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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
Faulkner, William
1897 - 1962
In reality William Cuthbert Falkner, American author, born in New Albany, Mississippi but raised mainly in Oxford in the...
Further reading
Innes, Michael
1906 - 1994
Michael Innes is the pen name adopted by John Innes Mackintosh Stewart, a British author and professor of literature at...
Further reading
Seifert, Jaroslav
1901 - 1986
The Czech poet Jaroslav Seifert was born in the deprived working class district of Zizkov in Prague. He joined the...
Further reading
Tafdrup, Pia
1952 -
The Danish author Pia Tafdrup was born in Copenhagen, grew up in the countryside on North Jutland and later attended the...
Further reading