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Portrait of Kate Atkinson Photo: Martin Hunter / TT (2008)

Sample of authors

Atkinson, Kate

The British author Kate Atkinson was born in York, her father was a shopkeeper. She read English literature at Dundee University, graduating with an MA in 1974. She did postgraduate studies in American literature, but left university and worked as a legal secretary, home help and teacher. She began her writing career by publishing romantic short stories in women’s magazines. Kate Atkinson has b...

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Literary figures

Tom Ripley

Gender: Male

He is charming, handsome and cultivated as well as being a ruthless serial killer and psychopath totally lacking in empathy, the main character in five classic thrillers by Patricia Highsmith. Thomas ‘Tom’ Ripley became an orphan when he was five years old, and was brought up by a callous female relative. He later marries the wealthy Héloïse Plisson, but nevertheless has successfully continued his...

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