George William MacArthur Reynolds was a journalist and, as author of "penny dreadful" serials, one of the most popular authors of Victorian England. He was also a leading proponent of the working-class Chartist movement for expanded suffrage and other populist Parliamentary reforms.

During his lifetime, Reynolds greatly outsold Dickens and Thackery, and on his death, he was described by The Bookseller as 'the most popular writer of our times'.