) One of Munro s aunts, Augusta, was a woman of ungovernable temper, of fierce likes and dislikes, imperious, a moral coward, possessing no brains worth speaking of, and a primitive disposition Ethel Munro further states that the aunts imposed a regime ot seclusion, restraint, and arbitrary rules enforced in the case of Charlie l Saki' s brother by corporal punishment and in the case ot Hector Sakil and Ethel by coldness, removal of privileges, and guilt.According to Saki' s sister their aunts and grandmother tried to instill the tear of God into their charges Thus, it could be stated that The Lumber Room is a near- autobiographical depiction of Munro s unhappy childhood experiences under his guardians. The Aunt in the short story is not entirely fictional. She had a real lite equal in one of Munro s aunts: Augusta making the background of author an important facet the short story