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Margaret Forster
Margaret Forster (25 May 1938 – 8 February 2016) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, historian and critic, best known for the 1965 novel ''Georgy Girl'', made into a successful film of the same name, which inspired a hit song by The Seekers. Other successes were a 2003 novel, '' Diary of an Ordinary Woman'', biographies of Daphne du Maurier and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and her memoirs ''Hidden Lives'' and ''Precious Lives''. Early life and education Forster was born in the Raffles council estate in Carlisle, England. Her father, Arthur Forster, was a mechanic or factory fitter, her mother, Lilian (née Hind), a housewife who had worked as a clerk or secretary before her marriage. Forster attended Carlisle and County High School for Girls (1949–1956), a grammar school. She went on to win an open scholarship to read history at Somerville College, Oxford, graduating in 1960. Her first job was two years (1961–1963) of teaching English at Barnsbury Girls' School ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlisle
Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City of Carlisle district which, (along with Cumbria County Council) will be replaced by Cumberland Council in April 2023. The city became an established settlement during the Roman Empire to serve forts on Hadrian's Wall. During the Middle Ages, the city was an important military stronghold due to its proximity to the Kingdom of Scotland. Carlisle Castle, still relatively intact, was built in 1092 by William Rufus, served as a prison for Mary, Queen of Scots in 1568 and now houses the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment and the Border Regiment Museum. In the early 12th century, Henry I allowed a priory to be built. The priory gained cathedral status with a diocese in 1133, the city status rules at the time meant the settlement became a city. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Nichols (playwright)
Peter Richard Nichols (31 July 1927 – 7 September 2019) was an English playwright, screenwriter, director and journalist. Life and career Born in Bristol, England, he was educated at Bristol Grammar School, and served his compulsory National Service as a clerk in Calcutta and later in the British Army's Combined Services Entertainment Unit in Singapore where he entertained the troops alongside John Schlesinger, Stanley Baxter, Peter Vaughan and Kenneth Williams, before going on to study acting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He later claimed to have studied acting because there were no dedicated courses for playwrights. While working as a teacher, he began to write television plays that achieved notice. His first play for the stage was ''The Hooded Terror'', part of a season of new plays at the Little Theatre in Bristol. He later wrote ''A Day in the Death of Joe Egg'' for the stage. ''A Day in the Death of Joe Egg'' is a one-set drama in music hall style. '' The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rebecca Stott
Rebecca Stott (born 1964) is a British writer and broadcaster and, until her retirement from teaching in 2021, was Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2021. She is the author of two historical novels, of a biography of Charles Darwin and of a 2,200-year history of Darwin's predecessors. Her most recent book ''In the Days of Rain'' (2017), a memoir giving an account of her childhood growing up in the Exclusive Brethren, won the 2017 Costa Book Award in the Biography category. She is a regular broadcaster on the BBC Radio 4 programme ''A Point of View''. She has three adult children. Early life Stott was born in Cambridge in 1964, the fourth generation of her family to be born into the Exclusive Brethren, a strictly separatist branch of the Plymouth Brethren with about 45,000 members worldwide. The Brethren, who have since renamed themselves the Plymouth Brethren Christian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Browning
Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings and challenging vocabulary and syntax. His early long poems ''Pauline'' (1833) and ''Paracelsus'' (1835) were acclaimed, but his reputation dwindled for a time – his 1840 poem ''Sordello'' was seen as wilfully obscure – and took over a decade to recover, by which time he had moved from Shelleyan forms to a more personal style. In 1846 he married fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett and moved to Italy. By her death in 1861 he had published the collection ''Men and Women'' (1855). His ''Dramatis Personae'' (1864) and book-length epic poem '' The Ring and the Book'' (1868–1869) made him a leading poet. By his death in 1889 he was seen as a sage and philosopher-poet who had fed into Victorian social and political discourse. Societie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Biography
''A Biography'' is John Mellencamp's second released album (third recorded), and last credited to his then-stage name "Johnny Cougar." Recorded in London, it was released in the UK and Australia by Riva Records on March 6, 1978. Due to poor sales of Mellencamp's debut album, ''Chestnut Street Incident'', ''A Biography'' did not receive a U.S. release upon its 1978 debut. Two of its tracks, "Taxi Dancer" and the single "I Need a Lover," were also included on his 1979 album ''John Cougar'', which was released in the U.S. In Australia, however, "I Need a Lover" became a Top 10 hit, giving Mellencamp his first taste of success. The song would eventually crack the Top 40 in the U.S. in late 1979 when released as a single from his ''John Cougar'' album. AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine described "I Need a Lover" as Mellencamp's "first good song." ''A Biography'', along with all Mellencamp's other Riva Records/Mercury Records albums, were remastered and re-released in 2005, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daphne (2007 Film)
''Daphne'' is a 2007 British biographical drama film written by Amy Jenkins and directed by Clare Beavan. The film is based on the authorised biography, ''Daphne du Maurier: The Secret Life of the Renowned Storyteller'' by Margaret Forster. It stars Geraldine Somerville, Elizabeth McGovern and Janet McTeer. It premiered on BBC Two on 12 May 2007. It was filmed on location in London, Devon and Cornwall, where du Maurier spent much of her life and most of her works are set. Plot The story begins in 1945, as Daphne is being sued by an author with the claim that she has plagiarised parts of her novel ''Rebecca''. So she boards a ship and while travelling to New York for an appearance at the trial, she meets Ellen Doubleday, who is incredibly glamorous and elegant, and Daphne is instantly smitten. A close friendship develops between the two women, and once Ellen realises that Daphne has feelings for her, she informs Daphne, that while she believes everyone has the right to love witho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence (4 July 1898 – 6 September 1952) was an English actress, singer, dancer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End Theatre, West End of London and on Broadway theatre, Broadway in New York. Early life Lawrence was born Gertrude Alice Dagmar Klasen, Alexandra Dagmar Lawrence-Klasen, Gertrude Alexandra Dagmar Klasen or some variant (sources differ), of English and Danes, Danish extraction, in Newington, London. Her father was a Bass (voice type), basso profondo who performed under the name Arthur Lawrence. His heavy drinking led her mother Alice to leave him soon after Gertrude's birth. In 1904, her stepfather took the family to Bognor Regis, Bognor on the Sussex coast for the August bank holiday. While there, they attended a concert where audience members were invited to entertain. At her mother's urging, young Gertrude sang a song and was rewarded with a Sovereign (British coin), gold sovereign for her effort. It was her f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valerie Grove
Valerie Grove (née Smith, born 11 May 1946) is a British journalist and author, who for many years worked as a feature writer, interviewer and columnist for ''The Times'' newspaper. Grove was born in South Shields. Her father, William Douglas "Doug" Smith (1916–73), was a cartoonist for the ''Shields Gazette'' and other newspapers. Grove was an undergraduate at Girton College, Cambridge from 1965, graduating from Cambridge University in 1968 with a degree in English. She joined the London ''Evening Standard'' in the year of her graduation, initially working on Londoner's Diary then as a feature writer, eventually becoming the newspaper's literary editor for two spells (1979–81 and 1984–87). She left the ''Standard'' in 1987. After this she wrote for ''The Sunday Times'' (1987–91) and ''The Times'' (1992–2014). Grove's book ''The Compleat Woman: Marriage, Motherhood, Career - Can She Have it All?'' appeared in 1987. The volume contains interviews with prominent women of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
How To Measure A Cow
''How to Measure a Cow'' is the last novel published by British author Margaret Forster who died in 2016. Plot introduction Tara Fraser spent 11 years in prison then moved to Workington to escape from her violent past in London and changes her name to Sarah Scott. She befriends her neighbour Nancy Armstrong, a widow who keeps herself to herself, Nancy slowly makes friends with Sarah. Tara later makes contact with her three London school friends and tries to make up with them with mixed results... Reception * Stevie Davies writes in ''The Guardian'' about Tara's character in ''How to Measure a Cow'' and reveals her "impetuous, self-willed energies, its vindictive capacity to lash out and stage a scene. She declares to the flabbergasted Nancy: “I’m full of lies, and I’m sorry.” Spying and revenging herself on her three middle-class London friends, Claire, Liz and Molly, Tara reverts to a version of her true self. I found the gossiping friends and their spouses rather an all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carmen Callil
Dame Carmen Thérèse Callil, (15 July 1938 – 17 October 2022) was an Australian publisher, writer and critic who spent most of her career in the United Kingdom. She founded Virago Press in 1973 and received the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature in 2017. She has been described by Gail Rebuck as "the most extraordinary publisher of her generation". Early life and education Callil was born in Melbourne, Victoria, on 15 July 1938. Her father, Frederick Alfred Louis Callil, was a barrister and lecturer in French at the University of Melbourne who died when Callil was eight years old. He was of Lebanese descent; his father claimed to be the first Lebanese person to emigrate to Australia. Her widowed mother, Lorraine Clare Allen, raised four children, of whom Callil was the third. Callil was educated at Star of the Sea Convent and at Loreto Mandeville Hall. She then studied at the University of Melbourne, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC2
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio channels, it is funded by the television licence, and is therefore free of commercial advertising. It is a comparatively well-funded public-service network, regularly attaining a much higher audience share than most public-service networks worldwide. Originally styled BBC2, it was the third British television station to be launched (starting on 21 April 1964), and from 1 July 1967, Europe's first television channel to broadcast regularly in colour. It was envisaged as a home for less mainstream and more ambitious programming, and while this tendency has continued to date, most special-interest programmes of a kind previously broadcast on BBC Two, for example the BBC Pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alzheimer's Disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term memory, remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include primary progressive aphasia, problems with language, Orientation (mental), disorientation (including easily getting lost), mood swings, loss of motivation, self-neglect, and challenging behaviour, behavioral issues. As a person's condition declines, they often withdraw from family and society. Gradually, bodily functions are lost, ultimately leading to death. Although the speed of progression can vary, the typical life expectancy following diagnosis is three to nine years. The cause of Alzheimer's disease is poorly understood. There are many environmental and genetic risk factors associated with its development. The strongest genetic risk factor is from an alle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
