The life of Samuel Beckett, told through five pieces of literary and biographical trivia 1. The ominous date of his birth amused him. Born on Good Friday, 13 April, 1906, Samuel Barclay Beckett enjoyed the irony of being born on a date ripe with religious connotations – not least because, as […]
Interesting trivia about the life of writer J. B. Priestley, author of An Inspector Calls 1. John Boynton Priestley (1894-1984) wrote the first play ever to be televised. Although he’s better known for An Inspector Calls, several of Priestley’s other plays are notable. Priestley’s romantic comedy When We Are Married was the first play […]
Who first said this famous quip about everyone having a book or novel in them? ‘Everyone has a book in them, but in most cases that’s where it should stay.’ Or, as some sources have it, ‘Everyone has a novel in them.’ Still others: ‘Every journalist has a novel in […]
The life of Ernest Hemingway, distilled into the best facts about his colourful but tragic life 1. As a young boy, Ernest Hemingway was dressed in girls’ clothing by his mother and referred to as ‘Ernestine’. We begin this selection of great Ernest Hemingway facts with a rather revealing nugget about his […]
The life of William Wordsworth told through some intriguing biographical facts William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in Cockermouth in the Lake District. He went to the same school, the Cockermouth Free School, as Fletcher Christian, the man who would lead the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789. […]