Nevil Shute Norway was born on the 17th of January, 1899 and died on the 12th of January, 1960. He was an English-Australian novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and ‘Nevil Shute’ as his pen name for his novels including On the Beach and A Town Like Alice.
Three of his novels were featured in the ‘Modern Library 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century’: A Town Like Alice at number 17, Trustee from the Toolroom at 27, and On the Beach at 56. Other notable dedications to Shute are two streets in Hampshire, UK that were named for him, as was one in Victoria, Australia.
During his time there he was also a contributing editor for Flying magazine and Avian, before finally writing his first novel Jonathan Livingstone Seagull in 1970. Bach went on to have a full literary career, writing many fiction and nonfiction books, most of which were somehow based around flying. Read More
Oates is one of the most celebrated American authors of our time and has won many awards including the National Book Award for her novel Them (US – UK), two O. Henry Awards and the National Humanities Medal. She has also been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize six times. Read More
This fantastic writer would scoff at anyone who proclaims that politics should be kept away from literature. We’ve gathered 10 of her most insightful quotes here for your perusal…
As a young man working in an advertising agency Carey was introduced to authors such as Faulkner and Joyce and was inspired to pick up his own pen. Thanks to his job introducing him to a wide selection of writers, Carey got the literary education he lacked at school.
After thirteen years of writing, and rejection of four of his novels, he finally hit gold with his short story collection – The Fat Man in History (1974). He is still writing today, with his recent book A Long Way from Home (2018) is a passionate and critically-minded novel about living legacies of colonialism in Australia.
The award-winning writer is one of four authors to have won the Booker Prize twice- the others being Hilary Mantel, J. G. Farrell, and J. M. Coetzee.
After studying French for his degree at Oxford, Fowles taught English, first at The University of Poitiers in France and then on the Greek island of Spetsai. It was his time on this island that gave him the inspiration for his first novel “The Magus”. Read More
Chandler is considered the founder for his type of American detective genre, and is still an inspirational and influential author.