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A Conversation With Oscar Wilde
''A Conversation with Oscar Wilde'' is an outdoor sculpture by Maggi Hambling in central London dedicated to Oscar Wilde. Unveiled in 1998, it takes the form of a bench-like green granite sarcophagus, with a bust of Wilde emerging from the upper end, with a hand clasping a cigarette. Creation and unveiling The memorial was first suggested during the 1980s and early 1990s by fans of Wilde's work, including Derek Jarman. Following Jarman's death in 1994, a committee called "A Statue for Oscar Wilde" was formed to bring a tribute to fruition. The committee, led by Jeremy Isaacs, included the actors Dame Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen, and the poet Seamus Heaney. From sketches submitted by twelve artists, six were chosen to create maquette models of their concepts. Maggi Hambling's "witty and amusing" work was chosen for the memorial. The work is inscribed with a quotation from his play ''Lady Windermere's Fan'': "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars". H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maggi Hambling
Margaret ("Maggi") J. Hambling (born 23 October 1945) is a British artist. Though principally a painter her best-known public works are the sculptures '' A Conversation with Oscar Wilde'' and ''A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft'' in London, and the 4-metre-high steel ''Scallop'' on Aldeburgh beach. All three works have attracted controversy. Early life and education Maggi Hambling was born in Sudbury, Suffolk to Barclays bank cashier and local politician Harry Smyth Leonard Hambling (1902-1998) and Marjorie (née Harris: 1907-1988). She had two siblings, a sister, Ann, who was 11 years older, and a brother, Roger, nine years older than Hambling. Her brother had wanted a younger brother but ignored the fact that his new sibling was female and taught her carpentry and "how to wring a chicken's neck." Hambling was close to her mother who taught ballroom dancing and took Hambling along to be her partner. It was from her father that she inherited her artistic skills. She was not a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Conversation With Oscar Wilde - Inscription
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Ardagh
Philip Ardagh is an English children's author, primarily known for the Eddie Dickens series of books. He has written more than 100 books including adult fiction and children's non-fiction. During 2004 and 2005 Ardagh collaborated with Sir Paul McCartney and illustrator-animator Geoff Dunbar to create McCartney's first children's book, '' High in the Clouds''. ''The Observer'' called it "a tale about the perils of unchecked global capitalism". Grubtown Tales In 2009, Ardagh published the first of his ''Grubtown Tales'' series, 'Stinking Rich & Just Plain Stinky', which won the Roald Dahl Funny Prize for being the funniest book that year. The series went on to contain seven full-length tales and a short story (The Great Pasta Disaster) as a £1 promotional book for World Book Day in 2010. The series was illustrated by Jim Paillot. Eddie Dickens Eddie Dickens is a recurring character in a series of six books, beginning with Awful End and ending with Final Curtain. 2020 sees ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Lutterworth Press
The Lutterworth Press, one of the oldest independent British publishing houses, has traded since the late eighteenth century - initially as the Religious Tract Society (RTS). The Lutterworth imprint, named after the small English town of Lutterworth in Leicestershire, where John Wyclif served as Rector in the fourteenth century, has been used since 1932, and Lutterworth continued most of the then current RTS publications. The main areas have been religion, children's books and general adult non-fiction. The religious list, as with the RTS, tended to publish fairly evangelical writers, such as Norman Grubb, but gradually broadened in the second half of the twentieth century. Well-known general writers first published by Lutterworth include David Attenborough and Patrick Moore. The list specialises in popular history and art history, but also publishes books on a wide range of other subjects. The children's list, which built on the strength of the ''Boy's Own Paper'' and '' Gir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilde (film)
''Wilde'' is a 1997 British biographical film directed by Brian Gilbert and starring Stephen Fry in the title role. The screenplay by Julian Mitchell is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1987 biography of Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann. Fry received critical acclaim for his performance as well as for his likeness to Wilde, and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor – Drama. Jennifer Ehle (as Oscar's wife Constance Lloyd Wilde) and Zoë Wanamaker (as Ada Leverson) were both nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Starring as Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, Jude Law was nominated for the Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer. The film also sees Orlando Bloom make his screen debut. Plot The film opens with Oscar Wilde's 1882 visit to Leadville, Colorado during his lecture tour of the United States. Despite his flamboyant personality and urbane wit, he proves to be a success with the local silver miners as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Pardon
In the English and British tradition, the royal prerogative of mercy is one of the historic royal prerogatives of the British monarch, by which they can grant pardons (informally known as a royal pardon) to convicted persons. The royal prerogative of mercy was originally used to permit the monarch to withdraw, or provide alternatives to death sentences; the alternative of penal transportation to "partes abroade" was used since at least 1617. It is now used to change any sentence or penalty. A royal pardon does not overturn a conviction. Officially, this is a power of the monarch. Formally, in Commonwealth realms, this has been delegated to the governor-general of the realm, which in practice means to government ministers who advise the monarch or viceroy, usually those responsible for justice. Specifically, it has been delegated to the Lord Chancellor in England and Wales, the Scottish Ministers in Scotland, and the federal and provincial cabinets in Canada, in respect of fe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Tatchell
Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25 January 1952) is a British human rights campaigner, originally from Australia, best known for his work with LGBT social movements. Tatchell was selected as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey in 1981. He was then denounced by party leader Michael Foot for ostensibly supporting extra-Parliamentary action against the Thatcher government. Labour subsequently allowed him to stand in the 1983 Bermondsey by-election in February 1983, in which the party lost the seat to the Liberals. In the 1990s he campaigned for LGBT rights through the direct action group OutRage!, which he co-founded. He has worked on various campaigns, such as Stop Murder Music against music lyrics allegedly inciting violence against LGBT people and writes and broadcasts on various human rights and social justice issues. He attempted a citizen's arrest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 1999 and again in 2001. In April 2004, Tatchell joined the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poet's Corner
Poets' Corner is the name traditionally given to a section of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey in the City of Westminster, London because of the high number of poets, playwrights, and writers buried and commemorated there. The first poet interred in Poets' Corner was Geoffrey Chaucer in 1400. William Shakespeare was commemorated with a monument in 1740, over a century after his death. Over the centuries, a tradition has grown up of interring or memorialising people there in recognition of their contribution to British culture. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the honour is awarded to writers. In 2009, the founders of the Royal Ballet were commemorated in a memorial floor stone and on 25 September 2010, the writer Elizabeth Gaskell was celebrated with the dedication of a panel in the memorial window." ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medusa
In Greek mythology, Medusa (; Ancient Greek: Μέδουσα "guardian, protectress"), also called Gorgo, was one of the three monstrous Gorgons, generally described as winged human females with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Those who gazed into her eyes would turn to stone. Most sources describe her as the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, although the author Hyginus makes her the daughter of Gorgon and Ceto. Medusa was beheaded by the Greek hero Perseus, who then used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity, the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the '' Gorgoneion''. According to Hesiod and Aeschylus, she lived and died on Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene. The 2nd-century BC novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in Libya, where Herodotus had said the Berbers originated her myth as p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorian Gray
''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is a philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical ''Lippincott's Monthly Magazine''.''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' (Penguin Classics) – Introduction The novel-length version was published in April 1891. The story revolves around a portrait of Dorian Gray painted by Basil Hallward, a friend of Dorian's and an artist infatuated with Dorian's beauty. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton and is soon enthralled by the aristocrat's hedonistic worldview: that beauty and sensual fulfillment are the only things worth pursuing in life. Newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied amoral experiences while staying young and beautiful; all the while, his portrait ages and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Spencer (journalist)
Charles Spencer (born 4 March 1955) is a British journalist. He was the chief drama critic of ''The Daily Telegraph'' from 1991 to 2014, having joined the paper in 1988. On 1 September 2014, it was announced that he had decided to take early retirement, and his final review for the paper appeared on the same day. He was educated at Charterhouse and Balliol College, Oxford. He began his career in journalism at the '' Surrey Advertiser'', and subsequently wrote for the London ''Evening Standard'', ''The Stage'' and ''Television Today'', before joining the ''Telegraph''. He won "Critic of the Year" in the 1999 British Press Awards. He has written three crime novels: ''I Nearly Died'' (1994), ''Full Personal Service'' (1996) and ''Under the Influence'' (2000). In 2006, Compton Miller of ''The Independent'' wrote in a profile: "This convivial ex-alcoholic is best remembered for his description of Nicole Kidman's nude scene in '' The Blue Room'' as 'pure theatrical Viagra'." In a r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Pan Statue
The statue of Peter Pan is a 1912 bronze sculpture of J. M. Barrie's character Peter Pan. It was commissioned by Barrie and made by Sir George Frampton. The original statue is displayed in Kensington Gardens in London, to the west of The Long Water, close to Barrie's former home on Bayswater Road. Barrie's stories were inspired in part by the gardens: the statue is at the place where Peter Pan lands in Barrie's 1902 book ''The Little White Bird'' after flying out of his nursery. Six other casts made by Frampton have been erected in other places around the world. Statue in Kensington Gardens The sculpture stands about high. It has a tall conical form, like a tree stump, topped by a young boy, about life size for an eight-year-old, blowing a thin musical instrument like a trumpet or flute, sometimes interpreted as pan pipes. The sides of the stump are decorated with small figures of squirrels, rabbits, mice, and fairies. Barrie had intended the boy to be based on a photograph of M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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