Meny
  • 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.
    H...

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Sample of Authors

Portrait image of John Fowles

Fowles, John
1926 - 2005

John Robert Fowles was born in a middle-class family in the Essex town of Leigh-on-Sea. His father, Robert Fowles, dreamt...

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Portrait image of Thomas Keneally

Keneally, Thomas
1935 -

The novelist and non-fiction writer Thomas ‘Tom’ Keneally descends from a family of Irish prisoners that were deported to Aus...

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Portrait of Jo Spain

Spain, Jo
1979 -

The Irish author Joanne ‘Jo’ Spain was born into a working-class family in the little notorious residential district of Bel...

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Portrait image of Josef Skvorecky

Skvorecky, Josef
1924 - 2012

The Czech author, editor, translator and (film)scriptwriter Josef Škvorecký was born in Náchod, in Bohemia. He is co...

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