-
It is 125 years today since Yasunari Kawabata was born.
Yasunari Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short story writer born in Osaka. He came from an educated, wealthy family, but he lost his parents at an early age and his only sibling, a sister, died when he was nine years old. These childhood traumas came to inform his writing. After growing up with his maternal grandfather in the countryside, Kawabata read English and Japanese literature at...
-
It is 113 years today since Victor Canning was born.
Victor Canning was a British author of humorous adventure stories and thrillers. He was born in Plymouth, Devon. At the outbreak of the First World War, while his father was doing his military service, he went with his mother and siblings to live with his uncle in Calstock, a few miles north of Plymouth. This was where Canning fell in love with the English countryside, which features prominently...
Sample of Authors
Savater, Fernando
1947 -
The Spanish philosopher and activist Fernando Savater is the author of novels, plays, essays and journalism. He was born in...
Further reading
Böll, Heinrich
1917 - 1985
German author born in Cologne. Böll was brought up a Roman Catholic in a middle-class family with pacifist and anti-Nazi ...
Further reading
Lewis, Mary
1907 - 1988
Writing as Christianna Brand, Mary Lewis, born Mary Christianna Milne, was one of Britain’s foremost crime writers and c...
Further reading
Esterházy, Péter
1950 - 2016
The Hungarian author Péter Esterházy was born into one of Hungary's wealthiest and most influential aristocratic families. H...
Further reading