William Somerset Maugham was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. Born in the British Embassy in Paris, where his father worked, Maugham was an orphan by the age of ten. He was raised by an uncle, who tried to persuade the youngster to become an accountant or parson; Maugham instead trained as a doctor, although he never practised professionally, as his first novel, Liza of La... Read More
Joanne Michèle Sylvie Harris is an English author. Harris is the holder of honorary doctorates in literature from the University of Huddersfield and the University of Sheffield and is an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine's College, Cambridge. She is an elected member of the Management Committee of the Society of Authors. In Blackberry Wine, Jay Mackintosh is a 37-year-old has-been writer from Lon... Read More
Joanne Harris is an Anglo-French author, whose books include fourteen novels, two cookbooks and many short stories. Her first novel, The Evil Seed, was published in 1989, with only limited success. Sleep, Pale Sister is her second novel. In 1999 her third novel, Chocolat, a darkly magical modern folk-tale, thematically based on food and set in the Gers region of France, reached No. 1 in the Sun... Read More