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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
Francis, Dick
1920 - 2010
The British jockey and author Richard Stanley "Dick" Francis is famous worldwide both as a champion jockey – at one time j...
Further reading
Montale, Eugenio
1896 - 1981
The Italian poet and translator Eugenio Montale was born to a middle-class family in Genoa. He was the youngest of seven...
Further reading
Truc, Olivier
1964 -
The French author Olivier Truc is a journalist and war correspondent. Truc has been working for Le Monde in Scandinavia and...
Further reading
Highsmith, Patricia
1921 - 1995
Patricia Highsmith was an American author born in Fort Worth, Texas, as Mary Patricia Plangman. Both parents were artists...
Further reading