Olivia Manning (1908–1980) was a British novelist, poet, writer and
reviewer. Her fiction and non-fiction, frequently detailing journeys and
personal odysseys, were principally set in England, Ireland, Europe and
the Middle East. Her first serious novel, The Wind Changes, was
published in 1937. She lived in Bucharest, Romania, and in Greece, Egypt
and Palestine, as Nazi Germany overran Eastern Europe. Her experiences
helped form the six novels making up The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant
Trilogy, known collectively as Fortunes of War. The overall quality of
her output was considered uneven by critics, but this series, published
between 1960 and 1980, was described by Anthony Burgess as "the finest
fictional record of the war produced by a British writer". Manning
returned to London after the war, writing poetry, short stories, novels,
non-fiction, reviews, and drama for the British Broadcasting
Corporation. As she had feared, real fame only came after her death,
when an adaptation of Fortunes of War was televised in 1987.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Manning>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
380:
Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire as a
result of the Edict of Thessalonica.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Thessalonica>
1776:
American Revolutionary War: A Patriot victory in the Battle of
Moore's Creek Bridge resulted in the arrests of 850 Loyalists over the
following days.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Moore%27s_Creek_Bridge>
1900:
FC Bayern Munich (logo pictured), Germany's most successful
football club, was founded.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Bayern_Munich>
1962:
Two dissident Vietnam Air Force pilots bombed the Independence
Palace in Saigon in a failed attempt to assassinate South Vietnam
President Ngo Dinh Diem.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962_South_Vietnamese_Independence_Palace_bombing>
1988:
The Armenian community of Sumgait in Azerbaijan was the target
of a violent pogrom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumgait_pogrom>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
minaudière:
1. (obsolete) A woman who is exaggeratedly affected or coquettish.
2. A type of formal, decorative women's clutch bag without handles or a
strap.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/minaudi%C3%A8re>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
No one wants advice, only corroboration.
--John Steinbeck
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck>