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  • It is 117 years today since Leslie Charteris was born.

    Leslie Charteris was born in colonial Singapore as Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin. His father, Suat Chuan Yin, was a wealthy physician and company manager who claimed he was related to an ancient Chinese imperial family. Charteris' mother, Lydia Florence Bowyer, was English. Young Leslie was educated at home and on the many journeys he made with his parents; he claimed to have toured the world three...

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  • It is 60 years today since Ferdinand von Schirach was born.

    Ferdinand von Schirach is a German lawyer and author born in Munich to a wealthy Protestant family. He grew up in Munich and Trossingen. When he was ten years old, he was enrolled at the St. Blasien Catholic boarding school where he passed his baccalaureate in 1984. Von Schirach later reported that these formative years had made it hard for him to believe in God.
    Von Schirach followed the...

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Sample of Authors

Portrait of James McClure

McClure, James
1939 - 2006

The journalist and author James "Jim" McClure’s Scottish parents left for South Africa in 1930, and he was subsequently b...

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Portrait of John Le Carré

Le Carré, John
1931 - 2020

Born David John Moore Cornwell in Poole, county of Dorset, England, John le Carré grew up in a troubled home. While his ...

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Portrait of Ricardo Piglia

Piglia, Ricardo
1941 - 2017

Argentinian novelist, critic, essayist and university lecturer born in the city of Adrogué 200 kilometres south of Buenos ...

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Portrait of Steven Saylor

Saylor, Steven
1956 -

The American author Steven Saylor has pursued two separate literary careers. In the 1980s and early ‘90s he was one of the m...

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