British novelist, playwright, short-story writer, Somerset Maugham was the highest paid author in the world in the 1930s. Despite his popularity, Maugham did not gain serious recognition from his contemporaries. In many of his novels, the setting is international and the stories are told in a clear, economical style. His thirst to see the world was evidenced by the fact that, disguising himself... Read More
Charles Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. Oliver Twist; or, the Parish Boy's Progress is Charles Dickens's second novel, an... Read More
O. Henry was an American short story author named William Sydney Porter, raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. Henry's rich canon of work reflected his wide-range of experiences and is distinctive for its witticism, clever wordplay, and unexpected twist endings. Set in the American Midwest during the early 1900s, A Retrieved Reformation concerns the surprising fate of Jimmy Valentine, a skilled... Read More
William Sydney Porter, better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American short story writer. His stories were distinguished for their witty approach, use of words, effects of coincidence on their characters and most often for their surprise endings. His tales often dramatized the commonplace, especially the life of commoners of New York City. O. Henry was also a music enthusiast and a good... Read More
An American short story writer William Sydney Porter, better known by his pen name O. Henry, was born on September 11, 1862, in Greensboro, North Carolina. Porter used a number of pen names in the early part of his writing career. Nevertheless, the name "O. Henry" seemed to garner the most attention from editors and the public, and was used exclusively by Porter for his writing by about 1902. A... Read More
Jack Higgins is a British writer and one of the best-selling authors of popular thrillers and espionage novels. His breakthrough novel The Eagle Has Landed sold over 50 million copies. Some of his other notable books are A Prayer for the Dying, The Eagle Has Flown, Thunder Point, Angel of Death, Flight of Eagles, and Day of Reckoning. His 85 novels in total have sold over 150 million copies and... Read More
Jack Higgins, real name Henry Patterson, is a British writer and one of the best-selling authors of popular thrillers and espionage novels. His 85 novels in total have sold over 150 million copies and have been translated into 55 languages. Patterson began using the pseudonym Jack Higgins in the late 1960s; his first minor bestsellers appeared in the early 1970s, two contemporary thrillers The... Read More
Henry Patterson, known by his pen name Jack Higgins, is a British writer, born on 27 July 1929 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. In 1959, Higgins began writing novels. One of his aliases was James Graham. The growing success of his early work allowed him to take time off from his teaching, and he eventually left the classroom to become a full-time novelist. Patterson's early novels, written unde... Read More
Jack Higgins is a British writer and one of the best-selling authors of popular thrillers and espionage novels. His breakthrough novel The Eagle Has Landed sold over 50 million copies. Some of his other notable books are A Prayer for the Dying, The Eagle Has Flown, Thunder Point, Angel of Death, Flight of Eagles, and Day of Reckoning. His 85 novels in total have sold over 150 million copies and... Read More
Henry Patterson, known by his pen name Jack Higgins, is a British writer, born on 27 July 1929 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. In 1959, Higgins began writing novels. Patterson's early novels, written under his own name as well as under the pseudonyms James Graham, Martin Fallon, and Hugh Marlowe, are thrillers that typically feature hardened, cynical heroes, ruthless villains, and dangerous lo... Read More
The Noble Prize winner American Writer, William Faulkner has written many critically acclaimed short stories, plays, screenplays, essays and novels. He is considered to be one of the most important writers of the American southern literature and ranked shoulder to shoulder with other significant writers such as Robert Penn, Harper Lee, Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams of the same genre. Sur... Read More
Richard Stanley Francis was a British crime writer, and former steeplechase jockey, whose novels centre on horse racing in England. Francis was born in Coedcanlas, Pembrokeshire, Wales. His autobiography says that he was born at his maternal grandparents' farm at Coedcanlas on the estuary of the River Cleddau, roughly a mile north-west of Lawrenny. His mother had likely returned to her parents'... Read More
Richard Stanley Francis was a British crime writer. His novels centre on horse racing in England. After wartime service in the RAF, Francis became a full-time jump-jockey, winning over 350 races and becoming champion jockey of the British National Hunt. Francis wrote more than 40 international best-sellers. His first book was his autobiography The Sport of Queens, for which he was offered the a... Read More
Richard Stanley Francis was a British crime writer. During the Second World War, Francis volunteered, hoping to join the cavalry. Instead, he served in the Royal Air Force, working as ground crew and later piloting fighter and bomber aircraft, including the Spitfire and Hurricane fighters, and the Wellington and Lancaster bombers. After leaving the RAF in 1946, Francis became a highly successfu... Read More
Dick Francis wrote more than 40 international best-sellers. His first book was his autobiography The Sport of Queens, for which he was offered the aid of a ghostwriter, which he spurned. The book's success led to his becoming the racing correspondent for London's Sunday Express newspaper, and he continued in that job for 16 years. He set his first thriller, Dead Cert, published in 1962, in the... Read More
Richard Stanley Francis was a British crime writer. He wrote more than 40 international best-sellers. According to a columnist for the Houston Chronicle, Francis "writes believable fairy tales for adults - ones in which the actors are better than we are but are believable enough to make us wonder if indeed we could not one day manage to emulate them." Francis has definitely entered the 21st cen... Read More
Richard Stanley Francis was a British crime writer, and former steeplechase jockey, whose novels centre on horse racing in England. Francis is the only three-time recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for Best Novel, winning for Forfeit in 1970, Whip Hand in 1981, and Come To Grief in 1996. Britain's Crime Writers Association awarded him its Gold Dagger Award for fiction in... Read More
Richard Stanley Francis was a British crime writer, and former steeplechase jockey, whose novels centre on horse racing in England. Dick Francis left school at 15 without any qualifications, intending to become a jockey; by the time he was 18, in 1938, he also was training horses. Francis became a highly successful jockey, reaching celebrity status in the world of British National Hunt racing.... Read More
Richard Stanley Francis was a British crime writer, and former steeplechase jockey, whose novels centre on horse racing in England. His mysteries always revolve around some aspect of horse racing, and in Driving Force, he focuses on the horse transport business. The hero of the novel is Freddie Croft, a former steeplechase jockey and now the owner of a successful fleet of horse vans. It has bee... Read More
Richard Stanley Francis was a British crime writer. His first book was his autobiography The Sport of Queens, for which he was offered the aid of a ghostwriter, which he spurned. Dick Francis, a former jockey himself, has carved out a marvellous career as a mystery writer, with more than thirty novels to his credit. Never one to overwrite, Francis has won a loyal following by writing about what... Read More