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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
Hamid, Mohsin
1971 -
Mohsin Hamid was born in Pakistan. His father was a first generation Pakistani born in 1947, the year of partition. Mohsin...
Further reading
Futrelle, Jacques
1875 - 1912
The American journalist and author Jacques Heath Futrelle made sure there was room for his wife in a lifeboat before he...
Further reading
Delany, Samuel R.
1942 -
American science fiction author born in Harlem, New York. Samuel Ray Delany Jr. grew up above his father's funeral parlour....
Further reading
Chatterton, Thomas
1752 - 1770
British poet and satirist born in Bristol where he grew up in the shadow of the city's magnificent 15th century cathedral,...
Further reading