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It is 80 years today since Kjartan Fløgstad was born.
Norwegian author born in the industrial city of Sauda. He has worked at the smelting plant in Sauda and on a Norwegian cargo ship on which he travelled all over the world, especially South America. His experiences and impressions from this continent would later become highly significant to his work. (In 2004 Fløgstad received a Chilean arts award.) He briefly studied architecture at the ...
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It is 72 years today since Orhan Pamuk was born.
Turkish author, born and grew up in Istanbul, Nisantasi, in an affluent middle-class family. The father was a civil engineer, as was Orhan’s grandfather, who laid the foundations for the family’s fortune. After graduating from school – the secular American Robert College – Pamuk studied Architecture and Journalism. Until he was 22, he devoted himself to painting and dreamt of becoming an artist. T...
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It is 67 years today since Fred Vargas was born.
Fred Vargas is a pseudonym used by the French historian, archaeologist and crime writer Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau. "Vargas" was a character played by Ava Gardener in The Barefoot Contessa; the name was first used by Audoin-Rouzeau’s twin sister Joëlle, the visual artist Jo Vargas. Their father, Philippe Audoin-Rouzeau, was a journalist and a famous figure in surrealist circles. He was very part...
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It is 158 years today since E.W. Hornung was born.
The English teacher and journalist Ernest William Hornung (Willie to his family) was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s brother-in-law. If Sir Arthur was the father of Sherlock Holmes, the most famous fictional detective in the world, you could say that Hornung created the most famous crook, the gentleman thief A.J. Raffles. Like Holmes, Raffles has occasionally turned up in books by other authors.
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Sample of Authors
Booth, Stephen
1952 -
The British crime writer Stephen Booth was born in Burnley, Lancashire. He grew up in Blackpool where he moved with his...
Further reading
Saadawi, Nawal El
1931 - 2021
Nawal El Saadawi was an Egyptian writer and feminist. She was born and raised in a child-rich family in the small village...
Further reading
Carpentier, Alejo
1904 - 1980
Cuban author, who was born in Lausanne in Switzerland but moved with his parents to Havana when newly born. His father was...
Further reading
Zangwill, Israel
1864 - 1926
Israel Zangwill was a British Jewish author. His father had emigrated from Lithuania and his mother was a Polish refugee....
Further reading