Photo: David Shankbone (2009) CC BY 3.0
Sample of authors
Vidal, Gore
The American novelist and essayist Gore Vidal was born at West Point, New York. He was originally christened Eugene Vidal, but in his teens he changed his first name to his maternal grandfather’s surname. Gore Vidal was the only child of the pilot Eugene Luther Vidal and his wife, Nina S. Gore, an actress. He was not close to either. His parents were divorced when Vidal was ten, and although he m...
Literary figures
Roderick Alleyn
Gender: Male
His titled parents wanted him to become a diplomat; instead Roderick Alleyn chose to become a police officer and work for Scotland Yard. In more than 30 novels by Ngaio Marsh, he solves cases in a highly cultivated manner, often side-by-side with his wife, portrait-painter Agatha Troy. He is tall, dark and ‘stylish’ and is just as much at home in society as with the inhabitants of small country to...