Category Archives: Events and diary dates

On this day,

In1865, Rudyard Kipling, English novelist and poet, was born in India the setting for most of his work.

On this day,

Thomas Gray born in 1716, English poet best known for, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.”

Today in 1989 we were lucky to celebrate the death of Nobel Prize winning Irish dramatist Samuel Becket at the age of 83 in Paris thus curbing any more of his nonsense.

On this day,

Samuel Smiles died in 1812, who wrote biographies of Josiah Wedgwood and George Stephenson but also wrote self-improvement books like , “Self-Help, and Thrift,” could be useful today if you could get hold of them.

Meanwhile in 1886, William Makepeace Thackeray, died in England aged 52, author of the best-selling novel, “Vanity Fair,” among many other novels and contributor to many publications such as Punch magazine.

On this day, in 1880, George Eliot died, real name Mary Ann Evans? author of, “The Mill on the Floss, Adam Bede, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda,” I’m afraid the last one passed me by but c’est la vie.

On this day,

Saw the death of John Steinbeck, American novelist, Nobel prize winning author of such as,”The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden,”

On this day,

In 1848, Emily Brontë, author of, “Wuthering Heights,” died of tuberculosis at the age of 30, one of three sisters who wrote novels that have become classics of English literature

On this day,

Jane Austen was born in 1775, the English novelist who gave us such as, “Emma, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.” whilst, in 1889 Noel Coward, playwright, composer and actor was born.

On this day,

In 1683, marked the death of Izaak Walton, best known for his manual of fishing, “The Compleat Angler,”

On this day,

In 1503, saw the birth of Nostradamus, French astrologer who made a number of prophecies, still studied and open to interpretation today.

On this day,

In 1784, the death of Samuel Johnson, English diarist, poet and critic

While in 1906 was born Sir Laurens van der Post, South African novelist, travel writer and conservationist, writing such as, “The Hunter and the Whale and The Lost World of the Kalahari.”