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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
Malamud, Bernard
1914 - 1986
Bernard Malamud was an American author born in Brooklyn, New York, to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants. The family...
Further reading
Lenz, Siegfried
1926 - 2014
Siegfried Lenz, known for his strong social critique, is among the foremost German post-war authors alongside Heinrich...
Further reading
Dickens, Charles
1812 - 1870
Charles Dickens appealed to rich and poor alike, and was the most popular of all the Victorian authors. He was born into a...
Further reading
Peters, Ellis
1913 - 1995
Because readers know the British author Edith Mary Pargeter both by her own and her pen name Ellis Peters, some of her...
Further reading