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Fame Is The Spur (novel)
''Fame is the Spur'' is a novel by Howard Spring published in 1940. It covers the rise of the socialist labour movement in Britain from the mid 19th century to the 1930s. The title comes from John Milton's poem ''Lycidas'': "Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise / (That last infirmity of noble mind) / To scorn delights, and live laborious days". Plot summary The central character, Hamer Shawcross, starts as a studious boy in an aspirational working-class family in Ancoats, Manchester; he becomes a socialist activist and soon a career politician, who eventually is absorbed by the upper classes he had begun by combating. In fact the story is rather subtler than this summary sounds, despite the fact that the author's sympathies obviously lie with Shawcross's friends and associates who remain faithful to the cause; however, many of the middle class and aristocratic characters are portrayed fairly sympathetically, and one character whose career parallels that of Shawc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coal Mining
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United Kingdom and South Africa, a coal mine and its structures are a colliery, a coal mine is called a 'pit', and the above-ground structures are a 'pit head'. In Australia, "colliery" generally refers to an underground coal mine. Coal mining has had many developments in recent years, from the early days of men tunneling, digging and manually extracting the coal on carts to large open-cut and longwall mines. Mining at this scale requires the use of draglines, trucks, conveyors, hydraulic jacks and shearers. The coal mining industry has a long history of significant negative environmental impacts on local ecosystems, health impacts on local communities and workers, and contributes heavily to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Books About Wales
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many page (paper), pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bookbinding, bound together and protected by a book cover, cover. The technical term for this physical arrangement is ''codex'' (plural, ''codices''). In the history of hand-held physical supports for extended written compositions or records, the codex replaces its predecessor, the scroll. A single sheet in a codex is a Recto, leaf and each side of a leaf is a page (paper), page. As an intellectual object, a book is prototypically a composition of such great length that it takes a considerable investment of time to compose and still considered as an investment of time to read. In a restricted sense, a book is a self-sufficient section or part of a longer composition, a usage reflecting that, in antiquity, long works had to be written on several scrolls and each scroll had to be identified by the book it co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1940 British Novels
Year 194 ( CXCIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Septimius and Septimius (or, less frequently, year 947 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 194 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus and Decimus Clodius Septimius Albinus Caesar become Roman Consuls. * Battle of Issus: Septimius Severus marches with his army (12 legions) to Cilicia, and defeats Pescennius Niger, Roman governor of Syria. Pescennius retreats to Antioch, and is executed by Severus' troops. * Septimius Severus besieges Byzantium (194–196); the city walls suffer extensive damage. Asia * Battle of Yan Province: Warlords Cao Cao and Lü Bu fight for control over Yan Province; the battle lasts for over 100 days ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anglo-Welsh Novels
Welsh writing in English (Welsh: ''Llenyddiaeth Gymreig yn Saesneg''), (previously Anglo-Welsh literature) is a term used to describe works written in the English language by Welsh writers. The term ‘Anglo-Welsh’ replaced an earlier attempt to define this category of writing as ‘Anglo-Cymric'. The form ‘Anglo-Welsh’ was used by Idris Bell in 1922 and revived by Raymond Garlick and Roland Mathias when they re-named their literary periodical ‘'Dock Leaves’', as ‘'The Anglo-Welsh Review'’ and later further defined the term in their anthology ''Anglo-Welsh Poetry 1480-1980'' as denoting a literature in which “the first element of the compound being understood to specify the language and the second the provenance of the writing.” Although recognised as a distinctive entity only since the 20th century, Garlick and Mathias sought to identify a tradition of writing in English in Wales going back much further The need for a separate identity for this kind of writing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tim Pigott-Smith
Timothy Peter Pigott-Smith, (13 May 1946 – 7 April 2017) was an English film and television actor and author. He was best known for his leading role as Ronald Merrick in the television drama series '' The Jewel in the Crown'', for which he won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in 1985. Other noted TV roles included roles in '' The Chief'', ''Midsomer Murders'', '' The Vice'', ''The Suspicions of Mr Whicher'', ''King Charles III'' and two ''Doctor Who'' stories (''The Claws of Axos'' (1971) and ''The Masque of Mandragora'' (1976)). Pigott-Smith appeared in many notable films including: '' Clash of the Titans'' (1981), ''Gangs of New York'' (2002), ''Johnny English'' (2003), ''Alexander'' (2004), ''V for Vendetta'' (2005), ''Quantum of Solace'' (2008), '' Red 2'' (2013) and ''Jupiter Ascending'' (2015). Early life Pigott-Smith was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, the son of Margaret Muriel (née Goodman) and Harry Thomas Pigott-Smith, who was a journalist. He was e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fame Is The Spur (TV Series)
''Fame Is the Spur'' is a British television series which first aired on the BBC in 1982. It was based on the 1940 novel '' Fame Is the Spur'' by Howard Spring. It depicts a socialist politician who betrays his early beliefs as he grows older, and was believed to be based upon the Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. It had previously been adapted as a film '' Fame Is the Spur'' by the Boulting Brothers in 1947. The series starred Tim Pigott-Smith as Hamer Shawcross, prior to his success in '' The Jewel in the Crown''. Joanna David played Shawcross's wife and George Costigan George J. Costigan (born 8 August 1947) is an English actor who is best known for portraying Bob in the 1987 film ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'' and for roles in TV series such as '' Happy Valley'' and '' So Haunt Me''. Early life Born in Portsmouth ... co-starred as Tom Hannaway. References External links * 1980s British drama television series BBC television dramas 1982 British television serie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hartley Shawcross
Hartley William Shawcross, Baron Shawcross, (4 February 1902 – 10 July 2003), known from 1945 to 1959 as Sir Hartley Shawcross, was an English barrister and Labour politician who served as the lead British prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal. He also served as Britain's principal delegate to the United Nations immediately after the Second World War and as Attorney General for England and Wales. Early life Hartley William Shawcross was born in Giessen, Germany, to British parents, John and Hilda Constance (Asser) Shawcross, while his father was teaching English at Giessen University. He attended Dulwich College, the London School of Economics and the University of Geneva and read for the Bar at Gray's Inn, where he won first-class honours. Career He joined the Labour Party and was Member of Parliament for St Helens, Lancashire from 1945 to 1958, being appointed to be Attorney General in 1945 until 1951. In 1946, when debating the repeal of laws against trade ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nigel Balchin
Nigel Marlin Balchin (3 December 1908 – 17 May 1970)Peter Rowland, "Balchin, Nigel Marlin (1908–1970)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, accessed 9 December 2008 was an English psychologist and author, particularly known for his novels written during and immediately after World War II: '' Darkness Falls from the Air'', ''The Small Back Room'' and ''Mine Own Executioner''. Life Balchin was born on 3 December 1908 in Potterne, Wiltshire, the third and last child of William Edwin Balchin (1872–1958), a baker and teashop proprietor, later grocer, and Ada (née Curtis), the daughter of a railway guard. His paternal grandfather, George Marlin Balchin (1830–1898), was a farmer of 800 acres from a long line of wealthy Surrey farmers in Milford. George Balchin moved during the 1870s to Reading to become a Storekeeper. but his sudden decision in 1887 to cease work on his farm had a negative impact on the Balchin family's s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave CBE (20 March 1908 – 21 March 1985) was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author. He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''Mourning Becomes Electra'' (1947), as well as two BAFTA nominations for Best British Actor for his performances in ''The Night My Number Came Up'' (1955) and ''Time Without Pity'' (1957). At the 4th Cannes Film Festival, he won Best Actor for his performance in '' The Browning Version'' (1951). Youth and education Redgrave was born in Bristol, England, the son of actress Margaret Scudamore and the silent film actor Roy Redgrave. Roy left when Redgrave was six months old to pursue a career in Australia. He died when Redgrave was 14. His mother subsequently married Captain James Anderson, a tea planter. Redgrave greatly disliked his stepfather. He studied at Clifton College and Magdalene College, Cambridge. Clifton College Theatre was opened in 1966 by Redg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fame Is The Spur (film)
''Fame is the Spur'' is a 1947 British drama film directed by Roy Boulting. It stars Michael Redgrave, Rosamund John, Bernard Miles, David Tomlinson, Maurice Denham and Kenneth Griffith. Its plot involves a British politician who rises to power, abandoning on the way his radical views for more conservative ones. It is based on the 1940 novel ''Fame Is the Spur (novel), Fame Is the Spur'' by Howard Spring, which was believed to be based on the career of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician Ramsay MacDonald. Plot When Hamer Radshaw, a young man from a Northern England, North country mill town, commits to help the poverty-stricken workers in his area, he takes as his Excalibur a sword passed down to him by his grandfather from the Battle of Peterloo, where it had been used against workers. As an idealistic champion of the oppressed, he rises to power as a Labour Party (UK), Labour Member of parliament, M.P., but is seduced by the trappings of power and finds himself the typ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the first who belonged to the Labour Party, leading minority Labour governments for nine months in 1924 and again between 1929 and 1931. From 1931 to 1935, he headed a National Government dominated by the Conservative Party and supported by only a few Labour members. MacDonald was expelled from the Labour Party as a result. MacDonald, along with Keir Hardie and Arthur Henderson, was one of the three principal founders of the Labour Party in 1900. He was chairman of the Labour MPs before 1914 and, after an eclipse in his career caused by his opposition to the First World War, he was Leader of the Labour Party from 1922. The second Labour Government (1929–1931) was dominated by the Great Depression. He formed the National Government to carry out spending cuts to defend the gold standard, but it had to be abandoned after the Invergordon Mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
