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Alan Garner
Alan Garner (born 17 October 1934) is an English novelist best known for his children's fantasy novels and his retellings of traditional British folk tales. Much of his work is rooted in the landscape, history and folklore of his native county of Cheshire, North West England, being set in the region and making use of the native Cheshire dialect. Born in Congleton, Garner grew up around the nearby town of Alderley Edge, and spent much of his youth in the wooded area known locally as "The Edge", where he gained an early interest in the folklore of the region. Studying at Manchester Grammar School and then briefly at University of Oxford, Oxford University, in 1957 he moved to the village of Blackden, where he bought and renovated an Early Modern Period (circa 1590) building known as Toad Hall. His first novel, ''The Weirdstone of Brisingamen'', was published in 1960. A children's fantasy novel set on the Edge, it incorporated elements of local folklore in its plot and characters ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congleton
Congleton is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The town is by the River Dane, south of Manchester and north of Stoke on Trent. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 26,482. Toponymy The town's name is of unknown origin. The first recorded reference to it was in 1282, when it was spelt ''Congelton''. The element ''Congle'' might relate to the old Norse ''kang'' meaning a bend, followed by the Old English element ''tun'' meaning settlement. History The first settlements in the Congleton area were Neolithic. Stone Age and Bronze Age artefacts have been found in the town. Congleton was once thought to have been a Roman settlement, although there is no archaeological or documentary evidence to support this. Congleton became a market town after Vikings destroyed nearby Davenport. Godwin, Earl of Wessex held the town in the Saxon period. The town is mentioned in the Domesday Book, where it is listed as ''Cogeltone: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manchester Grammar School
The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) in Manchester, England, is the largest independent school (UK), independent day school for boys in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1515 as a Grammar school#free tuition, free grammar school next to Manchester Cathedral, Manchester Parish Church, it moved in 1931 to its present site at Rusholme. In accordance with its founder's wishes, MGS remains a predominantly academic school and belongs to the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. In the post-war period, MGS was a direct-grant grammar school. It chose to become an independent school in 1976 after the Labour Party (UK), Labour government abolished the Direct grant grammar school, Direct Grant System. Fees for 2016–2017 were £11,970 per annum. Motto, coat of arms and school badges The school's motto is ''wikt:sapere aude, Sapere Aude'' ("Dare to be Wise"), which was also the motto of the County Borough Council, council of the former County Borough of Oldham (now, with the same coat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Service
National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The length and nature of national service depends on the country in question. In some instances, national service is compulsory, and citizens living abroad can be called back to their country of origin to complete it. In other cases, national service is voluntary. Many young people spend one or more years in such programmes. Compulsory military service typically requires all citizens to enroll for one or two years, usually at age 18 (later for university-level students). Most conscripting countries conscript only men, but Norway, Sweden, Israel, Eritrea, Morocco and North Korea conscript both men and women. Voluntary national service may require only three months of basic military training. The US equivalent is Selective Service. In the Unite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, the paper's main news ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937 Film)
''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' is a 1937 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on the 1812 German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, it is the first full-length traditionally animated feature film and the first Disney animated feature film. The story was adapted by storyboard artists Dorothy Ann Blank, Richard Creedon, Merrill De Maris, Otto Englander, Earl Hurd, Dick Rickard, Ted Sears and Webb Smith. David Hand was the supervising director, while William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, and Ben Sharpsteen directed the film's individual sequences. ''Snow White'' premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, California on December 21, 1937. It was a critical and commercial success and, with international earnings of more than $8 million during its initial release (compared to its $1.5 million budget), it briefly held the record of highest-grossing sound film ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene from its first synchronized sound cartoon, ''Steamboat Willie'' (1928). Founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney, it is the oldest-running animation studio in the world. It is currently organized as a division of Walt Disney Studios and is headquartered at the Roy E. Disney Animation Building at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California. Since its foundation, the studio has produced 61 feature films, from '' Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' (1937) to '' Strange World'' (2022), and hundreds of short films. The animation studio (and its parent company) indirectly takes its name from Isigny-sur-Mer, in Calvados, Normandy, France, where Disney's ancestors were based there for a few years. Founded as D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Turing
Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a general-purpose computer. He is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. Born in Maida Vale, London, Turing was raised in southern England. He graduated at King's College, Cambridge, with a degree in mathematics. Whilst he was a fellow at Cambridge, he published a proof demonstrating that some purely mathematical yes–no questions can never be answered by computation and defined a Turing machine, and went on to prove that the halting problem for Turing machines is undecidable. In 1938, he obtained his PhD from the Department of Mathemati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sprint (running)
Sprinting is running over a short distance at the top-most speed of the body in a limited period of time. It is used in many sports that incorporate running, typically as a way of quickly reaching a target or goal, or avoiding or catching an opponent. Human physiology dictates that a runner's near-top speed cannot be maintained for more than 30–35 seconds due to the depletion of phosphocreatine stores in muscles, and perhaps secondarily to excessive metabolic acidosis as a result of anaerobic glycolysis. In athletics and track and field, sprints (or dashes) are races over short distances. They are among the oldest running competitions, being recorded at the Ancient Olympic Games. Three sprints are currently held at the modern Summer Olympics and outdoor World Championships: the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 400 metres. At the professional level, sprinters begin the race by assuming a crouching position in the starting blocks before driving forward and gradually moving into an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Means Test
A means test is a determination of whether an individual or family is eligible for government assistance or welfare, based upon whether the individual or family possesses the means to do without that help. Canada In Canada, means tests are used for student finance (for post-secondary education), legal aid, and "welfare" (direct transfer payments to individuals to combat poverty). They are not generally used for primary and secondary education which are tax-funded. Means tests for public health insurance were once common but are now illegal, as the Canada Health Act of 1984 requires that all the provinces provide universal healthcare coverage to be eligible for subsidies from the federal government. Means tests are also not used for pensions and seniors' benefits, but there is a clawback of Old Age Security payments for people making over $69,562 (in 2012). The Last Post Fund uses a means test on a deceased veteran's estate and surviving widow to determine whether they are eligi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two cities and the surrounding towns form one of the United Kingdom's most populous conurbations, the Greater Manchester Built-up Area, which has a population of 2.87 million. The history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort ('' castra'') of ''Mamucium'' or ''Mancunium'', established in about AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. Historically part of Lancashire, areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated into Manchester in the 20th century, including Wythenshawe in 1931. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thursbitch (novel)
''Thursbitch'' is a novel by English writer Alan Garner, named after the valley in the Pennines of England where the action occurs (also listed in the 1841 OS map as "Thursbatch"). It was published in 2003. Plot Set both in the 18th century and the present day, the novel centres on the mystery of an inscription on an extant engraved wayside stone tablet about a death from exposure. Major themes The book features shamanic use of the fly agaric mushroom and a piece of Derbyshire Blue John as plot elements. Literary significance and criticism The book is seen by critics of Garner's work as a continuation of styles and structures first used in ''Red Shift In physics, a redshift is an increase in the wavelength, and corresponding decrease in the frequency and photon energy, of electromagnetic radiation (such as light). The opposite change, a decrease in wavelength and simultaneous increase in fr ...'' (1973) and '' Strandloper'' (1996). References {{Alan Garner 2003 Bri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strandloper (novel)
''Strandloper'' is a novel by English writer Alan Garner, published in 1996. It is loosely based on the story of a Cheshire labourer, William Buckley. The historical figures of Edward Stanley and John Batman also appear as characters. An English epileptic is transported to Australia, where he escapes and becomes the holy man of the Beingalite people. Many years later he returns to England, and walks his home landscapes like an Aboriginal. Reaching the village church, he smears his body with clay and performs a spirit dance. Critics found the book private, idiosyncratic, and difficult; Jenny Turner admired its Buntingesque construction but disliked its biblical tone. The Tolkien scholar Jason Fisher likened it to a baptism of folklore that demanded work from the reader, but found that worth the effort. Plot In 1803, a farmer's son from Cheshire, William Buckley, participates in folk rituals which coexist with the local Christian church. An epileptic, William is prone to visi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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