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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
Parsons, Tony
1953 -
English author and journalist, born and grew up as the only child in a working-class family in Romford, Essex. When Tony...
Further reading
McBain, Ed
1926 - 2005
Ed McBain is the best-known pen name for Evan Hunter, born Salvatore Alberto Lombino, a versatile and prolific American...
Further reading
Sholokhov, Mikhail
1905 - 1984
The Russian novelist and short story writer Mikhail Sholokhov was born in the village Veshenskaya (near Roston-on-Don) at...
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