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Basil Fotherington-Tomas
Basil Fotherington-Tomas is a classic fictional character in a series of books by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle featuring the archetypal English prep school boy of the 1950s, Nigel Molesworth, who is the supposed author. Nigel is a schoolboy at St. Custard's, a fictional (and terrible) prep school located in a carefully unspecified part of England. Nigel's spelling is extremely uneven, a feature found endearing by fans. While Nigel epitomises the worthy inky and earthy school boy, Fotherington-Tomas is the opposite, being an effete and loathed sissy. Fotherington-Tomas is reported to bear a certain resemblance to Little Lord Fauntleroy; while he is also a student at St. Custard's, he is regularly dismissed as a being a "gurl" and a sissy by Molesworth, due to his curly blond locks and his questionable tendency to skip around the school saying such things as "hullo clouds, hullo sky". In several footballing scenes in the books, Fotherington-Tomas plays in goal. He is a surpr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoffrey Willans
Herbert Geoffrey Willans, RNVR, (4 February 1911 – 6 August 1958), an English writer and journalist, is best known as the creator of Nigel Molesworth, the "goriller of 3B" and "curse of St. Custard's", as in the four books with illustrations by Ronald Searle. Willans was born in Smyrna (now Izmir) in Turkey, where his father was a superintendent of the Ottoman Aidan Railway. He was educated at Blundells School in Tiverton, and became a schoolmaster there. He enjoyed sailing in small boats. During the Second World War he took part in the Greek campaign and the Battle of Crete in the Eastern Mediterranean, serving on the corvette . He later joined the carrier . Molesworth first appeared in ''Punch'' in 1939, and later became the protagonist and narrator of four books: ''Down with Skool!'' (1953), ''How to be Topp'' (1954), ''Wizz for Atomms'' (1956) and, after Willans's death, ''Back in the Jug Agane'' (1959). All four were collected in ''The Compleet Molesworth''. Comic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English multi-instrumentalist and singer best known as the founder, rhythm/lead guitarist, and original leader of the Rolling Stones. Initially a guitarist, he went on to provide backing vocals and played a wide variety of instruments on Rolling Stones recordings and in concerts. After he founded the Rolling Stones as a British blues outfit in 1962, and gave the band its name, Jones' fellow band members Keith Richards and Mick Jagger began to take over the band's musical direction, especially after they became a successful songwriting team. Jones and fellow guitarist Richards also developed a unique style of guitar play that Richards refers to as the "ancient art of weaving" in which both players would play rhythm and lead parts together, which became a Rolling Stones trademark. Jones, however, did not get along with the band's manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, who pushed the band into a musical direction at odds w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colonel Kurtz
Colonel Walter Kurtz, portrayed by Marlon Brando, is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film ''Apocalypse Now''. Colonel Kurtz is based on the character of a nineteenth-century ivory trader, also called Kurtz, from the 1899 novella '' Heart of Darkness'' by Joseph Conrad. Fictional biography Walter Kurtz was a career officer in the United States Army; he was a third-generation West Point graduate who had risen through the ranks and was seen to be destined for a top post within the Pentagon. A dossier read by the narrator, Captain Willard, implies that Kurtz saw action in the Korean War after receiving a master's degree in history from Harvard University. He later graduated from the US Army Airborne School. In 1964, the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent Kurtz to Vietnam to compile a report on the failings of the current military policies. His overtly critical report, dated 3 March 1964, was not what was expected and was immediately rest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eugene Byrne
Eugene Byrne (born 25 February 1959) is an English freelance journalist and fiction writer. His novel ''ThigMOO'', and the story it was based on, were nominated for the BSFA award. His story "HMS Habakkuk" was nominated for a Sidewise Award for Alternate History. He was born in Waterford in the Republic of Ireland, but was brought up in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset. He attended Dr Morgan's Grammar School, Bridgwater where he met Kim Newman. He was a contributing editor to ''Venue'' magazine. In 2006, as part of Bristol's Isambard Kingdom Brunel bicentennial celebrations, he wrote ''Isambard Kingdom Brunel: A Graphic Biography'' with artist Simon Gurr. Novels * ''Back in the USSA'' (1997), co-written with Kim Newman; fix-up A fix-up (or fixup) is a novel created from several short fiction stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published. The stories may be edited for consistency, and sometimes new connecting material, such as a frame s ... comprising ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kim Newman
Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula (1931 English-language film), Dracula'' at the age of eleven—and alternative history, alternative fictional versions of history. He has won the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award, and the BSFA award. Early life Kim Newman was born 31 July 1959 in Brixton, London, the son of Bryan Michael Newman and Julia Christen Newman, both potters.Kim James Newman. ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Gale (publisher), Gale, 2007. His sister, Sasha, was born in 1961, and their mother died in 2003. Newman attended "a progressive kindergarten and a primary school in Brixton, and then Huish Episcopi County Primary School in Langport, Somerset." In 1966 the family moved to Aller, Somerset. He was educated at Dr. Morgan's Grammar School for Boy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Back In The USSA
''Back in the USSA'' is a 1997 collection of seven short stories by English writers Eugene Byrne and Kim Newman, which was published by Mark V. Ziesing Books. The title is a reference to the song " Back in the U.S.S.R." by The Beatles. The stories are linked through their setting, an alternate history of the twentieth century in which the United States experienced a communist Second Revolution in 1917 and became a communist superpower, whereas Russia did not. Six of the stories first appeared in '' Interzone'' magazine, and the concluding story in the sequence, "On the Road", was written especially for the collection. Background Theodore Roosevelt was reelected President of the United States as the Progressive Party candidate in 1912, only to be assassinated on December 19, 1912, at the Chicago Union Stockyards by the sharpshooter and exhibition shooter Annie Oakley, before he took office, when personally breaking a labor strike with the help of the Rough Riders. Following th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Villain (1971 Film)
''Villain'' is a 1971 British gangster film directed by Michael Tuchner and starring Richard Burton, Ian McShane, Nigel Davenport and Donald Sinden. It is based on James Barlow's 1968 novel '' The Burden of Proof''. ''Villain'' was director Michael Tuchner's first feature film after directing in television. As with other films of ''Villain'''s same era and genre (''Get Carter'', ''A Clockwork Orange'' and ''Performance'', for example), some of the violence is quite graphic, especially during the heist scene, and it foreshadows several 1970s cop TV shows such as ''The Sweeney'', ''Target'' and ''Special Branch''. Plot Ruthless East End gangster Vic Dakin has plans for an ambitious raid on the wages van of a plastics factory. This is a departure from Dakin's usual ''modus operandi'' and the job is further complicated by having to work with fellow gangster Frank Fletcher's firm. The film's intricate subplots explore Dakin's sadistic nature, his relationship with small-time assoc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnership with Keith Richards is one of the most successful in history. Jagger's career has spanned over six decades, and he has been widely described as one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock music. His distinctive voice and energetic live performances, along with Richards' guitar style, have been the Rolling Stones' trademark throughout the band's career. Jagger gained press notoriety for his romantic involvements and illicit drug use, and was often portrayed as a countercultural figure. Jagger was born and grew up in Dartford. He studied at the London School of Economics before abandoning his studies to join the Rolling Stones. Jagger has written most of the Rolling Stones' songs together with Richards, and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Performance (film)
''Performance'' is a 1970 British crime drama film directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, written by Cammell and photographed by Roeg. The film stars James Fox as a violent and ambitious London gangster who, after killing an old friend, goes into hiding at the home of a reclusive rock star (Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones). The film was produced in 1968 but not released until 1970, as Warner Bros. was reluctant to distribute the film, owing to its sexual content and graphic violence. It initially received a mixed critical response, but since then its reputation has grown in stature; it is now regarded as one of the most influential and innovative films of the 1970s, as well as one of the greatest films in the history of British cinema. In 1999, ''Performance'' was voted the 48th greatest British film of the 20th century by the British Film Institute; in 2008 ''Empire'' magazine ranked the film 182nd on its list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. Plot Chas is a mem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Century
A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or centenary is a hundredth anniversary, or a celebration of this, typically the remembrance of an event which took place a hundred years earlier. Start and end of centuries Although a century can mean any arbitrary period of 100 years, there are two viewpoints on the nature of standard centuries. One is based on strict construction, while the other is based on popular perception. According to the strict construction, the 1st century AD began with AD 1 and ended with AD 100, the 2nd century spanning the years 101 to 200, with the same pattern continuing onward. In this model, the ''n''-th century starts with the year that ends with "01", and ends with the year that ends with "00"; for example, the 20th century comprises the years 1901 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronald Searle
Ronald William Fordham Searle, CBE, RDI (3 March 1920 – 30 December 2011) was an English artist and satirical cartoonist, comics artist, sculptor, medal designer and illustrator. He is perhaps best remembered as the creator of St Trinian's School and for his collaboration with Geoffrey Willans on the Molesworth series. Biography Searle was born in Cambridge, England, where his father was a Post Office worker who repaired telephone lines. He started drawing at the age of five and left school (Central School – now Parkside School) at the age of 15. He trained at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology (now Anglia Ruskin University) for two years. In April 1939, realizing that war was inevitable, he abandoned his art studies to enlist in the Royal Engineers. In January 1942, he was in the 287th Field Company, RE in Singapore. After a month of fighting in Malaya, he was taken prisoner along with his cousin Tom Fordham Searle, when Singapore fell to the Japanese. He sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Cake's School
The fortnightly British satirical magazine ''Private Eye'' has long had a reputation for using euphemistic and irreverent substitute names and titles for people, groups and organisations and has coined a number of expressions to describe sex, drugs, alcohol and other aspects of human activity. Over the years these names and expressions have become in-jokes, used frequently in the magazine without explanation. Some have passed into general usage and can be found in other media and everyday conversation. Euphemisms * "Ugandan discussions", or a variation thereof (such as "discussing Ugandan affairs"), is often used as a euphemism for sex, usually while carrying out a supposedly official duty. The term originally referred to an incident at a party hosted by journalist Neal Ascherson and his first wife, at which fellow journalist Mary Kenny allegedly had a "meaningful confrontation" with a former cabinet minister in the government of Milton Obote, later claiming that they were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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