Literature

Robin was born in London on the 5th October 1934, and spent six years of his early childhood in pre-independence India as a ‘child of the British Raj’, whilst his father served as an Indian Army officer. In 1946 Robin returned to the UK and completed his education at Blundell's School, Tiverton, Devon and Cambridge University, where he obtained a MA degree in Social Anthropology.

'Sam Wilding is an exciting new voice to the world of young adult writing. He brings his story to life with such wonderful details that the characters seem to jump out of the pages. Too soon I found myself at the end of the book wanting more. I look forward to his next tale.' So wrote reviewer Stephani Hecht on reading Sam’s first novel – The Magic Scales.

Described as a ‘breath of fresh air for fantasy’, author Sam Wilding was born Paul Murdoch in Braeholm, Helensburgh, on the 9th of May 1961.

Tom Gallacher was born in Alexandria on February 16 1934. He was the third son and one of five children of Edward and Rose Gallacher, who moved from the Vale of Leven to Garelochhead when he was one.

Helen Clark MacInnes was born on October 7th, 1907 in Glasgow. Helen attended Hermitage School, Helensburgh and then Glasgow High School for Girls.

Helen MacInnes earned an M.A. degree at Glasgow University in 1928. In 1929-1930, Helen was selector of county library book acquisitions, Dunbartonshire Education Authority and received her diploma in librarianship from University College, London, in 1931.

Day Lewis was born on April 27, 1904, in Ballin Ireland, the only child of the Rev. F. C. Day Lewis.

When Cecil was 4, his mother died and the family moved to England. He was educated at Sherborne School on a scholarship and was an exhibitioner at Wadham College, Oxford.

Archibald Joseph Cronin was born on the 19th July 1896 in Cardross and raised in Yorkhill, Glasgow, Cronin was the only child of a Protestant mother, Jessie Montgomerie Cronin, and a Catholic father, Patrick Cronin, and would later write of young men from similarly mixed backgrounds.

Cronin was a precocious student at both Dumbarton Academy and St. Aloysius' College, winning many writing competitions. Due to his exceptional abilities, he was awarded a scholarship to study medicine at the University of Glasgow.

Wystan Hugh Auden, known more commonly as W. H. Auden, was born on the 21st February 1907, in York. Auden was the third of three children, all sons.

Auden's first school was St. Edmund's School, Hindhead, Surrey, where he met Christopher Isherwood. At 13 he went to Gresham's School in Norfolk. Until 1922 Auden expected to pursue a career as a mining engineer, and the abandoned lead mines of northern England were a "sacred landscape" for him. Then a school friend Robert Medley who was two years ahead of him, first suggested that he might write poetry.

Neil Munro was born, an illegitimate son, in Inveraray , Argyll, to Ann Munro, a kitchen maid, on 3rd June 1863.

Shortly after his birth, Neil and his mother moved in with his grandmother Anne McArthur Munro who lived in a one-roomed house). Both ladies were native speakers of Gaelic and it is from them that the Neil received his knowledge of the old language and culture.

He was educated at the parish school in Inveraray which he left in 1877, having gained employment as clerk in a local lawyer’s office. Whilst working there he learned what Latin and taught himself shorthand.