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Mervyn Bunter
Mervyn Bunter is a fictional character in Dorothy L. Sayers' novels and short stories featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. Literary Background Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) wrote a number of novels and short stories concerning the adventures of a fictional private detective called Lord Peter Wimsey who had his genesis in a Sexton Blake story Sayers wrote in 1920. The first Wimsey story was published in 1923, and the last by Sayers alone in 1937. Other stories based on original material were published under the authorship of Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh, the last appearing in 2013. The action of the original stories takes place between 1921 and 1937; the books in co-authorship extend this period through the Second World War and into the 1950s. During this whole period, Lord Peter has a manservant called Mervyn Bunter, and in him, Sayers created a fictional persona. Sayers admitted having partially based Bunter's character on P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves, although Wimsey and Bunter are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Jones (actor)
Peter Geoffrey Francis Jones (12 June 1920 – 10 April 2000) was an English actor, screenwriter and broadcaster. Early life and early career Peter Jones, born in Wem, Shropshire, was educated at Wem Grammar School and Ellesmere College, making his first appearance as an actor in Wolverhampton at the age of 16 and then appeared in repertory theatre in East Anglia. In 1942 he acted on the West End stage in '' The Doctor's Dilemma'' and in 1942 he made an uncredited film appearance in '' Fanny by Gaslight''. An early film credit was as a Xenobian trade delegate in '' Chance of a Lifetime'' (1950). He appeared in the 1949 comedy ''Love in Albania'' by Eric Linklater. He co-wrote the 1954 play ''The Party Spirit'' which ran in the West End with Ralph Lynn and Robertson Hare. Radio Between 1952 and 1955 Jones starred alongside Peter Ustinov in the BBC radio comedy ''In All Directions''. The show featured Jones and Ustinov as themselves in a car in London perpetually searching fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Five Red Herrings
''The Five Red Herrings'' (also ''The 5 Red Herrings'') is a 1931 novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, her sixth featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. In the United States it was published in the same year under the title ''Suspicious Characters''. Foreword The novel includes a foreword in the form of a personal letter from the author "To my friend Joe Dignam, kindliest of landlords". The letter starts: "Here at last is your book about Gatehouse and Kirkcudbright. All the places are real places and all the trains are real trains, and all the landscapes are correct, except that I have run up a few new houses here and there." Plot The novel is set in Galloway, a part of Scotland popular with artists and recreational fishermen. Sandy Campbell is a talented painter, but also a notoriously quarrelsome drunkard. When he is found dead in a stream, with a still-wet half-finished painting on the bank above, it is assumed that he fell in accidentally, fracturing his skull. Lord Peter Wimsey, who is in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
H-dropping
''H''-dropping or aitch-dropping is the deletion of the voiceless glottal fricative or "''H''-sound", . The phenomenon is common in many dialects of English, and is also found in certain other languages, either as a purely historical development or as a contemporary difference between dialects. Although common in most regions of England and in some other English-speaking countries, and linguistically speaking a neutral evolution in languages, H-dropping is often stigmatized as a sign of careless or uneducated speech. The reverse phenomenon, ''H''-insertion or ''H''-adding, is found in certain situations, sometimes as an allophone or hypercorrection by H-dropping speakers, and sometimes as a spelling pronunciation or out of perceived etymological correctness. A particular example of this is the spread of 'haitch' for 'aitch'. In English Historical /h/-loss In Old English phonology, the sounds , , and (described respectively as glottal, velar and palatal voiceless fricatives) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Port (wine)
Port wine (also known as vinho do Porto, , or simply port) is a Portuguese fortified wine produced in the Douro Valley of northern Portugal. It is typically a sweet red wine, often served with dessert, although it also comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties. Other port-style fortified wines are produced outside Portugalin Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, India, South Africa, Spain, and the United Statesbut under the European Union Protected Designation of Origin guidelines, only wines from Portugal are allowed to be labelled "port". Region and production Port is produced from grapes grown and processed in the demarcated Douro region.Porter, Darwin & Danforth Price (2000) ''Frommer's Portugal'' 16th ed., p. 402. IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. The wine produced is then fortified by the addition of a neutral grape spirit known as aguardente to stop the fermentation, leaving residual sugar in the wine, and to boost the alcohol content. The fortification spirit is somet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cockburn's Port House
Cockburn's Port ( ) is a port wine producer in Portugal. Cockburn's was set up by Scotsman Robert Cockburn in 1815, who returned to Portugal after first visiting the country as a soldier fighting under Wellington in the Napoleonic Wars. It later became a major brand of port in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1962, the family sold the company to Harvey's of Bristol, which itself then became part of Allied Domecq until 2005, when Allied Domecq was taken over by Pernod Ricard, which sold Cockburn's and some other brands to the Fortune Brands holding company (the parent company of Beam Global). In 2010 Cockburn's was sold to Symington Family Estates, a family-owned business that owns over 1,006 hectares (2,400 acres) of vineyards in the Douro The Douro (, , ; es, Duero ; la, Durius) is the highest-flow river of the Iberian Peninsula. It rises near Duruelo de la Sierra in Soria Province, central Spain, meanders south briefly then flows generally west through the north-west ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable architect in England and Wales, Jones was the first person to introduce the classical architecture of Rome and the Italian Renaissance to Britain. He left his mark on London by his design of single buildings, such as the Queen's House which is the first building in England designed in a pure classical style, and the Banqueting House, Whitehall, as well as the layout for Covent Garden square which became a model for future developments in the West End. He made major contributions to stage design by his work as theatrical designer for several dozen masques, most by royal command and many in collaboration with Ben Jonson. Early life and career Beyond the fact that he was born in Smithfield, London, as the son of clothworker Inigo Jones Snr., and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Busman's Honeymoon
''Busman's Honeymoon'' is a 1937 novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, her eleventh and last featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, and her fourth and last to feature Harriet Vane. Plot introduction Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane marry and go to spend their honeymoon at Talboys, an old farmhouse in Hertfordshire which he has bought her as a present. The honeymoon is intended as a break from his usual routine of solving crimes, and hers of writing about them, but it turns into a murder investigation when the seller of the house is found dead at the bottom of the cellar steps with severe head injuries. Plot After an engagement of some months following the events at the end of ''Gaudy Night'', Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane marry. They plan to spend their honeymoon at Talboys, an old farmhouse in Harriet's native Hertfordshire which Wimsey has bought for her, and they abscond from the wedding reception, evading the assembled reporters. Arriving late at night, they are surprised to find ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Butler
A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its appearance. A butler is usually male, and in charge of male servants, while a housekeeper is usually a woman, and in charge of female servants. Traditionally, male servants (such as footmen) were better paid and of higher status than female servants. The butler, as the senior male servant, has the highest servant status. He can also sometimes function as a chauffeur. In older houses where the butler is the most senior worker, titles such as '' majordomo'', ''butler administrator'', ''house manager'', ''manservant'', ''staff manager'', '' chief of staff'', ''staff captain'', ''estate manager'', and ''head of household staff'' are sometimes g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valet
A valet or varlet is a male servant who serves as personal attendant to his employer. In the Middle Ages and Ancien Régime, valet de chambre was a role for junior courtiers and specialists such as artists in a royal court, but the term "valet" by itself most often refers to a normal servant responsible for the clothes and personal belongings of an employer, and making minor arrangements. In the United States, the term most often refers to a parking valet, and the role is often confused with a butler. Word origins In English, ''valet'' as "personal man-servant" is recorded since 1567, though use of the term in the French-speaking English medieval court is older, and the variant form ''varlet'' is cited from 1456 (OED). Both are French importations of ''valet'' or ''varlet'' (the "t" being silent in modern French), Old French variants of ''vaslet'' "man's servant", originally "squire, young man", assumed to be from Gallo-Romance Vulgar Latin *''vassellittus'' "young nobleman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gentleman's Gentleman
A valet or varlet is a male servant who serves as personal attendant to his employer. In the Middle Ages and Ancien Régime, valet de chambre was a role for junior courtiers and specialists such as artists in a royal court, but the term "valet" by itself most often refers to a normal servant responsible for the clothes and personal belongings of an employer, and making minor arrangements. In the United States, the term most often refers to a parking valet, and the role is often confused with a butler. Word origins In English, ''valet'' as "personal man-servant" is recorded since 1567, though use of the term in the French-speaking English medieval court is older, and the variant form ''varlet'' is cited from 1456 (OED). Both are French importations of ''valet'' or ''varlet'' (the "t" being silent in modern French), Old French variants of ''vaslet'' "man's servant", originally "squire, young man", assumed to be from Gallo-Romance Vulgar Latin *''vassellittus'' "young noblema ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thrones, Dominations
''Thrones, Dominations'' is a Lord Peter Wimsey– Harriet Vane murder mystery novel that Dorothy L. Sayers began writing but abandoned, and which remained at her death as fragments and notes. It was completed by Jill Paton Walsh and published in 1998. The title is a quotation from John Milton's ''Paradise Lost'' and refers to two categories of angel in the Christian angelic hierarchy. Background Sayers had charted the developing relationship between Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane over four published novels, culminating in ''Busman's Honeymoon'', the action of which takes place immediately following the couple's wedding. The characters appeared thereafter only in a few short stories and other published pieces, revealing only glimpses of their married life. According to Sayers' friend and biographer Barbara Reynolds, Sayers had begun work in 1936 on ''Thrones, Dominations'', a murder mystery novel in which the Wimsey marriage was to be contrasted with those of two other coup ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clouds Of Witness
''Clouds of Witness'' is a 1926 mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, the second in her series featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. In the United States the novel was first published in 1927 under the title ''Clouds of Witnesses''. It was adapted for television in 1972, as part of a series starring Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter. Plot Lord Peter Wimsey's brother, the Duke of Denver, has taken a shooting lodge at Riddlesdale in Yorkshire. At 3 o'clock one morning, Captain Denis Cathcart, the fiancé of Wimsey's sister Lady Mary, is found shot dead just outside the conservatory. Mary, trying to leave the house at 3 am for a reason she declines to explain, finds Denver kneeling over Cathcart's body. Suspicion falls on Denver, as the lethal bullet had come from his revolver and he admits having quarrelled with Cathcart earlier, after receiving a letter (which he says has been lost) informing him that Cathcart had been caught cheating at cards. He maintains that he stumbled across the body afte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
