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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
Williams, Tennessee
1911 - 1983
American playwright born in Columbus, Mississippi as Thomas Lanier Williams. His father was a travelling shoe salesman, and...
Further reading
Gide, André
1869 - 1951
The French novelist, poet and playwright was born into a wealthy, strictly protestant bourgeois Paris family. His father, a...
Further reading
Quasimodo, Salvatore
1901 - 1968
Salvatore Quasimodo was an Italian poet born in Modica, near Syracuse on Sicily. He was the second of four children. His...
Further reading
Burgess, Melvin
1954 -
Melvin Burgess is an author of books for children and young adults. He was born in Twickenham, London, and grew up in...
Further reading