Photo: Murray/Fairfax Media via Getty Images (1960)
Sample of authors
Marsh, Ngaio
The New Zealand author Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh was born in Merivale, Christchurch. Her father was an immigrant English bank manager and her mother was born in New Zealand, although her family too originally came from England. Ngaio is the Maori word for "reflection on water". A somewhat eccentric and confused man, Marsh's father did not report his daughter's birth to the authorities until 1900,...
Photo: Ola Erikson / Forflex
Sample of authors
Eco, Umberto
Umberto Eco was an Italian author, literary scholar, historian and philosopher born in Alessandria in Piedmont. His surname may refer to the fact that his grandfather was a foundling at a time when children were sometimes registered in church records as "Ex Caelis Oblatus", which can be translated as "offered by the heavens".
His father was a clerk and his mother’s maiden name was Giovanna B...
