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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
Crumley, James
1939 - 2008
The American author and teacher James Arthur Crumley never reached bestseller status. However, he was instrumental in the...
Further reading
Blackwood, Algernon
1869 - 1951
The British author Algernon Henry Blackwood grew up in a strictly religious home in Kent. He soon abandoned his Christian...
Further reading
Atkinson, Kate
1951 -
The British author Kate Atkinson was born in York, her father was a shopkeeper. She read English literature at Dundee...
Further reading
Brecht, Bertolt
1898 - 1956
German poet, playwright and essayist born in Augsburg where his father was the managing director of a paper mill. Brecht...
Further reading