Curated category
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
- Frederick S. BoasFrederick Samuel Boas entered the world on the 24th of July 1862 as the eldest son of Hermann Boas from Belfast. His family background was Jewish, a detail…
- Jack ScarisbrickJohn Joseph Scarisbrick entered the world in London during 1928. His early education took place at The John Fisher School before he joined the Royal Air…
- J. R. R. TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on the 3rd of January 1892 in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State. His father Arthur worked as a bank manager for the British…
- Agatha ChristieAgatha Mary Clarissa Miller entered the world on the 15th of September 1890 in Torquay, Devon. She was born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family with her…
- Rudyard KiplingRudyard Kipling was born on the 30th of December 1865 in Bombay, British India. His parents were Alice Kipling and John Lockwood Kipling.
- Thomas HardyThomas Hardy was born on the 2nd of June 1840 in Higher Bockhampton, a small hamlet east of Dorchester. His father worked as a stonemason and local builder…
- George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw was born on the 26th of July 1856 at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin.
- Emma ThompsonEmma Thompson arrived at Newnham College, Cambridge in 1977 to study English. Her father Eric Thompson had been a beloved children's television writer known…
- Salman RushdieSir Ahmed Salman Rushdie entered the world on the 19th of June 1947 in Bombay. This city was then part of British India and is now known as Mumbai within…
- Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor Coleridge was born on the 21st of October 1772 in Ottery St Mary, a small town in Devon. His father served as the vicar of the local church and…
- James Wood (critic)James Douglas Graham Wood was born on the 1st of November 1965 in Durham, England. His father Dennis William Wood worked as a minister and professor of…
- Antony BeevorAntony James Beevor was born in Kensington, London on the 14th of December 1946. He attended Abberley Hall School and Winchester College before joining the…
- William DalrympleWilliam Benedict Hamilton-Dalrymple entered the world on the 20th of March 1965 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was the youngest of four sons born to Major Sir…
- Tom StoppardOn the 15th of March 1939, the day Nazi forces invaded Czechoslovakia, a five-year-old boy named Tomáš Sträussler fled his hometown of Zlín with his mother…
- Hilary MantelHilary Mary Thompson was born on the 6th of July 1952 in Glossop, Derbyshire. She grew up as a Roman Catholic in the mill village of Hadfield.
- H. F. M. PrescottHilda Frances Margaret Prescott entered the world on the 22nd of February 1896 in Cheshire. Her father was Rev James Mulleneux Prescott and her mother was…
- Eric HobsbawmEric Hobsbawm entered the world on the 9th of June 1917 in Alexandria, Egypt. His father Leopold Percy Hobsbaum was a Jewish merchant from London's East End…
- Philip LarkinPhilip Arthur Larkin was born on the 9th of August 1922 at 2 Poultney Road in the Radford district of Coventry. He grew up as the only son and younger child…
- Kevin Crossley-HollandKevin John William Crossley-Holland arrived in the world on the 7th of February 1941. He grew up in Whiteleaf, a quiet village nestled within the Chilterns…
- John KeeganJohn Desmond Patrick Keegan was born in Clapham, London on the 15th of May 1934. His father served as an Irish First World War veteran before the boy grew up.
- Correlli BarnettCorrelli Douglas Barnett was born on the 28th of June 1927 in Norbury, County Borough of Croydon. He grew up as the son of Douglas and Kathleen Barnett.
- Vincent CroninVincent Archibald Patrick Cronin entered the world on the 24th of May 1924 in Tredegar, Monmouthshire. His father was A.J.
- A. L. RowseAlfred Leslie Rowse was born on the 4th of December 1903 at Tregonissey near St Austell in Cornwall. His father Richard worked as a china clay worker while…
- Frank KermodeFrank Kermode arrived in Douglas on the Isle of Man during November 1919. His father John Pritchard Kermode worked as a delivery truck driver and…
- George SteinerFrancis George Steiner was born on the 23rd of April 1929 in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris. His right arm withered from birth yet his mother insisted he use…
- Martin GilbertMartin Gilbert was born in London on the 25th of October 1936. His family name was originally Goldberg before his father Peter changed it to Gilbert.