Portsmouth enrols 23,000 students and is ranked among the world's best modern universities. Portsmouth is also the birthplace of author Charles Dickens and engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The Romans built Portus Adurni, a fort, at nearby Portchester in the late third century. The city's Old English name "Portesmuða" is derived from "port", meaning a haven, and "muða", the mouth of a large river or estuary. The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" has a warrior called Port and his two sons killing a noble Briton in Portsmouth in 501. Winston Churchill, in his "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples", says that Port was a pirate
Portsmouth in the area after graduating from Portsmouth Naval Academy. More contemporary Portsmouth literary figures include social critic, journalist, and author Christopher Hitchens, who was born in the city. Nevil Shute moved to Portsmouth in 1934 when he relocated his aircraft company to the city; his former home stands in Southsea. Fantasy author Neil Gaiman grew up in nearby Purbrook and the Portsmouth suburb of Southsea, and in 2013 had a Southsea road named after his novel "The Ocean At The End Of The Lane". Olivia Manning's childhood was also spent in the city. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a famed engineer of