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Jane And Prudence
''Jane and Prudence'' is the third novel by Barbara Pym, first published in 1953. Plot summary Jane Cleveland, aged 41, is married to a clergyman who has recently taken on a new parish in an English village. Their daughter Flora is to follow in her mother’s footsteps in the autumn by studying English at the same Oxford college. Jane’s friend and former student Prudence Bates, aged 29, lives in London. She is famous for her love affairs but currently has an imponderable attraction to Arthur Grampian, her older, married boss, the head of an unspecified academic foundation. Jane would like to see Prudence married, and thinks she has found a suitable candidate in Fabian Driver, a handsome, fortyish widower who lives in the village and is known to have been habitually unfaithful to his late wife. She invites Prudence to stay for a weekend, knowing that she will meet Fabian at a village event. Prudence and Fabian begin to see each other in London and the romance seems to be going ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara Pym
Barbara Mary Crampton Pym (2 June 1913 – 11 January 1980) was an English novelist. In the 1950s she published a series of social comedies, of which the best known are '' Excellent Women'' (1952) and '' A Glass of Blessings'' (1958). In 1977 her career was revived when the critic Lord David Cecil and the poet Philip Larkin both nominated her as the most underrated writer of the century. Her novel '' Quartet in Autumn'' (1977) was nominated for the Booker Prize that year, and she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Biography Early life Barbara Mary Crampton Pym was born on 2 June 1913 at 72 Willow Street in Oswestry, Shropshire, the elder daughter of Irena Spenser, ''née'' Thomas (1886–1945) and Frederic Crampton Pym (1879–1966), a solicitor. She was educated at Queen's Park School, a girls' school in Oswestry. From the age of 12, she attended Huyton College, near Liverpool. Pym's parents were active in the local Oswestry operatic society, and she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hachette (publisher)
Hachette Livre S.A. (; simply known as Hachette) is a French publishing, publishing group that was based in Paris. It was founded in 1826 by Louis Hachette as Brédif which later became successively L. Hachette et Compagnie, Librairie Hachette, Hachette SA and is then currently known in France as Hachette Livre. After acquiring an Australian publisher, Hachette Australia was created; in the United Kingdom, UK it became Hachette UK, and its expansion into the United States became Hachette Book Group. Hachette Livre has been owned by the Lagardère Group since 1981 under their publishing division Lagardère Publishing. Lagardère Group in turn is majority owned by the French conglomerate Louis Hachette Group (LHG), resulting from the spin-off of Vivendi. History France It was founded in 1826 by Louis Hachette as Brédif, a bookshop and publishing company. It became L. Hachette et Compagnie on 1 January 1846, Librairie Hachette in 1919, and Hachette SA in 1977. The company was fam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1953 British Novels
Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia. ** The Central Intelligence Agency, CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel first meets to discuss the Unidentified flying object, UFO phenomenon. * January 15 ** Georg Dertinger, foreign minister of East Germany, is arrested for spying. ** British security forces in West Germany arrest 7 members of the Naumann Circle, a clandestine Neo-Nazi organization. * January 19 – 71.1% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into ''I Love Lucy'', to watch Lucy give birth to Little Ricky, which is more people than those who tune into Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration the next day. This record is never broken. * January 24 ** Mau Mau Uprising: Rebels in Kenya kill th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Excellent Women
''Excellent Women'', the second published novel by Barbara Pym, first appeared from Jonathan Cape in 1952. A novel of manners, it is generally acclaimed as her funniest and most successful in that genre. Title The phrase "excellent women" appears frequently throughout the novel, and is often used by men in reference to the kind of women who perform small but meaningful duties in the service of churches and voluntary organisations and are taken for granted. The phrase first appears in Pym's early unpublished novel '' Civil to Strangers'' and is taken from Jane Austen's novel ''Sanditon''. Plot summary The book is a first-person narrative in which Mildred Lathbury records the humdrum details of her everyday life in post-war London near the start of the 1950s. Perpetually self-deprecating, but with the sharpest wit, Mildred is a clergyman's daughter who is now just over thirty and lives in "a shabby part…very much the 'wrong' side of Victoria Station". She works part-time at th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Susie Blake
Susie Blake (born 19 April 1950) is an English television, radio and stage actress. She is best known for her portrayal of the snobbish TV announcer in '' Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV'' and of Bev Unwin in ''Coronation Street'', a role she played between 2003 and 2006, before a brief return in 2015. She has also played Hillary Nicholson in '' Mrs. Brown's Boys'' since 2011. Early life Blake was born in Highgate, London to David and Molly Blake. Her mother was an illustrator and children's television presenter. Susie's maternal grandmother was the children's entertainer Annette Mills, her cousins are the actresses Juliet and Hayley Mills, whilst her uncle was the actor John Mills. Career Blake regularly appeared in Victoria Wood's television programmes and has extensive radio credits. She appeared in the first episode of the sitcom '' One Foot in the Grave'' in which her character was responsible for firing Victor Meldrew, thus setting the events of the show in motion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emma Fielding
Emma Georgina Annalies Fielding (born 7 October 1970) is an English actress. Early life and education The daughter of a British Army officer, Fielding spent some of her childhood in Nigeria, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Northern Ireland and other places, also living above a betting shop in Malvern. She went to school at Berkhamsted Collegiate boarding school and worked as an usherette at the Apollo Theatre Oxford as a teenager. She studied law at Cambridge University, abandoning her studies after two terms, and worked at a kibbutz in Israel before embarking on the study of acting at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Career After graduation Fielding worked for the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, coming to the attention of critics in 1993's National Theatre production of Tom Stoppard's '' Arcadia,'' in which she created the role of Thomasina, [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Penelope Wilton
Dame Penelope Alice Wilton (born 3 June 1946) is an English actress. She was formerly married to fellow actor Sir Ian Holm and, as she has not remarried, retains her married style of Lady Holm. Wilton is known for starring opposite Richard Briers in the BBC sitcom ''Ever Decreasing Circles'' (1984–1989), playing Homily in '' The Borrowers'' (1992) and '' The Return of the Borrowers'' (1993), and her role as the widowed Isobel Crawley in the ITV drama ''Downton Abbey'' (2010–2015). She also played the recurring role of Harriet Jones in ''Doctor Who'' (2005–2008) and Anne in Ricky Gervais' Netflix dark comedy '' After Life''. Wilton has had an extensive career on stage, receiving six Olivier Award nominations. She was nominated for ''Man and Superman'' (1981), '' The Secret Rapture'' (1988), '' The Deep Blue Sea'' (1994), '' John Gabriel Borkman'' (2008) and '' The Chalk Garden'' (2009), before winning the 2015 Olivier Award for Best Actress for '' Taken at Midnight ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samantha Bond
Samantha Jane Bond (born 27 November 1961) is an English actress. She played Miss Moneypenny in four James Bond films during the Pierce Brosnan era, and appeared in ''Downton Abbey'' as the wealthy widow Lady Rosamund Painswick, sister of Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham. On television, she played "Auntie Angela" in the sitcom '' Outnumbered'' and the villain Mrs Wormwood in the CBBC ''Doctor Who'' spin-off, '' The Sarah Jane Adventures''. She also originated the role of "Miz Liz" Probert in the ''Rumpole of the Bailey'' series. She is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Early life Bond is the daughter of actor Philip Bond and television producer Pat Sandys, and is the sister of the actress Abigail Bond and the journalist Matthew Bond. Bond's paternal grandparents were Welsh. She was brought up in London and Richmond-upon-Thames, in homes in Barnes and St Margarets. She attended the Godolphin and Latymer School, and studied acting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth Spriggs
Elizabeth Jean Spriggs (18 September 1929 – 2 July 2008) was an English actress. Spriggs' roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company included Nurse in ''Romeo and Juliet'', Gertrude in ''Hamlet'', and Beatrice in ''Much Ado About Nothing''. In 1978, she won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for Arnold Wesker's ''Love Letters on Blue Paper''. She received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the 1995 film ''Sense and Sensibility''. Her other films included '' Richard's Things'' (1980), ''Impromptu'' (1991), '' Paradise Road'' (1997), and ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' (2001). Early life and career Born in Buxton, Derbyshire, in 1929, Spriggs had an unhappy childhood, later stating that she "grew up entirely without affection". Possessing a mezzo-soprano voice, she studied opera at the Royal College of Music, and taught speech and drama in Coventry. Her first marriage at 21 was a disaster and, in what she called "the most painful deci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julian Glover
Julian Wyatt Glover (born 27 March 1935) is an English actor with many stage, television, and film roles. Classically trained, he is a recipient of the Laurence Olivier Award and has performed many times for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Glover's well-known film roles have included playing villains in several major motion picture franchises: General Maximilian Veers in '' The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980), Aristotle Kristatos in '' For Your Eyes Only'' (1981), and Walter Donovan in ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989). He has also appeared as Brian Harcourt-Smith in '' The Fourth Protocol'' (1987), voiced the giant Acromantula spider Aragog in '' Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' (2002), and appeared as conductor Andris Davis in the psychological drama '' Tár'' (2022). Glover has also appeared frequently on television, especially in the UK, including guest appearances in series such as '' The Avengers'', '' The Saint'', '' Thriller'', ''Doctor Who'', ''B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford
Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest university in the English-speaking world; it has buildings in every style of Architecture of England, English architecture since late History of Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon. Oxford's industries include motor manufacturing, education, publishing, science, and information technologies. Founded in the 8th century, it was granted city status in 1542. The city is located at the confluence of the rivers Thames (locally known as the Isis) and River Cherwell, Cherwell. It had a population of in . It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. History The history of Oxford in England dates back to its original settlement in the History of Anglo-Saxon England, Saxon period. The name � ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crampton Hodnet
''Crampton Hodnet'' is a comic novel by Barbara Pym, published posthumously in 1985, and originally written in 1940. Plot summary The action takes place over the course of a year in North Oxford, some time before World War II. Miss Doggett likes to entertain students to tea at her gloomy Victorian home in Banbury Road. When a new and unmarried curate, Stephen Latimer, comes to lodge at her house, he strikes up a friendship with her paid companion, Jessie Morrow, through whose eyes much of the action is seen. He begins to see Jessie as a potential wife and proposes to her, but she rejects him, knowing that his interest in her is practical rather than romantic. Miss Doggett's nephew, Francis Cleveland, a middle-aged don at the (fictitious) Randolph College of Oxford University, begins a romantic relationship with one of his students, Barbara Bird, who has a crush on him. He takes her out for tea, and they are seen by Miss Doggett and Miss Morrow. On another occasion two of Miss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
