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1986 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1986. Events * April 29 – A major fire at Los Angeles Public Library caused by arson destroys 400,000 volumes. * July 21 – Michael Grade, Controller of BBC1, axes plans to televise Ian Curteis's '' The Falklands Play''. * September 29 – Bloomsbury Publishing is set up in London by Nigel Newton. * October 9 – '' The Phantom of the Opera'', having been the longest running Broadway show ever, opens at Her Majesty's Theatre in London. * December 19 – The Soviet dissident author Andrei Sakharov is allowed to return to Moscow after six years' internal exile. New books Fiction *Kingsley Amis – ''The Old Devils'' *V. C. Andrews – ''Garden of Shadows'' * Piers Anthony – ''Ghost'' * Jeffrey Archer – ''A Matter of Honour'' *James Axler – '' Pilgrimage to Hell'' and '' Red Holocaust'' * Iain Banks – '' The Bridge'' *Thomas Bernhard – ''Extinction'' (''Auslöschung'') *Azouz Begag – ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
April 29
Events Pre-1600 *1091 – Battle of Levounion: The Pechenegs are defeated by Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. * 1386 – Battle of the Vikhra River: The Principality of Smolensk is defeated by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and becomes its vassal. *1429 – Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orléans. * 1483 – Gran Canaria, the main island of the Canary Islands, is conquered by the Kingdom of Castile. * 1521 – Swedish War of Liberation: Swedish troops defeat a Danish force in the Battle of VästerÃ¥s. 1601–1900 * 1624 – French king Louis XIII names Cardinal Richelieu chief minister of France. *1760 – French forces commence the siege of Quebec which is held by the British. *1770 – James Cook arrives in Australia at Botany Bay, which he names. *1781 – American Revolutionary War: British and French ships clash in the Battle of Fort Royal off the coast of Martinique. *1826 – The galaxy Centaurus A or NGC 5128 is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Old Devils
''The Old Devils'' is a novel by Kingsley Amis, first published in 1986. The novel won the Booker Prize. The plot centres on Alun Weaver, a writer of modest celebrity, who returns to his native Wales with his wife, Rhiannon, sometime girlfriend of Weaver's old acquaintance Peter Thomas. Alun begins associating with a group of former friends, including Peter, all of whom have continued to live locally while he was away. While drinking daily in the pub with the men, he proceeds to cuckold most of them. As with many of his novels, Amis based characters and portions of the plot on real-life figures and experiences. The figure of Brydan a thinly-disguised parody of Dylan Thomas, whom Amis had once met. Amis had a low opinion of Thomas, describing him as a "pernicious figure, one who has helped to get Wales and Welsh poetry a bad name and generally done lasting harm to both... the general picture he draws of the place and the people n his workis false, sentimentalising, melodramatis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Azouz Begag
Azouz Begag ( ar, عزوز بقاق ) (born 5 February 1957) is a French writer, politician and researcher in economics and sociology at the CNRS. He was the delegate minister for equal opportunities of France in the government of French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) till 5 April 2007. He resigned to support the moderate centrist candidate François Bayrou, one of the two UMP ministers to do so. Before becoming minister, Begag was decorated and made ''Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite'' and ''Knight of the Legion of Honor''. Early and personal life Begag is the son of Algerian parents who arrived in France in 1949. In his teens, he qualified as an electrician. He grew up in a shanty town outside Lyon, "les bas quartiers", before the family progressed to a tower block in the Cité de la Duchère. Begag is the father of two daughters. He is divorced from his wife. Career in research Begag has a doctorate in Economics from Lumià ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extinction (Bernhard Novel)
''Extinction'' is the last of Thomas Bernhard’s novels. It was originally published in German in 1986. Plot summary ''Extinction'' takes the form of the autobiographical testimony of Franz-Josef Murau, the intellectual black sheep of a powerful Austrian land-owning family. Murau lives in Rome in self-exile, obsessed and angry with his identity as an Austrian, and resolves never to return to the family estate of Wolfsegg. He is surrounded by a group of artistic and intellectual friends, and intends to continue living what he calls the ''Italianate way''. When he hears of his parents' deaths, he finds himself master of Wolfsegg and must decide its fate. Murau has cut himself off from his family and sought to establish an intellectual life as a tutor in Rome. In the first half of the novel, he reflects on the spiritual, intellectual, and moral impoverishment of his family to his Roman student Gambetti. He only has respect for his Uncle Georg, who similarly cut himself off from t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Bernhard
Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard (; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet who explored death, social injustice, and human misery in controversial literature that was deeply pessimistic about modern civilization in general and Austrian culture in particular. Bernhard's body of work has been called "the most significant literary achievement since World War II." He is widely considered to be one of the most important German-language authors of the postwar era. Life Thomas Bernhard was born in 1931 in Heerlen in the Netherlands, where his unmarried mother Herta Bernhard worked as a maid. From the autumn of 1931 he lived with his grandparents in Vienna until 1937 when his mother, who had married in the meantime, moved him to Traunstein, Bavaria, in Nazi Germany. There he was required to join the ''Deutsches Jungvolk'', a branch of the Hitler Youth, which he hated. Bernhard's natural father Alois Zuckerstätter was a carpenter and petty criminal w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bridge (novel)
''The Bridge'' is a novel by Scottish author Iain Banks. It was published in 1986. The book switches between three protagonists, John Orr, Alex, and the Barbarian. It is an unconventional love story. Plot summary "The road cleared the cutting through the hills. He could see South Queensferry, the marina at Port Edgar, the VAT 69 sign of the distillery there, the lights of Hewlett-Packard’s factory; and the rail bridge, dark in the evening’s last sky-reflected light. Behind it, more lights; the Hound Point oil terminal they’d had a sub-contract on, and, further away, the lights of Leith. The old rail bridge’s hollow metal bones looked the colour of dried blood. You fucking beauty, he thought . . . What a gorgeous great device you are. So delicate from this distance, so massive and strong close-up. Elegance and grace; perfect form. A quality bridge; granite piers, the best ship-plate steel, and a never-ending paint job..." The three main characters represent differ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iain Banks
Iain Banks (16 February 1954 – 9 June 2013) was a Scottish author, writing mainstream fiction as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, adding the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies (). After the success of ''The Wasp Factory'' (1984), he began to write full time. His first science fiction book, ''Consider Phlebas'', appeared in 1987, marking the start of the Culture series. His books have been adapted for theatre, radio and television. In 2008, ''The Times'' named Banks in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". In April 2013, Banks announced he had inoperable cancer and was unlikely to live beyond a year. He died on 9 June 2013. Early life Banks was born in Dunfermline, Fife, to a mother who was a professional ice skater and a father who was an officer in the Admiralty. An only child, he lived in North Queensferry until the age of nine, near the naval dockyards in Rosyth, where his father was based. The family then moved to Gourock due ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Holocaust (1986 Novel)
Deathlands is a series of novels published by Gold Eagle Publishing. The first novel, ''Pilgrimage to Hell'', was first published in 1986. This series of novels was first written by Christopher Lowder, under the pen name ''Jack Adrian''. Lowder became ill after developing the plot and writing most of the book. Laurence James, under the pen name ''James Axler'' then finished the story. The series exists in both an episodic style and a series format. Some of the novels can be read out of order, while others are dependent on the previous release. There are also a few trilogy sets within the series. Plot On the morning of January 20, 2001 the climax of the Cold War set the post-apocalyptic stage for the series. The end game began with a pre-emptive strike on Washington, DC. Underground nuclear bombs were detonated from within the basement of the Soviet embassy, by an elite group of Spetsnaz operatives, destroying the central command structure and political system of the United ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pilgrimage To Hell
''Pilgrimage to Hell'' is the first book in the Deathlands Saga of novels. Written by Christopher Lowder under his pen name Jack Adrian and published on May 1, 1986, it follows the adventures of Ryan Cawdor, Krysty Wroth and J.B. Dix, and delves into how they met. Plot A major character of the saga who appears in this novel is the Trader, who referenced in future novels. It also brings Doc Tanner (a senile-sounding gentleman with knowledge of pre-war America) to the group, and gives us our first glance at one of the series' long running mutant menaces : Stickies. This book also introduces the Redoubts, in particular the Cerberus Redoubt, and the MAT-TRANS teleport chambers that are a major plot device driving the series. Characters Introduced/Leaving * Ryan Cawdor (Introduced) * Krysty Wroth (Introduced) * J.B. Dix (Introduced) * Dr. Theophilus Tanner Deathlands is a series of novels published by Gold Eagle Publishing. The first novel, ''Pilgrimage to Hell'', was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Axler
James Axler is a Collective pseudonym, house name used by the publishing company Gold Eagle Publishing, the action adventure series published by Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. The name was first used for the "Deathlands" series, which began in 1986 with ''Pilgrimage to Hell'', co-written by Christopher Lowder (under the pseudonym ''Jack Adrian'') and Laurence James. James went on to write the next 32 novels before dying on 9 February 2000. Under his own name and under the pen names James Darke, James McPhee, and James Axler, he also wrote books for the series "Dark Future," "Earth Blood," "Galactic Security Service" and "Survival 2000," as well as a number of independent novels and short stories. The second writer to work under the Axler pen name was prolific author Mark Ellis (American author), Mark Ellis. A comics creator and writer, Ellis created the cult-favorite character Death Hawk as well as adapting popular properties such as Doc Savage and The Wild Wild West. Ellis contribu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Matter Of Honour
''A Matter of Honour'' is a novel by Jeffrey Archer, first published in 1986. Synopsis In 1966 disgraced British colonel Gerald Scott bequeaths a mysterious letter to his only son, Adam Scott. The "item in question" that Adam's father's letter leads him to acquire from a safe deposit box in Switzerland is a precious Russian Orthodox icon made long ago for the Russian tsars which by misadventure came into the possession of Hermann Göring sometime in the 1930s. Following the Second World War Göring wanted Scott's father (one of his jailers at Nuremberg) to have it in token of his kind treatment and because Göring realized Scott's father would be unfairly blamed for his pre-execution suicide. But the icon contains something that even Göring did not dream of: the only official Russian copy of a secret codice to the Alaska Purchase treaty by which the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867. "Seward's Folly" turns out to have not been a true purchase at all, but a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeffrey Archer
Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English novelist, life peer, convicted criminal, and former politician. Before becoming an author, Archer was a Member of Parliament (1969–1974), but did not seek re-election after a financial scandal that left him almost bankrupt. Archer revived his fortunes as a novelist. His 1979 novel ''Kane and Abel'' remains one of the best-selling books in the world, with an estimated 34 million copies sold worldwide. Overall his books have sold more than 320 million copies worldwide. Archer became deputy chairman of the Conservative Party (1985–86), before resigning after a newspaper accused him of paying money to a prostitute. In 1987, he won a court case and was awarded large damages because of this claim. He was made a life peer in 1992 and subsequently became Conservative candidate to be the first elected Mayor of London. He resigned his candidacy in 1999 after it emerged that he had lied in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
