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Jane And Prudence
''Jane and Prudence'' is the third novel by Barbara Pym, first published in 1953. Plot summary Jane, a vicar's wife, lives a very different kind of life from her friend, the single and independent Prudence. The book details the period in Nicholas and Jane’s life when they take over a new parish in an (anonymous) English village and encounter the widower Fabian Driver, who Jane decides will make an excellent husband for Prudence. Prudence has an imponderable attraction to her older and completely impervious employer, the head of an unspecified academic foundation. There is, however, competition for Fabian - Jessie Morrow, another spinster in the parish who seeks escape from her low-paid job as a companion to the domineering Miss Doggett. Publication history and reception ''Jane and Prudence'' was Pym's third novel, published by Jonathan Cape in 1953. Whereas Pym's first two novels had been successful, this received more mixed reviews. Literary figures Lady Cynthia Asquith a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara Pym
Barbara Mary Crampton Pym FRSL (2 June 1913 – 11 January 1980) was an English novelist. In the 1950s she published a series of social comedies, of which the best known are ''Excellent Women'' (1952) and '' A Glass of Blessings'' (1958). In 1977 her career was revived when the critic Lord David Cecil and the poet Philip Larkin both nominated her as the most under-rated writer of the century. Her novel ''Quartet in Autumn'' (1977) was nominated for the Booker Prize that year, and she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Biography Early life Barbara Mary Crampton Pym was born on 2 June 1913 at 72 Willow Street in Oswestry, Shropshire, the elder daughter of Irena Spenser, ''née'' Thomas (1886–1945) and Frederic Crampton Pym (1879–1966), a solicitor. She was educated at Queen's Park School, a girls' school in Oswestry. From the age of 12, she attended Huyton College, near Liverpool. Pym's parents were active in the local Oswestry operatic society, and she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hachette (publisher)
Hachette () is a French publisher. Founded in 1826 by Louis Hachette as Brédif, the company later became L. Hachette et Compagnie, Librairie Hachette, Hachette SA and Hachette Livre in France. After acquiring an Australian publisher, Hachette Australia was created; in the UK it became Hachette UK, and its expansion into the United States became Hachette Book Group USA. History France It was founded in 1826 by Louis Hachette as Brédif, a bookshop and publishing company. It became L. Hachette et Compagnie on 1 January 1846, Librairie Hachette in 1919, and Hachette SA in 1977. It was acquired by the Lagardère Group in 1981. In 1992, the publishing assets of Hachette SA were grouped into a subsidiary called Hachette Livre (), the flagship imprint of Lagardère Publishing. Hachette has its headquarters in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. In 1996, it merged with the Hatier group. In 2004, Hachette acquired dictionary publisher Éditions Larousse. International expansion In 2002 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1953 British Novels
Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yugoslavia. ** The CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel first meets to discuss the UFO phenomenon. * January 15 – Georg Dertinger, foreign minister of East Germany, is arrested for spying. * January 19 – 71.1% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into ''I Love Lucy'', to watch Lucy give birth to Little Ricky, which is more people than those who tune into Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration the next day. This record has yet to be broken. * January 20 – Dwight D. Eisenhower is sworn in as the 34th President of the United States. * January 24 ** Mau Mau Uprising: Rebels in Kenya kill the Ruck family (father, mother, and six-year-old son). ** Leader of East Germany Walter Ulbricht announces that agriculture will be c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Excellent Women
''Excellent Women'' is a novel by Barbara Pym, first published in 1952, her second published novel and generally acclaimed as the funniest and most successful of her comedies of manners. Title The phrase "excellent women" is used by men in reference to the kind of women who perform small but meaningful duties in the service of churches and voluntary organisations. The phrase was first used by Pym in her early unpublished novel ''Civil to Strangers'' and is taken from Jane Austen's novel ''Sanditon''. Plot summary The book details the everyday life of its narrator, Mildred Lathbury, a spinster in her thirties in 1950s Britain. Perpetually self-deprecating, but with the sharpest wit, Mildred is a part-time voluntary worker who occupies herself by attending and helping at the local church. Mildred's life grows more exciting with the arrival of new neighbours, anthropologist Helena Napier and her handsome, dashing husband, Rocky – with whom Mildred fancies herself in love. Thro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Susie Blake
Susie Blake (born 19 April 1950) is an English television, radio and stage actress. She is best known for her portrayal of the snobbish TV announcer in '' Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV'' and Bev Unwin in ''Coronation Street'', which she played between 2003 and 2006, before a brief return in 2015. She has also played Hillary Nicholson in ''Mrs. Brown's Boys'' since 2011. Personal life Blake was born in Highgate, London to David and Molly Blake. Her mother was an illustrator and children's television presenter. She is the granddaughter of actress Annette Mills, and a great-niece of actor Sir John Mills. Actresses Hayley and Juliet Mills are Blake's first cousins once-removed. Blake trained at the Arts Educational School and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Acting Blake regularly appeared in Victoria Wood's television programmes and has extensive radio credits. She appeared in the first episode of the sitcom ''One Foot in the Grave'' in which her character was res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emma Fielding
Emma Georgina Annalies Fielding (born 07 October 1964 in Catterick, North Riding of Yorkshire) is an English actress. Biography The daughter of a British Army officer, Colonel Johnny Fielding, and Sheila Fielding, she was raised Catholic and some of her childhood in Malaysia and Nigeria, and a period in Malvern. While studying at the Berkhamsted Collegiate boarding school, she won a place at Robinson College, Cambridge to study law, after spending a gap year which included five months in a kibbutz in the occupied West Bank, Palestine, picking watermelons, and as an usherette at the Oxford Apollo; before embarking on the study of acting at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. After graduation she worked for the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, coming to the attention of critics in 1993's National Theatre production of Tom Stoppard's ''Arcadia,'' in which she created the role of Thomasina, and then most notably in John Ford's ''The Broken Hea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Penelope Wilton
Dame Penelope Alice Wilton (born 3 June 1946), styled Penelope, Lady Holm between 1998 and 2001, is an English actress. She is known for starring opposite Richard Briers in the BBC sitcom ''Ever Decreasing Circles'' (1984–1989); playing Homily in ''The Borrowers'' (1992) and ''The Return of the Borrowers'' (1993); and for her role as the widowed Isobel Crawley in the ITV drama ''Downton Abbey'' (2010–2015). She also played the recurring role of Harriet Jones in ''Doctor Who'' (2005–2008) and Anne in Ricky Gervais' Netflix dark comedy '' After Life''. Wilton has had an extensive career on stage, receiving six Olivier Award nominations. She was nominated for ''Man and Superman'' (1981), '' The Secret Rapture'' (1988), '' The Deep Blue Sea'' (1994), ''John Gabriel Borkman'' (2008) and ''The Chalk Garden'' (2009), before winning the 2015 Olivier Award for Best Actress for ''Taken at Midnight''. Her film appearances include ''Clockwise'' (1986), ''Cry Freedom'' (1987), ''Ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samantha Bond
Samantha Jane Bond (born 27 November 1961) is an English actress, who is best known for playing Miss Moneypenny in four James Bond films during the Pierce Brosnan years, and for her role on ''Downton Abbey'' as the wealthy widow Lady Rosamund Painswick, sister of Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham. She is also known for originating the role of "Miz Liz" Probert in the ''Rumpole of the Bailey'' series. Bond is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. In her television career, she is known for her role as "Auntie Angela" in the sitcom '' Outnumbered'' and the villain Mrs Wormwood in the CBBC '' Doctor Who'' spin-off, ''The Sarah Jane Adventures''. Early life Samantha Bond is the daughter of actor Philip Bond and TV producer Pat Sandys, and is the sister of the actress Abigail Bond and the journalist Matthew Bond. Bond's paternal grandparents were Welsh. She was brought up in London, in homes in Barnes and St Margarets. She attended the Godolphin and Latymer School, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth Spriggs
Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (schooner), several ships * ''Elizabeth'' (freighter), an American freighter that was wrecked off New York harbor in 1850; see Places Australia * City of Elizabeth ** Elizabeth, South Australia * Elizabeth Reef, a coral reef in the Tasman Sea United States * Elizabeth, Arkansas * Elizabeth, Colorado * Elizabeth, Georgia * Elizabeth, Illinois * Elizabeth, Indiana * Hopkinsville, Kentucky, originally known as Elizabeth * Elizabeth, Louisiana * Elizabeth Islands, Massachusetts * Elizabeth, Minnesota * Elizabeth, New Jersey, largest city with the name in the U.S. * Elizabeth City, North Carolina * Elizabeth (Charlotte neighborhood), North Carolina * Elizabeth, Pennsylvania * Elizabeth Township, Pennsylvania (other) * Elizabeth, West Vi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julian Glover
Julian Wyatt Glover (born 27 March 1935) is an English classical actor with many stage, television, and film roles since commencing his career in the 1950s. He is a recipient of the Laurence Olivier Award and has performed many times for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Glover's well-known film roles have included General Maximilian Veers in ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980), Aristotle Kristatos in '' For Your Eyes Only'' (1981), Brian Harcourt-Smith in '' The Fourth Protocol'' (1987) and Walter Donovan in '' Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989). He also voiced the giant Acromantula spider Aragog in ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' (2002) and appeared as conductor Andris Davis in the psychological drama ''Tár'' (2022). Glover has also appeared frequently on television, especially in Britain, including guest appearances in cult series such as '' The Avengers'', ''The Saint'', '' Thriller'', '' Doctor Who'', ''Blake's 7'', ''Remington Steele'' and ''Insi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world; it has buildings in every style of English architecture since late Anglo-Saxon. Oxford's industries include motor manufacturing, education, publishing, information technology and science. History The history of Oxford in England dates back to its original settlement in the Saxon period. Originally of strategic significance due to its controlling location on the upper reaches of the River Thames at its junction with the River Cherwell, the town grew in national importance during the early Norman period, and in the late 12th century became home to the fledgling University of Oxford. The city was besieged during The Anarchy in 1142. The university rose to dom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crampton Hodnet
''Crampton Hodnet'' is a comic novel by Barbara Pym, published posthumously in 1985, and originally written in 1940. Plot summary The action takes place over the course of a year in North Oxford, some time before World War II. Miss Doggett likes to entertain students to tea at her gloomy Victorian home in Banbury Road. When a new and unmarried curate, Stephen Latimer, comes to lodge at her house, he strikes up a friendship with her paid companion, Jessie Morrow, through whose eyes much of the action is seen. He begins to see Jessie as a potential wife and proposes to her, but she rejects him, knowing that his interest in her is practical rather than romantic. Miss Doggett's nephew, Francis Cleveland, a middle-aged don at the (fictitious) Randolph College of Oxford University, begins a romantic relationship with one of his students, Barbara Bird, who has a crush on him. He takes her out for tea, and they are seen by Miss Doggett and Miss Morrow. On another occasion two of Mis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
