Jane Austen (Author)
Jane Austen, the daughter of a clergyman, was born in Hampshire in 1775, and later lived in Bath and the village of Chawton. As a child and teenager, she wrote brilliantly witty stories for her family's amusement, as well as a novella, Lady Susan. Her first published novel was Sense and Sensibility, which appeared in 1811 and was soon followed by Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. Austen died in 1817, and Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published posthumously in 1818.

L. M. Montgomery (Author)
L. M. Montgomery was born in Clifton, Prince Edward Island, in 1874. A prolific writer, she published many short stories, poems and novels but she is best known for Anne of Green Gables and its sequels, inspired by the years she spent on the beautiful Prince Edward Island. Montgomery died in Toronto in 1942 and was buried in Cavendish on her beloved island.

Johanna Spyri (Author)
Johanna Spyri (1827-1902) was born in Switzerland in the village of Hirzel, which has magnificent views of the Alps. She wrote almost fifty books, but it was Heidi who brought her great fame.

Frances Hodgson Burnett (Author)
Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) was born in Manchester. She had a very poor upbringing and used to escape from the horror of her surroundings by writing stories. In 1865 her family emigrated to the USA where she married and became the successful author of many children's books including The Secret Garden, A Little Princess and Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Louisa May Alcott (Author)
Louisa May Alcott (1832-88) was brought up in Pennsylvania, USA. She turned to writing in order to supplement the family income and had many short stories published in magazines and newspapers. Then, in 1862, during the height of the American Civil War, Louisa went to Georgetown to work as a nurse, but she contracted typhoid. Out of her experiences she wrote Hospital Sketches (1864) which won wide acclaim, followed by an adult novel, Moods.
She was reluctant to write a children's book but then realized that in herself and her three sisters she had the perfect models. The result was Little Women (1868) which became the earliest American children's novel to become a classic