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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...
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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...
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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
Neruda, Pablo
1904 - 1973
The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was born as Ricardo Neftalí Reyes Basualto in the town of Parral some four hundred kilometres ...
Further reading
Collins, Max Allan
1948 -
A very productive American multitasker, known primarily as a crime author, born in Muscatine in Iowa. With the exception of...
Further reading
Didion, Joan
1934 - 2021
The American author Joan Didion was born and grew up in Sacramento, California, where her family had been living for five...
Further reading
Cixous, Hélène
1937 -
The French philosopher, scholar and author Hélène Cixous is a leading post-structuralist feminist scholar alongside Luce I...
Further reading