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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
Auster, Paul
1947 - 2024
American author from a Jewish family, born in Newark, New Jersey. His parents, Queenie and Samuel Auster, came from Poland....
Further reading
Mo Yan
1955 -
Pseudonym for Guan Moye, a Chinese author born to poor farmers in Gaomi, northeast Shandong province. His father only went...
Further reading
Stefánsson, Jón Kalman
1963 -
The Icelandic author Jón Kalman Stefánsson grew up in Reykjavik, but also spent a lot of time in the countryside. After s...
Further reading
Fyfield, Frances
1948 -
Frances Fyfield is the pseudonym of the British crime-writer Frances Hegarty who grew up in Derbyshire, England. Her father...
Further reading