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Roger Deakin
Roger Stuart Deakin (11 February 1943 – 19 August 2006) was an English writer, documentary-maker and environmentalist. He was a co-founder and trustee of Common Ground, the arts, culture and environment organisation. ''Waterlog'', the only book he published in his lifetime, topped the UK best seller charts, and founded the wild swimming movement. Patrick Barkham published a biography of Deakin in 2023 titled simply ''The Swimmer''. Life Deakin, an only child, was born in Watford, Hertfordshire. His father was a railway clerk from Walsall in the Midlands, who died when Deakin was 17. Educated at The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, an independent school, based at the time in Hampstead in north-west London, followed by Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, Deakin read English, under the auspices of writer Kingsley Amis. Deakin first worked in advertising as a copywriter and creative director for Colman Prentis and Varley, while living in Bayswater, London. He was re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Watford
Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and brewery, breweries. While industry has declined in Watford, its location near London and transport links have attracted several companies to site their headquarters in the town. Cassiobury Park is a public park that was once the manor estate of the Earls of Essex. The town developed next to the River Colne on land belonging to St Albans Abbey. In the 12th century, a charter was granted allowing a market, and the building of St Mary's Church, Watford, St Mary's Church began. The town grew partly due to travellers going to Berkhamsted Castle and the royal palace at Kings Langley. A mansion was built at Cassiobury House, Cassiobury in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabethan Era
The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female personification of Great Britain) was revived in 1572, and often thereafter, to mark the Elizabethan age as a renaissance that inspired national pride through classical ideals, international expansion, and naval triumph over Spain. This "golden age" represented the apogee of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry, music, and literature. The era is most famous for its theatre, as William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of England's past style of theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the people, most certainly after the Spanish Armada was repelled. It was also the end of the period when England was a sep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Swimmer (1968 Film)
''The Swimmer'' is a 1968 American drama film starring Burt Lancaster. The film was written and directed by Academy Award-nominated husband-and-wife team of Eleanor Perry (screenplay adaptation) and Frank Perry (director). The story is based on the 1964 short story " The Swimmer" by John Cheever, which appeared in the July 18, 1964, issue of ''The New Yorker''. The 95-minute movie adds new characters and scenes consistent with those in the original 12-page short story. Plot In a woodland, bordering a well-off suburb in Connecticut, a fit and tanned New York advertising executive, Ned Merrill, emerges wearing only a bathing suit. He drops by a pool party held by old friends and they offer him a cocktail while nursing hangovers from the night before. As they share stories, Ned realizes there is a series of backyard swimming pools that could form a "river" back to his house, making it possible for him to "swim his way home". Ned dives into the pool, emerging at the other end and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Cheever
John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs". His fiction is mostly set on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; the Westchester suburbs; old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy, Massachusetts, where he was born; and Italy, especially Rome. His short stories included " The Enormous Radio", " Goodbye, My Brother", " The Five-Forty-Eight", " The Country Husband", and " The Swimmer", and he also wrote five novels: '' The Wapshot Chronicle'' (National Book Award, 1958), from the Award's 50-year anniversary publications and from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) '' The Wapshot Scandal'' (William Dean Howells Medal, 1965), '' Bullet Park'' (1969), '' Falconer'' (1977) and a novella, '' Oh What a Paradise It Seems'' (1982). His main themes include the duality of human nature: sometimes dramatized as the disparity between a character's dec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Swimmer (short Story)
"The Swimmer" is a short story by American author John Cheever. It was originally published in ''The New Yorker'' on July 18, 1964, and later in the short-fiction collections '' The Brigadier and the Golf Widow'' (1964) and '' The Stories of John Cheever'' (1978). Considered one of the author's most outstanding works, "The Swimmer" has received exhaustive analysis from critics and biographers. In 1968, "The Swimmer" was adapted into a film of the same name, starring Burt Lancaster. This is the only literary work by Cheever that has appeared on screen. "The Swimmer" is also a crucial plot reference in Nanni Moretti's 2023 movie '' A Brighter Tomorrow'' (''Il sol dell'avvenire''). Plot The story is told from a third-person limited point-of-view, in which the focal character is Neddy Merrill, a resident of suburban Westchester County, New York. Neddy Merrill is lounging poolside at the residence of his well-to-do neighbors, the Westerhazys. He is entering middle age, and though i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chatto And Windus
Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business partner Andrew Chatto and poet William Edward Windus. The company was purchased by Random House in 1987 and is now a sub-imprint of Vintage Books within the Penguin UK division. History The firm developed out of the publishing business of John Camden Hotten, founded in 1855. After his death in 1873, it was sold to Hotten's junior partner Andrew Chatto (1841–1913), who took on as a partner the poet William Edward Windus (1827–1910), son of the patron of J. M. W. Turner, Benjamin Godfrey Windus (1790–1867). Chatto & Windus published Mark Twain, W. S. Gilbert, Wilkie Collins, H. G. Wells, Wyndham Lewis, Richard Aldington, Frederick Rolfe (as Fr. Rolfe), Aldous Huxley, Samuel Beckett, the "unfinished" novel '' Weir of Hermiston'' (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wild Places (book)
''The Wild Places'' is a 2007 book by British writer Robert Macfarlane about the author's journey to explore and document the remaining wilderness of the British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr .... The book is separated into 15 chapters, each a description of Macfarlane's journey to a particular type of wild place, such as "Island", "Valley", and "Moor". References British travel books 2007 non-fiction books English non-fiction books Books about the United Kingdom {{travel-book-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allotment (gardening)
An allotment (British English), is a plot of land made available for individual, non-commercial gardening for growing food plants, so forming a kitchen garden away from the residence of the user. Such plots are formed by subdividing a piece of land into a few or up to several hundred parcels that are assigned to individuals or families, contrary to a community garden where the entire area is tended collectively by a group of people. The term "victory garden" is also still sometimes used, especially when a garden dates back to the World War I, First or World War II, Second World War. The individual size of a parcel typically suits the needs of a family, and often the plots include a shed for tools and shelter, and sometimes a hut for seasonal or weekend accommodation. The individual gardeners are usually organised in an allotment association, which leases or is granted the land from an owner who may be a public, private or ecclesiastical entity, and who usually stipulates that it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hank Wangford
Samuel Hutt (born 15 November 1940), known by the stage name Hank Wangford, is an English country and western songwriter. "Hank is a good smoke screen. He can do things I can't do. He's my clown," says Dr. Hutt, who has been struggling to balance his musical and medical interests ever since medical school at Cambridge University. His 1960s practice in a drug-addiction centre brought him into contact with a lot of rockers and wide renown as London's long-haired, rock-and-roll doctor, and later a television series. "If The Who had a first night, the tickets would be sent. I actually had more of an identity crisis with that than with Hank, because Hank is a fool. I quite like him. Dr. Sam was definitely threatening to become a monster." Early and personal life It has been said that Hank was born in Wangford, Suffolk, England and that may be where Sam Hutt conceived his stage name. In his appearance in the film, ''A Brief History of Brocket Hall'', Sam Hutt says that he was bor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the south, Greater London to the south-west, and Hertfordshire to the west. The largest settlement is Southend-on-Sea, and the county town is Chelmsford. The county has an area of and a population of 1,832,751. After Southend-on-Sea (182,305), the largest settlements are Colchester (130,245), Basildon (115,955) and Chelmsford (110,625). The south of the county is very densely populated, and the remainder, besides Colchester and Chelmsford, is largely rural. For local government purposes Essex comprises a non-metropolitan county, with twelve districts, and two unitary authority areas: Thurrock Council, Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea City Council, Southend-on-Sea. The districts of Chelmsford, Colchester and Southend have city status. The county H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
River Waveney
The River Waveney is a river which forms the boundary between Suffolk and Norfolk, England, for much of its length within The Broads. The earliest attestation of the name is from 1275, ''Wahenhe'', from ''*wagen + ea'', meaning the river by a quagmire. Course The source of the River Waveney is a ditch on the east side of the B1113 road between the villages of Redgrave, Suffolk and South Lopham, Norfolk. The ditch on the other side of the road is the source of the River Little Ouse which continues the county boundary and, via the Great Ouse, reaches the sea at King's Lynn. It is thus claimed that during periods of heavy rainfall Norfolk can be considered to be an island. The explanation of this oddity is that the valley in which the rivers rise was formed not by these rivers, but by water spilling from the periglacial lake known as Lake Fenland. This was a periglacial lake of the Devensian glacial period, fifteen or twenty thousand years ago. The ice sheet closed the natural drai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasting House, London. Since 2019, the station controller has been Mohit Bakaya. He replaced Gwyneth Williams, who had been the station controller since 2010. Broadcasting throughout the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands on FM broadcast band, FM, Longwave, LW and Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, and on BBC Sounds, it can be received in the eastern counties of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, northern France and Northern Europe. It is available on Freeview (UK), Freeview, Freesat, Sky (UK & Ireland), Sky, and Virgin Media. Radio 4 currently reaches over 10 million listeners, making it List of most-listened-to radio programs#Top stations in the United Kingdom, the UK's second most-popular radio station after BBC Radio 2. BBC ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
