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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
Bjerke, André
1918 - 1985
André Bjerke was a prominent figure on the Norwegian culture scene in the 1990s. He was an authority on Norwegian post-war ...
Further reading
Ambler, Eric
1909 - 1998
Eric Clifford Ambler was a British author and playwright born in London. His parents were music hall artists, and at the...
Further reading
Rothmann, Ralf
1953 -
The German author Ralf Rothmann was born to a Catholic family in Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein. He grew up in Oberhausen in...
Further reading
Walters, Minette
1949 -
Minette Walters is an author of crime fiction born Minette Jebb in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. Her father w...
Further reading