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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
Hulová, Petra
1979 -
The Czech author Petra Hulová was born in Prague, former Czechoslovakia. She grew up with two fathers and many stepsisters ...
Further reading
Tokarczuk, Olga
1962 -
Polish author, born in the little village Klenica in western Poland, where her parents were teachers at a residential...
Further reading
Lesage, Alain René
1668 - 1747
Alain-René Lesage was a French playwright and novelist born in Bretagne. He read law in Paris and practiced briefly before ...
Further reading
Laxness, Halldór
1902 - 1998
Icelandic author born in Reykjavik as Halldór Guðjónsson. When he was three years old his parents, Guðjón Helgason and Sigr...
Further reading