Photo: Ola Erikson / Forflex
Sample of authors
Eco, Umberto
Umberto Eco was an Italian author, literary scholar, historian and philosopher born in Alessandria in Piedmont. His surname may refer to the fact that his grandfather was a foundling at a time when children were sometimes registered in church records as "Ex Caelis Oblatus", which can be translated as "offered by the heavens".
His father was a clerk and his mother’s maiden name was Giovanna B...
Literary figures
John Appleby
Gender: Male
Detective inspector, later commissioner, at Scotland Yard, and so clever that he is eventually knighted by the queen. He is the main character in a row of novels and short stories by Michael Innes, and ages gracefully at the same pace as his creator. When he retires, Sir John Appleby buys a country estate. He is married to sculptress Judith Raven, and they have a son, Bobby, who himself acts the...