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  • It is 152 years today since Bertrand Russell was born.

    The British philosopher and author Bertrand Arthur William Russel was born in Trelleck, Monmouthshire, Wales, to an aristocratic family that included the former Prime Minister Lord John Russell. His parents were liberal and advocated, among other things, the emancipation of women. Although his godfather was John Stuart Mill, the boy was brought up by his Presbyterian grandmother after he was...

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  • It is 80 years today since W.G. Sebald was born.

    Winfried Georg (W.G.) Sebald was born near the end of the Second World War in the Bavarian mountain village of Wertach where his mother had moved to get away from the bombing of the town of Bamberg. His parents, Rosa and Georg, had three children. His father, an officer of the Wehrmacht who had participated in the invasion of Poland, was a prisoner of war until 1947, but mentioning the war was...

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Sample of Authors

Portrait image of Halldór Laxness

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
Portrait of Diane Mott Davidson

Davidson, Diane Mott
1949 -

The American crime writer Diane Mott Davidson was born, one of six siblings, in Honolulu, Hawaii, where her father, a naval...

Further reading
Portrait of Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Dürrenmatt, Friedrich
1921 - 1990

Friedrich Dürrenmatt was a German-language, Swiss author, playwright and social critic. He was born in the town of Stalden ...

Further reading
Portrait of Iain Pears

Pears, Iain
1955 -

Iain Pears is a British author, art historian and journalist. He was born in Coventry where his father was a company...

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