Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks

Hi, today would have been one of my favourite poets birthday, Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (1917 -2000), born June 7th in 1917, in Kansas. She was an American poet, author, and teacher, her work often dealt with the personal joys and struggles of ordinary people. A much honoured poet, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Jackie Collins

Jacqueline Jill Collins, OBE. 1937-2015, was born in Hampstead, London on this day in 1937, she was an English romance novelist and actress. She moved to Los Angeles in 1985 and spent most of her career there. With over half a billion copies of her books sold in more than forty countries, and with thirty

Graham Green

English writer and journalist, Henry Graham Green (1904-1991), was born in Herefordshire on this day 2 October 1904, regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Greene acquired a reputation early in his lifetime as a major writer, both of serious Catholic novels, and of thrillers and was shortlisted,

Shamsur Rahman Faruqi

Shamsur Rahman Faruqi (1935-2020), was born on this day in 1935 in Azamgarh, present-day Uttar Pradeshhe. He was an Indian Urdu language poet, author and theorist. He is known for bringing modernism to Urdu literature. He developed new models of literary appreciation combining western principles of literary criticism and applied them to Urdu literature. Some

Meat Loaf

American singer and actor Michael Lee Aday (born Marvin Lee Aday), better known as Meat Loaf, was born in Texas on this day in 1947. It appears his early years were not great, bullied as a child because of his weight and his father too was not adverse to bullying and violent behaviour. His mother

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, on this day 18th September in 1709, he was often called Dr Johnson and was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, and editor. Johnson’s father was a bookseller, he was a frail baby, plagued by disease. He contracted

Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (1890 – 1976) was born on this day in 1890, she was a famous British writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirotand Miss Marple. She also wrote the world’s longest-running play, The Mousetrap, which

Sir John Betjeman

Sir John Betjeman, CBE (1906-1984) was born on this day 28 August in 1906, he was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster and Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He began his career as a journalist and ended it as one of the most popular British Poets Laureate and a much-loved figure on British

Ginger Rodgers

Ginger Rodgers (née Virginia Katherine McMath) was born on this day July 16th 1911, in Independence, Missouri, and raised in Kansas City, Rogers and her family moved to Fort Worth, Texas when she was nine years old. Winning a 1925 Charleston dance contest launched a successful vaudeville career, she gained recognition as a Broadway actress