The life and work of Georgette Heyer We’ve recently been enjoying Jennifer Kloester’s Georgette Heyer Biography, published in 2011. Subtitled The Biography of a Bestseller, it’s a fascinating look at the life of an extraordinary writer or ‘publishing phenomenon’, as the phrase often used of bestselling writers has it. Here are […]
Interesting trivia about one of science-fiction’s greatest voices 1. Čapek’s most famous work introduced the concept of the ‘robot’. Čapek’s 1920 play R. U. R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) was the first text to use the word ‘robot’ to denote man-made creatures – the word comes from the Czech roboti meaning ‘slave’ or ‘drudge’. […]
The life and work of William Godwin (1756-1836) 1. William Godwin was connected with all sorts of radical writers and thinkers of the time. His first wife was Mary Wollstonecraft, the author of the proto-feminist tract A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; his daughter with Wollstonecraft, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, became Frankenstein author […]
The life of Jonathan Swift told through five pieces of interesting trivia 1. Jonathan Swift invented the girls’ name Vanessa. The name Vanessa originated as Swift’s pet name for his friend and lover Esther Vanhomrigh (c. 1688-1723), who was over 20 years his junior. Swift wrote a poem, Cadenus and […]
Interesting facts about a much-loved writer 1. He was the first writer to kill off Sherlock Holmes. Before Conan Doyle ‘killed off’ Sherlock Holmes in ‘The Final Problem’ (1893), his friend (and fellow Scotsman) J. M. Barrie published a spoof tale in which the famous detective meets his demise. So, […]