
Sample of authors
Hodgson, William Hope
William Hope Hodgson was the son of an Anglican priest who grew up in England and Ireland alongside his eleven sisters and brothers. He became a sailor at the age of thirteen and eventually received his mate’s certificate. Life at sea did not suit him, however, and in 1899 he settled in Blackburn where he opened a school of physical culture. Hodgson had to work extra as a reporter and p...

Sample of authors
Beckett, Simon
English author whose crime novels have become more popular in other countries – including Scandinavia and Germany – than at home. Simon Beckett was born in a working-class family in Sheffield, and graduated with a B.A. in English from Sheffield Polytechnic (now Hallam University) and subsequently gained an M.A. at Newcastle University. He then worked for several years as a janitor and for a whi...