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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
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
1749 - 1832
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in Frankfurt am Main. His father, Johann Kaspar Goethe, who had left public service...
Further reading
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
Fo, Dario
1926 - 2016
Italian playwright and actor, born in Sangiano in northern Italy. The father worked as a station master while the mother...
Further reading
Behan, Brendan
1923 - 1964
The Irish poet, author and playwright Brendan Behan was born in the poor inner city district of Dublin in 1923. His father,...
Further reading