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Sceptre Press
Martin Booth (7 September 1944 – 12 February 2004) was an English novelist and poet. He also worked as a teacher and screenwriter, and was the founder of the Sceptre Press. Early life Martin Booth was born in Lancashire, England, as the son of Joyce and Ken Booth, the latter of which was a Royal Navy civil servant. Martin has said that his parents had a difficult marriage, as his father was stern, pompous, and humourless, while his mother was adventurous, witty, and sociable. The family moved to Hong Kong in May 1952, where his father was stationed for a three-year tour as a grocery supplier to the British Navy. In his memoir “Gweilo: A memoir of a Hong Kong Childhood” Booth recalls that the streets of Hong Kong were safe, and he would explore the city alone as a child. He encountered things he was unfamiliar with: dogs hung in a butcher shop, an impoverished family living in a packing crate, and a Russian refugee who claimed to be the missing Russian princess Anastasia. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The largest settlement is Preston, Lancashire, Preston, and the county town is the city of Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster. The county has an area of and a population of 1,490,300. Preston is located near the centre of the county, which is urbanised and includes the towns of Blackburn and Burnley; the seaside resort of Blackpool lies to the west, and Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster is in the north. For Local government in England, local government purposes the county comprises a non-metropolitan county, with twelve districts, and two Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas: Blackburn with Darwen and Borough of Blackpool, Blackpool. Lancashire County Council and the two unitary councils collaborate through the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckinghamshire to the west. The largest settlement is Luton (225,262), and Bedford is the county town. The county has an area of and had a population of 704,736 at the 2021 census. ''plus'' ''plus'' Its other towns include Leighton Buzzard, Dunstable, Biggleswade, Houghton Regis, and Flitwick. Much of the county is rural. For Local government in England, local government purposes, Bedfordshire comprises three Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas: Borough of Bedford, Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, and Luton. The county's highest point is on Dunstable Downs in the Chilterns. History The first recorded use of the name in 1011 was "Bedanfordscir", meaning the shire or county of Bedford, which itself means "Beda's ford ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frances Horovitz
Frances Margaret Horovitz ( Hooker; 13 February 1938 – 2 October 1983) was an English poet and broadcaster. Life and work Frances Margaret Hooker (who adopted and wrote under the surname of her first husband, Michael Horovitz) was born in Walthamstow, London, in 1938 but moved with her family to Nottingham in 1942 when her father was appointed manager of a munitions factory there. In 1947 they returned to London and Frances attended Walthamstow School for Girls. She went on to Bristol University to study English and Drama and then to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. As a reader and presenter for the BBC, she acquired a reputation for care of preparation and quality of delivery. Her poetry has been described as "not that of the 'age' but of the earth" by Anne Stevenson. However, according to Peter Levi, such is her economy of means in the poems "that one runs the risk of not noticing how effective they are"; the effect of her writing is cumulative and "adds up t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Stathatos
John Stathatos (born Athens, 1947), Greek photographer and writer. Biography Based in London, 1970s-1990s, where he studied at the London School of Economics and was Executive Editor of the student newspaper, The Beaver as well as Editor of two issues of Clare Market Review. Active as a poet and freelance photojournalist in the seventies, he published several volumes of poetry in English as well as translations of modern Greek poetry with British small and independent presses. Collaborated with poet and writer Ian Robinson on a number of projects, including Independent Press Distribution and the short-lived magazine ''Telegram''. Journalism led him to cover stories in Kurdistan, the Spanish Sahara and the Philippines for various newspapers, including the ''Guardian'' and the ''Sunday Times''. He later became increasingly involved in photography, exhibiting his work in venues such as The Photographers' Gallery and Camden Arts Centre; alongside his own work, he published reviews a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George MacBeth
George Mann MacBeth (19 January 1932 – 16 February 1992) was a Scottish poet and novelist. Biography George MacBeth was born in Shotts, Lanarkshire, Scotland. When he was three, his family moved to Sheffield in England. He was educated in Sheffield at King Edward VII School, where he was Head Prefect in 1951photo, before going up to New College, Oxford, with an Open Scholarship in Classics. He joined BBC Radio on graduating in 1955 from the University of Oxford. He worked there, as a producer of programmes on poetry, notably for the BBC Third Programme, until 1976. He was a member of The Group. He resigned from the BBC to take up novel-writing; he introduced a series of thrillers involving the spy, Cadbury. In his later post-BBC years, after divorcing his first wife, he married the novelist Lisa St Aubin de Terán, with whom he had a child, Alexander Morton George MacBeth. After a divorce, he moved with his new wife, Penny, to Ireland to live at Moyne Park, Abbeyknockmoy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Elroy Flecker
James Elroy Flecker (5 November 1884 – 3 January 1915) was a British novelist, playwright, and poet, whose poetry was most influenced by the Parnassian poets. Biography Herman Elroy Flecker was born on 5 November 1884 in Lewisham, London, to William Herman Flecker, headmaster of Dean Close School, Cheltenham, and his wife Sarah. His much younger brother was the educationalist Henry Lael Oswald Flecker, who became Headmaster of Christ's Hospital. Flecker later chose to use the first name "James", either because he disliked the name "Herman" or to avoid confusion with his father. "Roy", as his family called him, was educated at Dean Close School, and then at Uppingham. He subsequently studied at Trinity College, Oxford, and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. While at Oxford he was greatly influenced by the last flowering of the Aesthetic movement there under John Addington Symonds, and became a close friend of the classicist and art historian John Beazley. From 1910 Fl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yaodong
A yaodong (窰 in native Jin Chinese, or 窰洞 ''yáodòng'' in Beijing Mandarin) is a particular form of Earth sheltering, earth shelter dwelling common in the Loess Plateau in China's north. They are generally carved out of a hillside or excavated horizontally from a central "sunken courtyard". The earth that surrounds the indoor space serves as an effective insulator, keeping the inside of the structure warm in cold seasons and cool in hot seasons. Consequently, very little heating is required in winter, and in summer, it is as cool as an air-conditioned room. The history of yaodongs goes back centuries, and they continue to be used. As of the early 2000s, between 30 and 40 million people in northern China still lived in yaodongs, a number rapidly decreasing as millions move to more modern dwellings nearby or move away as part of urbanization in China. Types The landscape of the Loess Plateau terrain is very complicated, with valleys, slopes, ridges, and hillocks. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor, filmmaker, and philanthropist. Known for his leading man roles on screen in both blockbuster and independent films, Clooney has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award and four Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Tony Award. His honors include the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2015, the Honorary César in 2017, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2018, and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2022. Clooney's breakthrough role came as Dr. Doug Ross on the NBC medical drama '' ER'' (19941999), for which he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He established himself as a film star with roles in '' From Dusk till Dawn'' (1996), '' Out of Sight'' (1998), '' Three Kings'' (1999), '' O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' (2000), and the ''Oceans'' film series (2001–2007). He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing a CIA offi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The American (2010 Film)
''The American'' is a 2010 American crime thriller film directed by Anton Corbijn and starring George Clooney, Thekla Reuten, Violante Placido, Irina Björklund, and Paolo Bonacelli. Based on the 1990 novel ''A Very Private Gentleman'' by Martin Booth, it was loosely adapted to screenplay by Rowan Joffé. The film was released on September 1, 2010. It received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $67 million worldwide. Plot Jack and his lover, Ingrid, are relaxing in Sweden. As they walk in the wilderness outside their cabin, Jack becomes alarmed by a trail of footprints in the snow. A sniper's shots ring out, but Ingrid sees Jack pull a gun from his pocket and shoot the sniper; without hesitation, he kills her too before locating and killing another armed man. He flees to Rome and contacts a man named Pavel, who insists that Jack cannot stay in Rome and sends him to Castelvecchio Calvisio, Castelvecchio, a small town in the mountains of Abruzzo. A nervous Jack ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, which was published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. The winner of the Booker Prize receives , as well as international publicity that usually leads to a significant sales boost. When the prize was created, only novels written by Commonwealth, Irish and South African (and later Zimbabwean) citizens were eligible to receive the prize; in 2014, eligibility was widened to any English-language novel—a change that proved controversial. A five-person panel consisting of authors, publishers and journalists, as well as politicians, actors, artists and musicians, is appointed by the Booker Prize Foundation each year to choose the winning book. Gaby Wood has been the chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation since 2015. A high-profile liter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jim Corbett
Edward James Corbett (25 July 1875 – 19 April 1955) was an Anglo-Indian hunter and author. He gained fame through hunting and killing several man-eating tigers and leopards in Northern India, as detailed in his bestselling 1944 memoir '' Man-Eaters of Kumaon''. In his later years, he became an outspoken advocate of the nascent conservation movement. Born in Naini Tal, Corbett explored and hunted in the jungles of India in childhood. He shot his first man-eater in 1907 and continued to hunt and kill such animals over the next four decades. Animals such as the Champawat Tiger, the Leopard of Rudraprayag, and the Panar Leopard had taken hundreds of victims in the divisions of Kumaon and Garwhal, before their deaths at Corbett's hands. ''Man-Eaters of Kumaon'', which detailed several such hunts, became an international bestseller; it was followed by several other books and was adapted into a 1948 Hollywood film. Corbett increasingly disdained what he saw as the rapacious ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
