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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
Petterson, Per
1952 -
Norwegian author born in Oslo to a working class family with left-wing sympathies. His father was a logger of Swedish...
Further reading
Davis, Lindsey
1949 -
Lindsey Davis is a British crime writer born in Birmingham where she attended the King Edward VI High School for Girls...
Further reading
Lee, Harper
1926 - 2016
Nelle Harper Lee was an American author who grew up in the town of Monroeville, Alabama, as the youngest of four siblings....
Further reading
Voltaire
1694 - 1778
French author, the son of a notary, born as François-Marie Arouet in Paris. When he was ten years old, he was admitted to ...
Further reading