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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
Mann, Thomas
1875 - 1955
The German novelist and short story writer Thomas Mann was born in Lübeck. His father, who was a senator and wealthy ...
Further reading
NDiaye, Marie
1967 -
The French novelist and playwright Marie NDiaye was born in Pithiviers, Loiret, about fifty kilometres south of Paris. When...
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Hodgson, William Hope
1877 - 1918
William Hope Hodgson was the son of an Anglican priest who grew up in England and Ireland alongside his eleven sisters and...
Further reading
Powell, Richard
1908 - 1999
Richard Powell was an author, journalist and advertising man born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he lived most of his...
Further reading