-
It is 184 years today since Thomas Hardy was born.
The English author Thomas Hardy was born in Stinsford near Dorchester in Dorset, the son of a stonemason and local builder. Hardy trained as an architect before moving to London when he was twenty-two years old. He returned to Dorset where he began to write his first novel. Hardy was interested in the writings of Charles Darwin and in naturalism. During his long life he became famous for his...
-
It is 111 years today since Barbara Pym was born.
Barbara Mary Crampton Pym was born in Oswestry, Shropshire, near the Welsh border where she grew up with her younger sister Hilary. Her father was a lawyer and her mother the organist in the local church. Many of the vicars and lay clergy that visited their home later turned up in Pym's books. She was privately educated, first at a girl's school and later at boarding school. After reading...
-
It is 75 years today since Ingrid Hedström was born.
TThe Swedish journalist and author Ingrid Hedström were born in Söderhamn in the central Swedish province of Hälsingland, and then moved to Avesta in nearby Dalarna when she was five years old. She is said to be one of the 1960’s so-called "welfare-state princesses", meaning that she was the first in her family to graduate from high school. She completed her final exam at Avesta Grammar School in...
Sample of Authors
Linna, Väinö
1920 - 1992
Finnish author born in Urjala as the seventh child in a working class family of ten children. His father, a butcher, died...
Further reading
Mattson, Ellen
1962 -
Ellen Mattson was born in Uddevalla in the county of Bohuslän, western Sweden, where she grew up in the countryside south ...
Further reading
Fforde, Jasper
1961 -
Jasper Fforde is a British author. He grew up in London and Wales. His father was an economist who was Chief Cashier of the...
Further reading
Garve, Andrew
1908 - 2001
Andrew Garve is the best known of the three pseudonyms that the English journalist and author Paul Winterton made use of...
Further reading