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Portrait image of Dashiell Hammett Photo: AP / TT

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Hammett, Dashiell

American detective writer, born in St. Mary's County in Maryland. He grew up in Baltimore where his family moved when he was seven years old. Dashiell Hammett dropped out of school when thirteen and got on with odd jobs before ending up a private detective at Pinkertons. He worked as a detective primarily in San Francisco and then used his experiences in his novels. During the First World War,...

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Portrait image of Daphne Du Maurier Photo: TV Times / Getty Images (c.1977)

Sample of authors

Du Maurier, Daphne

The British novelist and playwright Daphne du Maurier was born in London to parents who were both prominent actors; her grandfather was an author and caricaturist for Punch. Daphne du Maurier attended public schools in London and Paris and began to write at an early age, her first novel The Loving Spirit came in 1931. The following year she married Frederick "Boy" Browning, later promoted to...

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