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Statue Of George Orwell
A statue of George Orwell by the British sculptor Martin Jennings was unveiled on 7 November 2017 outside Broadcasting House, the headquarters of the BBC, in London. The wall behind the statue is inscribed with George Orwell's words "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear", from an unused preface to ''Animal Farm''. The head of BBC history, Robert Seatter, said of Orwell and the statue that "He reputedly based his notorious Room 101 from ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' on a room he had worked in whilst at the BBC, but here he will stand in the fresh air reminding people of the value of journalism in holding authority to account". Creation The statue was funded by a trust established by the Labour MP Ben Whitaker, with all funds coming from private donors. Notable donors to the trust included Ian McEwan, Andrew Marr, Ken Follett, Rowan Atkinson, Neil and Glenys Kinnock, Tom Stoppard, David Hare and Michael Frayn. In 2012 the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Jennings
Martin Jennings, FRSS (born 31 July 1957) is a British sculptor who works in the figurative tradition, in bronze and stone. His statue of John Betjeman at St Pancras railway station was unveiled in 2007 and the statue of Philip Larkin at Hull Paragon Interchange station was presented in 2010. His statue of Mary Seacole (2016), one of his largest works, stands in the grounds of St Thomas' Hospital in central London, looking over the Thames towards the Houses of Parliament. On 30 September 2022 the Royal Mint unveiled Jennings' design for the obverse face of the British coinage, for which he had modelled the effigy of King Charles III. A crowned version of the same effigy was used for a special edition issue at the time of the coronation in May 2023. Coins using the effigy have Jennings' initials under the monarch's neck. A "digitally re-lit" version of the portrait has been used by Royal Mail for the new stamps bearing the image of Charles III, the first time since the 194 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Frayn
Michael Frayn, FRSL (; born 8 September 1933) is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce ''Noises Off'' and the dramas ''Copenhagen (play), Copenhagen'' and ''Democracy (play), Democracy''. Frayn's novels, such as ''Towards the End of the Morning'', ''Headlong (Frayn novel), Headlong'' and ''Spies (novel), Spies'', have also been critical and commercial successes, making him one of the handful of writers in the English language to succeed in both drama and prose fiction. He has also written philosophical works, such as ''The Human Touch: Our Part in the Creation of the Universe'' (2006). Early life Frayn was born at Mill Hill, north London (then in Middlesex), to Thomas Allen Frayn, an asbestos salesman from a working-class family of blacksmiths, locksmiths and servants and his wife Violet Alice (née Lawson). Violet was the daughter of a failed palliasse merchant; having studied as a violinist at the Royal Academy of Music, she worked as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Hall
Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the World War I, Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as Variety show, variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Britain between bold and scandalous music hall entertainment and subsequent, more respectable variety entertainment differ. Music hall involved a mixture of popular songs, comedy, speciality acts, and variety entertainment. The term is derived from a type of theatre or venue in which such entertainment took place. In North America vaudeville was in some ways analogous to British music hall, featuring rousing songs and comic acts. Originating in saloon bars within pubs during the 1830s, music hall entertainment became increasingly popular with audiences. So much so, that during the 1850s some public houses were demolished, and specialised music hall theatres developed in their place. These t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Winners Of The Sir Hugh Casson Award
The Sir Hugh Casson Award for the worst new building of the year was awarded annually from 1982 to 2017 by the "Nooks and Corners" column of the British satirical magazine ''Private Eye''. The name ironically honours British architect Sir Hugh Casson. Column author Gavin Stamp (who wrote under the pseudonym "Piloti") explained in 2015 that "he assonwould turn up – take a fee – for giving evidence at public inquiries to recommend the demolition of buildings: a trade I despise". Stamp noted that Casson would sometimes mention his office as Vice-Chairman of The Victorian Society when arguing for the demolition of Victorian buildings. The medal of the award uses a sketch of Casson which is a self-portrait Self-portraits are Portrait painting, portraits artists make of themselves. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, the practice of self-portraiture only gaining momentum in the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century .... Following Stamp's death i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Private Eye
''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satirical and current affairs (news format), current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely recognised for its prominent criticism and Parody, lampooning of public figures. It is also known for its in-depth investigative journalism into under-reported scandals and cover-ups. ''Private Eye'' is Britain's best-selling current affairs news magazine, and such is its long-term popularity and impact that many of Recurring jokes in Private Eye, its recurring in-jokes have entered popular culture in the United Kingdom. The magazine bucks the trend of declining circulation for print media, having recorded its highest-ever circulation in 2016 of over 287,000 for that year's Christmas edition. It is privately owned and highly profitable. With a "deeply conservative resistance to change", it has resisted moves to online content or glossy format: it h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gavin Stamp
Gavin Mark Stamp (15 March 194830 December 2017) was a British writer, television presenter and architectural historian. Education Stamp was educated at Dulwich College in South London from 1959 to 1967 as part of the "Dulwich Experiment", then at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he obtained a PhD in 1978 with a thesis entitled '' George Gilbert Scott, junior, architect, 1839–1897''. Life and career Stamp's career was one of largely independent journalism, writing, lecturing and polemic on architectural topics. Under the pseudonym "Piloti", he wrote the "Nooks & Corners" architecture criticism column in ''Private Eye'' from 1978 until his death, including giving the Hugh Casson Award for worst new building of the year. He regularly contributed essays on architecture to the fine arts and collector's magazine ''Apollo''. From 1990 he taught architectural history, latterly as Professor, at the Mackintosh School of Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art. He bough ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cigarette
A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into Rolling paper, thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opposite end. Cigarette smoking is the most common method of tobacco consumption. The term ''cigarette'', as commonly used, refers to a tobacco cigarette, but the word is sometimes used to refer to other substances, such as a joint (cannabis), cannabis cigarette or a herbal cigarette. A cigarette is distinguished from a cigar by its usually smaller size, use of processed leaf, different smoking method, and paper wrapping, which is typically white. There are significant negative health effects from smoking cigarettes such as cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular disease, heart disease, birth defects, and other Health effects of tobacco, health problems relating to nearly every organ of the body. Most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingston Upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull, usually shortened to Hull, is a historic maritime city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea. It is a tightly bounded city which excludes the majority of its suburbs, with a population of (), it is the fourth-largest city in the Yorkshire and the Humber region. The built-up area has a population of 436,300. Hull has more than 800 years of seafaring history and is known as Yorkshire's maritime city. The town of Wyke on Hull was founded late in the 12th century by the monks of Meaux Abbey as a port from which to export their wool. Renamed ''Kings-town upon Hull'' in 1299, Hull had been a market town, military supply port, trading centre, fishing and whaling centre and industrial metropolis. Hull was an early theatre of battle in the First English Civil War, English Civil Wars. Its 18th-century ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Larkin
Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, '' The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, '' Jill'' (1946) and '' A Girl in Winter'' (1947). He came to prominence in 1955 with the publication of his second collection of poems, '' The Less Deceived'', followed by '' The Whitsun Weddings'' (1964) and '' High Windows'' (1974). He contributed to ''The Daily Telegraph'' as its jazz critic from 1961 to 1971, with his articles gathered in ''All What Jazz: A Record Diary 1961–71'' (1985), and edited '' The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse'' (1973). His many honours include the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. He was offered, but declined, the position of Poet Laureate in 1984, following the death of Sir John Betjeman. After graduating from Oxford University in 1943 with a first in English Language and Literature, Larkin became a librarian. It was during the thirt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Pancras Station
St Pancras railway station (), officially known since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a major central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is the terminus for Eurostar services from Belgium, France and the Netherlands to London. It provides East Midlands Railway services to , , , and on the Midland Main Line, Southeastern high-speed trains to Kent via and , and Thameslink cross-London services to Bedford, Cambridge, Peterborough, Brighton, Horsham and Gatwick Airport. It stands between the British Library, the Regent's Canal and London King's Cross railway station, with which it shares a London Underground station, . The station was constructed by the Midland Railway (MR), to connect its extensive rail network, across the Midlands and North of England, to a dedicated line into London. After rail traffic problems following the 1862 International Exhibition, the MR decided to build a connection from Bedford to London with it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Statue Of John Betjeman
The statue of John Betjeman at St Pancras railway station, London is a depiction in bronze by the sculptor Martin Jennings. The statue was designed and cast in 2007 and was unveiled on 12 November 2007 by Betjeman's daughter, Candida Lycett Green and the then Poet Laureate Andrew Motion to commemorate Betjeman and mark the opening of St Pancras International as the London terminus of the Eurostar high-speed rail link between Great Britain and mainland Europe. The location memorialises the connection between St Pancras station and Betjeman, an early and lifelong advocate of Victorian architecture who led the campaign to save the station from demolition in the 1960s. Background John Betjeman The poet John Betjeman (1906–1984) was an early supporter of Victorian architecture and a founding member of the Victorian Society. At the time of its founding in 1957, appreciation of Victorian architecture and its architects was at its nadir: critics wrote of "the nineteenth century archit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Janet Whitaker, Baroness Whitaker
Janet Alison Whitaker, Baroness Whitaker (born 20 February 1936) is a British politician with the Labour Party. Born Janet Alison Stewart, she is the daughter of Alan Harrison Stewart and Ella Stewart (née Saunders). She was educated at Nottingham High School for Girls, Girton College, Cambridge in the United Kingdom and at Bryn Mawr College and Harvard University in the United States. In 1964 she married Benjamin Whitaker (1934–2014) a barrister, author and human rights activist, who served a single term as Labour Party MP for Hampstead from 1966 to 1970. Whitaker began her career in publishing. She was a Commissioning Editor with the English publishing house Andre Deutsch Ltd from 1961 until 1968. From 1974 to 1996 she was with the Employment Department Group. She was then employed by the Commonwealth Secretariat as a consultant for the Commission for Racial Equality (1996–98). She was then with Independent Television Commission (ITC) starting in 1999, serving as t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
