By Karen Langley 1. His matrilineal great grandfather was a black African page brought over to Russia as a slave. Abram Petrovich Gannibal (1696–1781) was kidnapped and taken to Russia as a gift for Peter the Great. Gannibal was educated in France to the profession of a military engineer, later progressing to become governor of Reval … Read more
Perhaps ‘Oscar Wilde’ and ‘quotes’ is a marriage made in literary heaven. He is eminently quotable, which has made choosing Oscar Wilde’s ten best quotes that much more difficult. Difficult, but fun. After looking through the literary library here at Interesting Literature we can now bring you our ten favourite Wildean one-liners! I am so clever that … Read more
In this special guest post, Harriet Devine from Shiny New Books looks at the author of children’s classic The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett… 1. Frances was born near Manchester, England. Her father was a successful ironmonger, but her family fell on hard times after his death when she was only three. They had to adopt a … Read more
Roald Dahl was born on this day in 1916, so we’ve taken the opportunity to raise a glass of burgundy (apparently one of Dahl’s favourite drinks – see below) to the man who gave us Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits, Matilda, The BFG, and so many more classic books. Here are five of our favourite interesting … Read more
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
One of the most celebrated tragedies of ancient Greece was Oedipus Rex, Sophocles’ play about the Theban king who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother. In order to become King of Thebes, Oedipus had had to solve a famous riddle – or should that be riddles?