The Scottish author of children’s books Robert Michael (R M) Ballantyne (1825-1894) wrote over 100 works, the best known today probably being `Coral Island’ (1858). Born in Edinburgh, his father was the owner of a printing business, one which had produced works by Sir Walter Scott. From the age of Read more…
Confusingly, at almost exactly the same time, there are two William Painters, both from Kent, and both of whom wrote. The better known, who was born in around 1540 and died in 1595, has by tradition been regarded as a native of Kent. He worked from 1560 as a clerk Read more…
Robert Bridges (1833-1930) is the only qualified medical practitioner ever to have been appointed Poet Laureate, a position he held from 1913 to his death. He was born in October 1844, in Walmer, on the coast of Kent, with its important castle dating back to the Tudor period. As an Read more…
Two of the contemporary novelist and short story writer Nicola Barker’s works are set in Kent. The first, `Wide Open’ (1998) , while it starts in London, mostly occurs on the Isle of Sheppey. Described by the Kirkus Review as `a wayward, often puzzling, but ultimately rather haunting story about Read more…
Rochester often appears to be under the monopoly of Charles Dickens’s influence. And yet other important literary figures are also part of the city’s history. Of these, Enid Bagnold (1889-1981) is one of the most eminent. The daughter of an army officer, Colonel Arthur Henry Bagnold and Ethel, she was Read more…
The Victoria poet, painter and translator, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), member of the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, spent most of his life in London, particularly in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. But for his final few months, from February 4th 1882 to Easter Sunday, April 9th, he lived in Birchington-on-Sea, on the coast of Read more…
The novelist and short story writer Dennis Wheatley (1897-1977) was one of the world’s most successful, and prolific, authors in the 1960s to the 1970s, with his work selling a million copies a year at the peak of his popularity. He was particularly renowned for his works on Satanism, some Read more…
The playwright, courtier and essayist John Lyly (1553/4 – 1606) was probably born in Canterbury, because his father, Peter was the registrar for Archbishop Matthew Parker at the time of his birth. Peter’s tomb was rediscovered in the cathedral during works in 1787. He had died in 1569, after having, Read more…
Charles Hamilton (1876-1961) went under a number of pseudonyms during his life: Owen Conquest, Prosper Howard, Gordon Conway. There are at least a score of different names he assumed when writing. The best known is probably Frank Richards, the identity he took when producing the Billy Bunter series of stories Read more…
The journalist, politician, and social activist William Cobbett (1762-1835) undertook his rides through rural England – mostly the southern part – between 1822 to 1826. Among many other qualities, they give an opportunity to understand what travel at this time was like and what Britain in its provincial centres was Read more…