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

_______________________________ 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

_____________________________ 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

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

No one wants advice, only corroboration.   --John Steinbeck https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck