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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
Charteris, Leslie
1907 - 1993
Leslie Charteris was born in colonial Singapore as Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin. His father, Suat Chuan Yin, was a wealthy...
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Isaksson, Ulla
1916 - 2000
Ulla Isaksson was born in Stockholm as Ulla Margareta Lundberg in a family of comfortable means. She attended a secondary...
Further reading
Christie, Agatha
1890 - 1976
English detective writer, born as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller in an affluent middle-class home in Torquay in Devon County....
Further reading
Barnard, Robert
1936 - 2013
Robert Barnard was an English crime writer and scholar of international fame. He was born in Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex. In...
Further reading