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Hodge (cat)
Hodge (fl. c.1769) was one of Samuel Johnson's cats, immortalised in a characteristically whimsical passage in James Boswell's 1791 book '' Life of Johnson''. Although there is little known about Hodge, such as his life, his death, or any other information, what is known is Johnson's fondness for his cat, which separated Johnson from the views held by others of the eighteenth century. Life Most of the information on Hodge comes from Boswell's account. It is in this passage that Johnson is claimed to have an affection for animals: The latter anecdote is used as the epigraph to Vladimir Nabokov's acclaimed poem/novel ''Pale Fire''. Johnson bought oysters for his cat. In modern England, oysters are an expensive food for the well-to-do, but in the 18th century oysters were plentiful around the coasts of England and so cheap that they were a staple food of the poor. Johnson refused to send Francis Barber to buy Hodge's food, fearing that it would be seen as degrading to his ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dr Johnson
Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary criticism, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' calls him "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, he attended Pembroke College, Oxford, until lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London and began writing for ''The Gentleman's Magazine''. Early works include ''Life of Mr Richard Savage'', the poems ''London (Samuel Johnson poem), London'' and ''The Vanity of Human Wishes'' and the play ''Irene (play), Irene''. After nine years of effort, Johnson's ''A Dictionary of the English Language'' appeared in 1755, and was acclaimed as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship". Later work included essays, an annotated ''The Plays o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agatha Raisin
Agatha Raisin is a fictional detective in a series of humorous mystery novels, originally written by Marion Chesney using the pseudonym M. C. Beaton. Chesney's friend Rod W. Green took over as writer with ''Hot to Trot''. The books are published in the U.K. by Constable & Robinson and in the US by St Martin's Press. Raisin has been played by Penelope Keith on BBC Radio 4 and by Ashley Jensen in the television series ''Agatha Raisin''. The pilot aired on Sky 1 in December 2014. A full 8-part series, filmed during 2015, began airing on Sky 1 in June 2016. For series 2 the format was changed from 45-minute episodes to two 90-minute TV movies. Series 3 premiered on 28 October 2019 and the four stories retained the 90-minute format. Character Agatha Raisin is a frustrated, yet endearing, middle-aged former public-relations agent who moved from London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Human Wishes
''Disjecta: Miscellaneous Writings and a Dramatic Fragment'' (John Calder, 1983) is a collection of previously uncollected writings by Samuel Beckett, spanning his entire career. The title is derived from the Latin phrase " disjecta membra", meaning scattered remains or fragments, usually applied to written work. The essays appear in their original language of composition (English, French, or German), as stipulated by Beckett, since the volume is intended for scholars who should be able to read several languages. Beckett himself did not value these pieces much, seeing them as "mere products of friendly obligation or economic need". The collection includes Beckett's famous essay on an early version of James Joyce's ''Finnegans Wake'' which originally appeared in '' Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress''. Contents * Foreword by Ruby Cohn Part I: Essays at Esthetics * Dante...Bruno. Vico.. Joyce – ''essay on Finnegans Wake'' * Le Concentris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tragicomic episodes of life, often coupled with black comedy and literary nonsense. A major figure of Irish literature and one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, he is credited with transforming the genre of the modern theatre. Best remembered for his tragicomedy play ''Waiting for Godot'' (1953), he is considered to be one of the last Modernism, modernist writers, and a key figure in what Martin Esslin called the "Theatre of the Absurd." For his lasting literary contributions, Beckett received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation." A resident of Paris for most of his adult life, Beckett wrote in both Frenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sarah Chauncey Woolsey
Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (January 29, 1835 – April 9, 1905) was an American children's author who wrote under the pen name Susan Coolidge. Background Woolsey was born on January 29, 1835, into the wealthy, influential New England Dwight family, in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father was John Mumford Woolsey (1796–1870) and her mother Jane Andrews, and author and poet Gamel Woolsey was her niece. Her family moved to New Haven Connecticut in 1852. Woolsey worked as a nurse during the American Civil War (1861–1865), after which she started to write. She never married, and resided at her family home in Newport, Rhode Island, until her death. She edited ''The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delaney'' (1879) and ''The Diary and Letters of Frances Burney'' (1880). She is best known for her classic children's novel ''What Katy Did'' (1872). The fictional Carr family was modeled after her own, with Katy Carr inspired by Woolsey herself. The brothers and sisters were modeled o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Dictionary Of The English Language
''A Dictionary of the English Language'', sometimes published as ''Johnson's Dictionary'', was published on 15 April 1755 and written by Samuel Johnson. It is among the most influential dictionary, dictionaries in the history of the English language. There was dissatisfaction with the dictionaries of the period, so in June 1746 a group of London booksellers contracted Johnson to write a dictionary for the sum of 1,500 Guinea (British coin), guineas (£1,575), equivalent to about £ in . Johnson took seven years to complete the work, although he had claimed he could finish it in three. He did so single-handedly, with only clerical assistance to copy the illustrative quotations that he had marked in books. Johnson produced several revised editions during his life. Until the completion of the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' 173 years later, Johnson's was viewed as the pre-eminent English dictionary. According to Walter Jackson Bate, the Dictionary "easily ranks as one of the g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yvonne Skargon
Yvonne Skargon (1931-2010), was a British wood engraver, watercolorist, and typographer who was best known for her work related to botanical and culinary subjects. Career Yvonne Skargon was born in 1931. She attended the Colchester School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London, and studied with Blair Hughes-Stanton and John O'Connor. She worked professionally as an illustrator of books about nature, gardening, and cooking, and regularly illustrated for the British horticultural journal, ''Hortus''. Skargon was an instructor in wood engraving at the Royal College of Art for five years until the programme was ended in 1980. She illustrated dozens of books and wrote several on gardening that were printed in fine press editions. She illustrated three of Jane Grigson's books: ''The Mushroom Feast'' (1975), ''Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book'' (1978) and ''Jane Grigson's Fruit Book'' (1982). Skargon also wrote and illustrated two books about her cats that achieved popular fame, ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage. The service has over 5,500 journalists working across its output including in 50 foreign news bureaus where more than 250 foreign correspondents are stationed. Deborah Turness has been the CEO of news and current affairs since September 2022. In 2019, it was reported in an Ofcom report that the BBC spent £136m on news during the period April 2018 to March 2019. BBC News' domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, in Broadcasting House in central London. Parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in London. Through BBC English Regions, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lord Mayor Of London
The Lord Mayor of London is the Mayors in England, mayor of the City of London, England, and the Leader of the council, leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded Order of precedence, precedence over all individuals except the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, sovereign and retains various traditional powers, rights, and privileges, including the title and Style (manner of address), style ''The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London''. One of the world's oldest continuously elected Civil office, civic offices, it is entirely separate from the directly elected mayor of London, a political office controlling a budget which covers the much larger area of Greater London. The Corporation of London changed its name to the City of London Corporation in 2006, and accordingly the title Lord Mayor of the City of London was introduced, so as to avoid confusion with that of Mayor of London. The legal and commonly used title remains ''Lord Mayor of Lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bronze Statue
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloids (such as arsenic or silicon). These additions produce a range of alloys some of which are harder than copper alone or have other useful properties, such as strength, ductility, or machinability. The archaeological period during which bronze was the hardest metal in widespread use is known as the Bronze Age. The beginning of the Bronze Age in western Eurasia is conventionally dated to the mid-4th millennium BCE (~3500 BCE), and to the early 2nd millennium BCE in China; elsewhere it gradually spread across regions. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age, which started about 1300 BCE and reaching most of Eurasia by about 500 BCE, although bronze continued to be much more widely used than it is in modern times. Because historical artwork ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greater London
Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county also called Greater London, and the City of London. The Greater London Authority is responsible for strategic local government across the region, and regular local government is the responsibility of the borough councils and the City of London Corporation. Greater London is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Hertfordshire to the north, Essex to the north-east, Kent to the south-east, Surrey to the south, and Berkshire and Buckinghamshire to the west. Greater London has a land area of and had an estimated population of in . The ceremonial county of Greater London is only slightly smaller, with an area of and a population of in . The area is almost entirely urbanised and contains the majority of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
