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Barbara Toy
Barbara Alex Toy FRGS (11 August 1908 – 18 July 2001) was an Australian-British travel writer, theatrical director, playwright, and screenplay writer. She is most famous for the series of books she wrote about her pioneering and solitary travels around the world in a Land Rover, undertaken in the 1950s and 1960s. Toy was drawn to deserts, and so the majority of her journeys were in the arid lands of Northern Africa and the Middle East. Toy's first solo journey took place almost five years before the perhaps more celebrated six-man team Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition, a London to Singapore overland trip between September 1955 and March 1956 that was also undertaken in Land Rovers. Life before Land Rovers Toy was born in Sydney, on 11 August 1908 to Bert Frank Claud Toy and Nellie Frederica Toy, née Lowing, one of two daughters born to the couple. Her father, Bert Toy (1878–1931), was a newspaper editor and war correspondent. He had reported from the Boer War in S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences, the Society has 16,000 members, with its work reaching the public through publications, research groups and lectures. The Society was founded in 1830 under the name ''Geographical Society of London'' as an institution to promote the 'advancement of geographical science'. It later absorbed the older African Association, which had been founded by Sir Joseph Banks in 1788, as well as the Raleigh Club and the Palestine Association. In 1995 it merged with the Institute of British Geographers, a body for academic geographers, to officially become the Royal Geographical Society ''with IBG''. The society is governed by its Council, which is chaired by the Society's President, according to a set of statutes and standing orders. The members ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Monkey's Paw
"The Monkey's Paw" is a horror short story by English author W. W. Jacobs, first published in the collection '' The Lady of the Barge'' in 1902. In the story, three wishes are granted to the owner of The Monkey's Paw, but the wishes come with an enormous price for interfering with fate. It has been adapted many times in other media, including plays, films, TV series, operas, stories and comics, as early as 1903. It was first adapted to film in 1915 as a British silent film directed by Sidney Northcote. The film (now lost) starred John Lawson, who also played the main character in Louis N. Parker's 1907 stage play.Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 158. . Plot The short story involves Mr. and Mrs. White and their grown son, Herbert. Sergeant-Major Morris, a friend who served with the British Army in India, comes by for dinner and introduces them to a mummified monkey's paw. An old ''fakir'' p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Worthing
Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hove built-up area, the 15th most populous urban area in the United Kingdom. Since 2010, northern parts of the borough, including the Worthing Downland Estate, have formed part of the South Downs National Park. In 2019, the Art Deco Worthing Pier was named the best in Britain. Lying within the borough, the Iron Age hill fort of Cissbury Ring is one of Britain's largest. The recorded history of Worthing began with the Domesday Book. It is historically part of Sussex in the rape of Bramber; Goring, which forms part of the rape of Arundel, was incorporated in 1929. Worthing was a small mackerel fishing hamlet for many centuries until, in the late 18th century, it developed into an elegant Georgian seaside resort and attracted the well-known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Connaught Theatre
The Connaught Theatre is a Streamline Moderne-style theatre and cinema in the centre of Worthing, in West Sussex, England. Built as the Picturedrome cinema in 1914, the venue was extended in 1935 and became the new home of the Connaught Theatre (established nearby in 1931). The theatre houses touring West End theatre productions, musicals, thrillers, dramas and children's productions. Since 1987, it has been a dual use cinema/theatre with two screens, and has a seating capacity of 512. When it opened, it was a rare example of a conversion from a cinema to a theatre: the reverse was much more common in 1930s Britain, when many theatres became cinemas. The Connaught Studio (previously known as The Ritz cinema), next door, was the venue for the short-lived The End of the Pier International Film Festival. History The Connaught Theatre occupies the former Picturedrome cinema, which was built in 1914 on the site of Stanmore Lodge and opened in July of that year. Its seating capacity w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Hilton (novelist)
James Hilton (9 September 1900 – 20 December 1954) was an English novelist and screenwriter. He is best remembered for his novels ''Lost Horizon'', ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' and ''Random Harvest'', as well as co-writing screenplays for the films '' Camille'' (1936) and ''Mrs. Miniver'' (1942), the latter earning him an Academy Award. Early life Hilton was born in Leigh, Lancashire, the son of John Hilton, the headmaster of Chapel End School in Walthamstow. He was educated at the Monoux School Walthamstow till 1914, then The Leys School, Cambridge, and then at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he wrote his first novel and was awarded an honours degree in English literature. He started work as a journalist, first for the '' Manchester Guardian'', then reviewing fiction for ''The Daily Telegraph''. Career Hilton's first novel, ''Catherine Herself,'' was published in 1920 when he was still an undergraduate. The next 11 years were difficult for him, and it was not until 1931 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Random Harvest
''Random Harvest'' is a novel written by James Hilton, first published in 1941. Like previous Hilton works, including ''Lost Horizon'' and ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'', the novel was immensely popular, placing second on ''Publishers Weekly'' list of best-selling novels for the year, and it was published as an Armed Services Edition during WWII. The novel was successfully adapted into a film of the same name in 1942 under the direction of Mervyn LeRoy. Claudine West, George Froeschel and Arthur Wimperis adapted the novel for the screen, and received an Academy Award nomination for their work. Though the film departs from the novel's narrative in several significant ways, the novel's surprise ending, cleverly built on inferences drawn by the reader, would not work in a visual medium. Novel The novel is divided, not into chapters, but five large parts. It is set in the period immediately after the outbreak of the first World War. It is told in the first person by Harrison, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleanor Smith (writer)
Lady Eleanor Furneaux Smith (7 August 1902 – 20 October 1945) was an English writer and active member of the Bright Young Things. Life Born in Birkenhead, England in 1902, Smith was the eldest child of the politician F. E. Smith's three children; her mother was Margaret Furneaux, daughter of the academic Henry Furneaux. Eleanor Smith was great-granddaughter of Joseph Severn on her mother's side, the Devonshire Furneaux, a Norman family. Her brother was Frederick Smith, 2nd Earl of Birkenhead, and her sister Lady Pamela married Hon. Michael Berry. Her father was created Earl of Birkenhead in 1922. She went to Miss Douglas's school at Queen's Gate. At Queen's Gate she met Lady Allanah Harper, Zita Jungman, and Teresa "Baby" Jungman and together they became early members of what the British press would call the "Bright Young Things", a nickname given by the tabloid press to a group of bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London. As a young girl, she spent t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Man In Grey (novel)
''The Man in Grey'' was a novel by the British writer Lady Eleanor Smith first published in 1941. It was a melodrama set in Regency Britain. A young woman unhappily married to a cold aristocrat falls in love with a strolling actor, but her hopes of eloping to happiness are wrecked by an old school friend who murders her in order to be able to marry her husband. Adaptation In 1943 the novel was adapted into a film by Gainsborough Pictures directed by Leslie Arliss and starring James Mason in the title role as well as Margaret Lockwood, Phyllis Calvert and Stewart Granger. The film was a major commercial and critical success and was the first of the series of Gainsborough melodramas The Gainsborough melodramas were a sequence of films produced by the British film studio Gainsborough Pictures between 1943 and 1947 which conformed to a melodramatic style.Brooke, Michael. (2014)Gainsborough Melodrama Screenonline British Film Ins ... which dominated the British box office during ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Janet Morgan, Lady Balfour Of Burleigh
Janet Patricia Morgan, Lady Balfour of Burleigh CBE, FRSE (born December 1945) is a Canadian-born English writer and historian. The daughter of Dr. Frank Morgan and Sheila Saddler, she was born Janet Morgan in Montreal while her father was working on a top-secret British atomic research project, the Montreal Laboratory. She returned to England with her family before the end of World War II. She earned a MA and PhD. She was named a Commander in the Order of the British Empire in 2008. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1993, she married Robert Bruce, Lord Balfour of Burleigh. She has been chair of the Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network, the Nuclear Liabilities Fund and the Nuclear Trust. She has served as a director of the Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies Trust and Murray International Trust. Morgan wrote a biography of Agatha Christie that was authorized by the writer's family. She also wrote biographies of Edwina Mountbatten and George Bruc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Playhouse Theatre
The Playhouse Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, located in Northumberland Avenue, near Trafalgar Square, central London. The Theatre was built by F. H. Fowler and Hill with a seating capacity of 1,200. It was rebuilt in 1907 and still retains its original substage machinery. As of November 2021, the theatre has been refurbished and renamed as the Kit Kat Club and is home to a revival of the musical ''Cabaret'' with a seating capacity of 550. History Early years Built by Sefton Henry Parry as the Royal Avenue Theatre, it opened on 11 March 1882 with 1200 seats. The first production at the theatre was Jacques Offenbach's ''Madame Favart''. In its early seasons, the theatre hosted comic operas, burlesques and farces for several years. For much of this time, the low comedian Arthur Roberts, a popular star of the music halls, starred at the theatre. By the 1890s, the theatre was presenting drama, and in 1894 Annie Horniman, the tea heiress, anonymously ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murder At The Vicarage (play)
''Murder at the Vicarage'' is a 1949 play by Moie Charles and Barbara Toy based on the 1930 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie. Christie's official biography suggests that the play was written by Christie with changes then made by Charles and Toy, presumably enough for them to claim the credit. Whatever the truth of the authorship, Christie was enthusiastic about the play and attended its rehearsals and first night. This play, staged in 1949-1950, was the first time that the character Miss Marple was portrayed outside the novels and short stories. London production It was first performed at the New Theatre, Northampton on 17 October 1949 prior to moving to the Playhouse Theatre in the West End where it opened on 16 December 1949. The play was the first time that the character of Miss Marple had been depicted outside the original books and she was portrayed by Barbara Mullen. The director was Reginald Tate who also played the part of Lawrence Redding. The play enjoyed a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murder At The Vicarage
''The Murder at the Vicarage'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in October 1930 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition at $2.00. It is the first novel to feature the character of Miss Marple and her village of St Mary Mead. This first look at St Mary Mead led a reviewer in 1990 to ask why these are called cosy mysteries: "Our first glimpse of St Mary Mead, a hotbed of burglary, impersonation, adultery and ultimately murder. What is it precisely that people find so cosy about such stories?" The character had previously appeared in short stories published in magazines starting in December 1927. These earlier stories were collected in book form in ''The Thirteen Problems'' in 1932. Plot summary The Reverend Leonard Clement, the vicar of St Mary Mead, narrates the story. He lives with his much yo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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