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Derek Parker
Derek Parker (27 May 1932 – 2 January 2025) was a British writer and broadcaster. He was the author of numerous works on literature, ballet, and opera, and with his wife Julia of several books about astrology. Biography Parker was born in Looe, Cornwall on 27 May 1932. He was educated at Fowey Grammar School (1941–49). Parker worked as reporter with '' The Cornishman'' (Penzance) (1949–55) then as drama critic with ''The Western Morning News'' (Plymouth) (1956–58). In 1958 he worked as an interviewer and announcer at TWW Cardiff, and subsequently for forty years as a freelance radio broadcaster, compiling and introducing many programmes both for domestic radio and for the BBC World Service. He was editor of '' The Poetry Review'' (1966–70) and of ''The Author'' (1984-2002). He was a Fellow of the Society of Authors In 2003, Parker and his wife moved to Sydney, before returning to the United Kingdom in 2022. He died from a short illness on 2 January 2025, at the ag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julia Parker (astrologer)
Julia Parker (née Lethbridge; born 1932, Plymouth, Devon) is an astrologer and author who, often in partnership with her husband Derek Parker, has written many popular and introductory books on astrology.Biography at astrologer.co, retrieved 2 August 2011. Biography The most notable of Parker's books is the ''Compleat Astrologer'', initially published in London in 1970, subsequently published in seventeen countries, and selling over a million copies. This has remained in print for over 30 years. The ''Compleat Astrologer'' has become known as the archetypal 'coffee-table' book on astrology and the first key reference source for many well-known professional astrologers. A revised and expanded edition, retitled ''The New Compleat Astrologer'', was published by Random House in 1990, and gained renown for being "graphically stunning" and for its comprehensive treatment of astrology at a layman's level. Julia Parker studied astrology at the Faculty of Astrological Studies in Lon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Lilly
William Lilly (9 June 1681) was a seventeenth century English astrologer. He is described as having been a genius at something "that modern mainstream opinion has since decided cannot be done at all" having developed his stature as the most important astrologer in England through his social and political connections as well as going on to have an indelible impact on the future course of Western astrological tradition. Born the son of a yeoman farmer in Leicestershire, Lilly travelled to London as a youth to take up a servant's position. Seven years later he secured his fortune by marrying his former master's widow, allowing him the leisure to study astrology. In 1644, during the English Civil War, he published the first of many popular astrological texts, and in 1647 he published Christian Astrology, a huge compendium of astrological technique. This was the first of its kind to be printed in the English language rather than Latin, and is said to have tutored "a nation in crisi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sacheverell Sitwell
Sir Sacheverell Reresby Sitwell, 6th Baronet, (; 15 November 1897 – 1 October 1988) was an English writer, particularly on baroque architecture, and an art and music critic. Sitwell produced some 50 volumes of poetry and some 50 works on art, music, architecture, and travel. Early life Sitwell was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire on 15 November 1897 and brought up in Derbyshire. He was the youngest child of Sir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet, of Renishaw Hall, and the former Lady Ida Emily Augusta Denison. Dame Edith Sitwell and Sir Osbert Sitwell were his older siblings. His paternal grandparents were Sir Sitwell Sitwell, 3rd Baronet and his wife Louisa Lucy Hutchinson (daughter of the Hon. Henry Hely Hutchinson). His maternal grandparents were William Denison, 1st Earl of Londesborough and Lady Edith Somerset (a daughter of the 7th Duke of Beaufort), who claimed descent through female lines from the Plantagenets. Sitwell was educated at Eton College. In Worl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Lehmann
Rudolf John Frederick Lehmann (2 June 1907 – 7 April 1987) was an English publisher, poet and man of letters. He founded the periodicals '' New Writing'' and ''The London Magazine'', and the publishing house of John Lehmann Limited. Early life and education Born in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, the fourth child of journalist Rudolph Lehmann, and brother of Helen Lehmann, novelist Rosamond Lehmann and actress Beatrix Lehmann, he was educated at Eton and read English at Trinity College, Cambridge. He considered his time at both as "lost years". At Trinity, Lehmann had a passionate relationship with Virginia Woolf's nephew, Quentin Bell. Literary magazine founder After a period as a journalist in Vienna, he returned to England to found the popular periodical ''New Writing'' (1936–40) in book format. This literary magazine sought to break down social barriers and published works by working-class authors as well as educated middle-class writers and poets. It proved a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edith Sitwell
Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess. She never married but became passionately attached to Russian painter Pavel Tchelitchew, and her home was always open to London's poetic circle, to whom she was generous and helpful. Sitwell published poetry continuously from 1913, some of it abstract and set to music. With her dramatic style and exotic costumes, she was sometimes labelled a poseur, but her work was praised for its solid technique and painstaking craftsmanship. She was a recipient of the Benson Medal of the Royal Society of Literature. Early life Edith Louisa Sitwell was born in Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire, the oldest child and only daughter of Sir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet, of Renishaw Hall; he was an expert on genealogy and landscaping. Her mother w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Governor Macquarie
Major General Lachlan Macquarie, CB (; ; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie served as the fifth Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, and had a leading role in the social, economic, and architectural development of the colony. He is considered by historians to have had a crucial influence on the transition of New South Wales from a penal colony to a free settlement and therefore to have played a major role in the shaping of Australian society in the early nineteenth century. Macquarie played a central role in urban planning in the colony. He had a significant impact on the development of modern Sydney, establishing the layout upon which the modern city centre is based, establishing Hyde Park as Australia's first public park, overseeing the construction of various public buildings along Macquarie Street, and devising the layouts of a number of settlements which today are part of Western Sydn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Phillip
Arthur Phillip (11 October 1738 – 31 August 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer who served as the first Governor of New South Wales, governor of the Colony of New South Wales. Phillip was educated at Royal Hospital School, Greenwich Hospital School from June 1751 until December 1753. He then became an apprentice on the whaling ship ''Fortune''. With the outbreak of the Seven Years' War against France, Phillip enlisted in the Royal Navy as captain's servant to Michael Everitt aboard . With Everitt, Phillip also served on and . Phillip was promoted to lieutenant on 7 June 1761, before being put on half-pay at the end of hostilities on 25 April 1763. Secondment, Seconded to the Portuguese Navy in 1774, he served in the Spanish–Portuguese War (1776–1777), war against Spain. Returning to Royal Navy service in 1778, in 1782 Phillip, in command of , was to capture Spanish colonies in South America, but an armistice was concluded before he reached his destination. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waltzing Matilda
"Waltzing Matilda" is a song developed in the Australian style of poetry and folk music called a bush ballad. It has been described as the country's "unofficial national anthem". The title was Australian slang for travelling on foot (waltzing) with one's belongings in a "matilda" (Swag (bedroll), swag) slung over one's back, a slang expression that may have originally been repurposed from a work of light verse by Charles Godfrey Leland. The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker, or "swagman", boiling a Billycan, billy at a bush camp and capturing a stray jumbuck (sheep) to eat. When the jumbuck's owner, a squatting (pastoral), squatter (Pastoralism, grazier), and three troopers (mounted policemen) pursue the swagman for theft, he declares "You'll never catch me alive!" and commits suicide by drowning himself in a nearby billabong (Oxbow lake, watering hole), after which his ghost haunts the site. The original lyrics were composed in 1895 by Australian poet Banjo Pate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banjo Paterson
Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, (17 February 18645 February 1941) was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author, widely considered one of the greatest writers of Australia's colonial period. Born in rural New South Wales, Paterson worked as a lawyer before transitioning into literature, where he quickly gained recognition for capturing the life of the Australian bush. A representative of the Bulletin School of Australian literature, Paterson wrote many of his best known poems for the nationalist journal '' The Bulletin'', including " Clancy of the Overflow" (1889) and " The Man from Snowy River" (1890). His 1895 ballad "Waltzing Matilda" is regarded widely as Australia's unofficial national anthem and, according to the National Film and Sound Archive, has been recorded more than any other Australian song. Early life Andrew Barton Paterson was born on 17 February 1864 at the property "Narrambla", near Orange, New South Wales, the eldest son of Andrew Bogle Paterson, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit and his criticism of Christianity (especially Criticism of the Catholic Church, of the Roman Catholic Church) and of slavery, Voltaire was an advocate of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile and prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including Stageplay, plays, poems, novels, essays, histories, and even scientific Exposition (narrative), expositions. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and 2,000 books and pamphlets. Voltaire was one of the first authors to become renowned and commercially successful internationally. He was an outspoken advocate of civil liberties and was at constant risk from the strict censorship laws of the Catholic French monarchy. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cellini
Benvenuto Cellini (, ; 3 November 150013 February 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, and author. His best-known extant works include the ''Cellini Salt Cellar'', the sculpture of ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'', and his autobiography, which has been described as "one of the most important documents of the 16th century". Biography Youth Benvenuto Cellini was born in Florence, in present-day Italy. His parents were Giovanni Cellini and Maria Lisabetta Granacci. They were married for 18 years before the birth of their first child. Benvenuto was the second child of the family. The son of a musician and builder of musical instruments, Cellini was pushed towards music, but when he was fifteen, his father reluctantly agreed to apprentice him to a goldsmith, Antonio di Sandro, nicknamed Marcone. At the age of 16, Benvenuto had already attracted attention in Florence by taking part in an affray with youthful companions. He was banished for six months and lived in Siena, where ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
