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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
Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat
1689 - 1755
French man of letters and political philosopher; after Voltaire the most important cultural influence in France and in...
Further reading
Manchette, Jean-Patrick
1942 - 1995
Jean-Patrick Manchette was a French author credited for having revolutionised noir fiction in France. He was born in...
Further reading
Gardner, John (b. 1926)
1926 - 2007
John Edmund Gardner was a British novelist. He was born in the village of Seaton Delaval in Northumberland as the son of a...
Further reading
Hall, Tarquin
1969 -
British author and journalist born in London. He attended boarding school in Dorset until his father's bankruptcy. When he...
Further reading