Jane Austen

Jane Austen was born at the Rectory in Steventon, a little village in north-east Hampshire, on 16th December 1775. She was the seventh child and second daughter of the rector, the Revd George Austen, and his wife Cassandra Leigh. Of her brothers, two were clergymen, one inherited rich estates in Kent and Hampshire from a distant cousin and the two youngest became Admirals in the Royal Navy; her only sister, like Jane herself, never married.

Steventon Rectory was Jane Austen's home for the first 25 years of her life. From here she travelled to Kent to stay with her brother Edward in his mansion at Godmersham Park near Canterbury, and she also had some shorter holidays in Bath, where her aunt and uncle lived. During the 1790s she wrote the first drafts of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, andNorthanger Abbey; her trips to Kent and Bath gave her the local colour for the settings of these last two books.

In 1801 the Revd George Austen retired, and he and his wife, with their two daughters Jane and Cassandra, left Steventon and settled in Bath.

 "My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me." 

200th anniversary of Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens (February 7, 1812 - June 9, 1870)was an English novelist who started his career more as a popular entertainer than a serious author. 

His masterful prose soon won praise by critics and his ability to create memorable characters solidified his position in the ranks of must-read authors. 

The fact that none of his works have ever gone out of print attests to the popularity of his novels and short stories. His position as a great writer can be verified by simply saying his last name "Dickens" and having people immediately understand to whom it is you are referring. 

Dickens married married Catherine Hogarth on 2 April 1836, and ended up having ten children with her. They separated in 1858, but since divorce was nearly unthinkable in his day, he kept her in a separate house and supported her financially until her death. 

Charles Dickens died on June 9, 1870 after suffering a stroke. He was buried in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. The inscription on his tomb reads: "He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world."

Works: Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield

"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else."