Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes was born in 1547 at Alcalá de Henares near Madrid, the son of a poor surgeon. At twenty-four he fought in the naval battle of Lepanto, insisting on taking his place though burning with fever; two shots in the chest left his left hand crippled for life, which he said was 'for the greater glory of the right'. On his way home he was captured by Barbary pirates and spent five years as a slave in Algiers, planning four escapes that all failed, until he was at last ransomed. He then worked as a requisitioner of supplies and a tax collector, and was twice imprisoned over his accounts; it is said that Don Quixote was conceived in the prison of Seville. He died almost at the same time as Shakespeare.