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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
Gide, André
1869 - 1951
The French novelist, poet and playwright was born into a wealthy, strictly protestant bourgeois Paris family. His father, a...
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Matheson, Richard
1926 - 2013
Richard Matheson was born in New Jersey and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. After his parents divorce he lived with his...
Further reading
Hart, John
1965 -
John Hart is considered to be one of the great names in American crime fiction during the 21st century. All of his books...
Further reading
Boccaccio, Giovanni
1313 - 1375
Italian Renaissance author. His place of birth is uncertain; he was either born in Paris or Florence as the illegitimate...
Further reading