
Sample of authors
Highsmith, Patricia
Patricia Highsmith was an American author born in Fort Worth, Texas, as Mary Patricia Plangman. Both parents were artists who worked with illustrations and advertising. They separated before Highsmith was born, and her mother married Stanley Highsmith in 1924. The family moved to New York in 1927, a sad period for Highsmith. Her relationship with her mother was fraught and she did not get on...

Sample of authors
Beckett, Simon
English author whose crime novels have become more popular in other countries – including Scandinavia and Germany – than at home. Simon Beckett was born in a working-class family in Sheffield, and graduated with a B.A. in English from Sheffield Polytechnic (now Hallam University) and subsequently gained an M.A. at Newcastle University. He then worked for several years as a janitor and for a whi...