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Cards On The Table
''Cards on the Table'' is a detective fiction novel by the English author Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 2 November 1936 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. The book features the recurring characters of Hercule Poirot, Colonel Race, Superintendent Battle, with the crime writer Ariadne Oliver making her first appearance in a Poirot novel. The four detectives and four possible suspects play bridge after dinner with Mr Shaitana. At the end of the evening, Mr Shaitana is discovered murdered. Identifying the murderer, according to the author, depends wholly on discerning the psychology of the suspects. The novel was well received, the critics noting its humour, the subtlety and tightness of the writing, and the good clueing. A later reviewer considered the book to stand at the very top rung of her novels, while another appreci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery '' The Mousetrap'', which has been performed in the West End since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. ''Guinness World Records'' lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies. Christie was born into a wealthy upper middle class family in Torquay, Devon, and was largely home-schooled. She was initially an unsuccessful writer with si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syrup Of Figs
Syrup of figs is a formerly proprietary preparation for use as a laxative, now widely available commercially and also easy to make at home. Its ingredients include figs and dried Senna (plant), senna pods, both known for their laxative properties, as well as water, sugar and lemon. The syrup was invented in 1879 by Richard E. Queen and immediately sold to the California Fig Syrup Company of Reno, Nevada, which manufactured and marketed it thereafter. The product was the subject of a lawsuit, ''Clinton Worden Company v. California Fig Syrup Company'', which was decided in favor of the syrup company by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1905. In popular culture * In episode 2, season 1 of the TV series ''Blandings (TV series), Blandings'' (2013), syrup of figs is used for revenge. * In Agatha Christie, Agatha Christie's 1936 novel ''Cards on the Table'', a woman dies after mistaking poison for syrup of figs. * In episode 7, season 1 of Downton Abbey, Daisy the scullery maid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belinda Carroll
Belinda Carroll (born 22 July 1945) is an English stage and television actress. Background and early career Born in Oxfordshire, Carroll's parents were John F. Carroll, a flying instructor with the Royal Air Force, and actress Hazel Bainbridge (born as Edith Marion Bainbridge; 25 January 1910 – 7 January 1998). Her maternal grandfather was manager of the Oxford Playhouse theatre; Carroll recalled that she was "fifth generation of an acting family ... mostly actor managers". Carroll's elder sister was actress Kate O'Mara; the two attended a convent boarding school in Chertsey which, according to Carroll, they both found miserable. Subsequently, she trained in provincial repertory, joining the Wimbledon Repertory Company after leaving school,Programme for ''Cards on the Table'' (Vaudeville Theatre, 1981): Theatreprint No 80, May 1982 and made her debut in London's West End theatre, West End aged 20, when she took over the role of Marion from Barbara Ferris in Terence Frisby's lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derek Waring
Derek Waring (born Derek Barton-Chapple; 26 April 1927 – 20 February 2007) was an English actor who is best remembered for playing Detective Inspector Goss in ''Z-Cars'' from 1969 to 1973. He was married to fellow actor, Dame Dorothy Tutin. Early life Waring was born in Mill Hill, London in 1927; his father was the TV pioneer Wing Commander H.J. Barton-Chapple, who had worked with John Logie Baird. Waring's brother Richard was a television comedy scriptwriter. After attending Dulwich College, Waring served with the army in Berlin. He later turned down the offer of a place at St Edmund Hall, Oxford to take up a scholarship with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and then went into rep theatre. Waring's first television role was in a 1956 episode of ''The Jack Benny Programme''. After that he appeared in many television programmes in small roles, including ''The Adventures of Sir Lancelot'', ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'', '' Ivanhoe'', ''Dixon of Dock Green'', '' Ghos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gordon Jackson (actor)
Gordon Cameron Jackson, (19 December 1923 – 15 January 1990) was a Scottish actor best remembered for his roles as the butler Angus Hudson in '' Upstairs, Downstairs'' and as George Cowley, the head of CI5, in '' The Professionals''. He also portrayed Capt Jimmy Cairns in ''Tunes of Glory'', and Flt. Lt. Andrew MacDonald, "Intelligence", in '' The Great Escape''. Early life Gordon Jackson was born in Glasgow in 1923, the youngest of five children. He attended Hillhead High School, and in his youth he took part in BBC radio shows including '' Children's Hour''. He left school aged 15 and became a draughtsman for Rolls-Royce. Early career His film career began in 1942, when producers from Ealing Studios were looking for a young Scot to act in '' The Foreman Went to France'' and he was suggested for the part. After this, he returned to his job at Rolls-Royce, but he was soon asked to do more films, and he decided to make acting his career. Jackson soon appeared in other fil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vaudeville Theatre
The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on the Strand in the City of Westminster. As the name suggests, the theatre held mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. It opened in 1870 and was rebuilt twice, although each new building retained elements of the previous structure. The current building opened in 1926, and the capacity is now 690 seats. Rare ''thunder drum'' and ''lightning sheets'', together with other early stage mechanisms, survive in the theatre. History Origins The theatre was designed by prolific architect C. J. Phipps, and decorated in a Romanesque style by George Gordon. It opened on 16 April 1870 with Andrew Halliday's comedy, ''For Love Or Money'' and a burlesque, ''Don Carlos or the Infante in Arms''. A notable innovation was the concealed footlights, which would shut off if the glass in front of them was broken. The owner, William Wybrow Robertson, had run a failing billiard hall on the site but saw more opportunity in theatre. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Osborne (music Writer)
Charles Thomas Osborne (24 November 1927 – 23 September 2017) was an Australian journalist, theatre and opera critic, poet and novelist.Campbell, Ian. Obituary - Charles Osborne. Opera, November 2017, Vol.68 No.11, p4133. He was the assistant editor of '' The London Magazine'' from 1958 until 1966, literature director of the Arts Council of Great Britain from 1971 until 1986, and chief theatre critic of '' Daily Telegraph'' (London) from 1986 to 1991. He is the only author the Agatha Christie Estate has ever allowed to produce adapted works in her name. Life and career Osborne was born in Brisbane, Australia. He taught himself to play the piano and at aged 18 he began singing lessons. Osborne's father hailed originally from Devon and his mother was from Vienna, a fact to which he attributes his lifelong love of opera. He went to school locally, then studied at the University of Queensland. Osborne then worked in literary and musical journalism and in repertory theatre in A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Barnard
Robert Barnard (23 November 1936 – 19 September 2013) was an English crime writer, critic and lecturer. In addition to over 40 books published under his own name, he also published four books under the pseudonym Bernard Bastable. Life and work Robert Barnard was born on 23 November 1936 at Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex. He was educated at the Colchester Royal Grammar School and at Balliol College, Oxford. He spent five years (1961-1965) as an academic in the English Department at the University of New England, at Armidale, New South Wales, in Australia. His first crime novel, ''Death of an Old Goat'', was published in 1974. The novel was written while he was a lecturer at University of Tromsø in Norway. He went on to write more than 40 other books and numerous short stories. As "Bernard Bastable", he published two standalone novels and two alternate history books, featuring Wolfgang Mozart – who had here survived to old age – as a detective. Barnard was awarded the Cart ... [...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 Limited, 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, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Scotsman
''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its parent company, JPIMedia, also publishes the ''Edinburgh Evening News''. It had an audited print circulation of 16,349 for July to December 2018. Its website, Scotsman.com, had an average of 138,000 unique visitors a day as of 2017. The title celebrated its bicentenary on 25 January 2017. History ''The Scotsman'' was launched in 1817 as a liberal weekly newspaper by lawyer William Ritchie and customs official Charles Maclaren in response to the "unblushing subservience" of competing newspapers to the Edinburgh establishment. The paper was pledged to "impartiality, firmness and independence". After the abolition of newspaper stamp tax in Scotland in 1855, ''The Scotsman'' was relaunched as a daily newspaper priced at 1d and a circulat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Mysterious Affair At Styles
''The Mysterious Affair at Styles'' is a detective novel by British writer Agatha Christie. It was written in the middle of the First World War, in 1916, and first published by John Lane in the United States in October 1920 and in the United Kingdom by The Bodley Head (John Lane's UK company) on 21 January 1921. ''Styles'' was Christie's first published novel. It introduced Hercule Poirot, Inspector (later, Chief Inspector) Japp, and Arthur Hastings. Poirot, a Belgian refugee of the Great War, is settling in England near the home of Emily Inglethorp, who helped him to his new life. His friend Hastings arrives as a guest at her home. When Mrs Inglethorp is murdered, Poirot uses his detective skills to solve the mystery. The book includes maps of the house, the murder scene, and a drawing of a fragment of a will. The true first publication of the novel was as a weekly serial in ''The Times'', including the maps of the house and other illustrations included in the book. This no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Powys Mathers
Edward Powys Mathers (28 August 1892 – 3 February 1939) was an English translator and poet, and also a pioneer of compiling advanced cryptic crosswords. Powys Mathers was born in Forest Hill, London, the son of Edward Peter Mathers, newspaper proprietor. He was educated at Loretto School and Trinity College, Oxford. He translated J. C. Mardrus's French version of '' One Thousand Nights and One Night''. His English version of Mardrus appeared in 1923, and is known as Mardrus/Mathers. He also translated ''The Garden of Bright Waters: One Hundred and Twenty Asiatic Love Poems'' (1920); and the Kashmiri poet Bilhana in ''Bilhana: Black Marigolds'' (1919), a free interpretation in the tradition of Edward FitzGerald, quoted at length in John Steinbeck’s novel ''Cannery Row''. These are not scholarly works, and are in some cases based on intermediate versions in European languages. Some of his translations were set to music by Aaron Copland. He was also a composer of cryptic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
