-
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
Kundera, Milan
1929 - 2023
The Czech author Milan Kundera was born in Brno where his father was a pianist and professor at the Academy of Music....
Further reading
Derleth, August
1909 - 1971
American author, poet, editor and publisher, who wrote his first published novel Bat’s Belfry when he was 15 years old. W...
Further reading
Rankin, Ian
1960 -
The Scottish crime writer Ian James Rankin was born in the coal mining town of Cardenden, Fife, where his father owned a...
Further reading
Baldacci, David
1960 -
The American author David Baldacci, with family roots in Toscana in Italy, was born in Richmond, Virginia, as the youngest...
Further reading