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Michael Bond
Thomas Michael Bond (13 January 1926 – 27 June 2017) was a British author. He is best known for a series of fictional stories for children, featuring the character of Paddington Bear. More than 35 million Paddington books have been sold around the world, and the characters have also appeared in a popular film series (featuring ''Paddington'' and ''Paddington 2'' to date) and on television. His first book was published in 1958 and his last in 2017, a span of 59 years. Early life Thomas Michael Bond was born on 13 January 1926 in Newbury, Berkshire. He was raised in Reading, where his visits to Reading railway station to watch the ''Cornish Riviera Express'' pass through started a love of trains. His father was a manager for the post office. He was educated at Presentation College in Reading. His time there was unhappy. He told ''The Guardian'' in November 2014 that his parents had chosen the school "for the simple reason hat hismother liked the colour of the blazers ... ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Newbury, Berkshire
Newbury is a market town in the county of Berkshire, England, and is home to the administrative headquarters of West Berkshire Council. The town centre around its large market square retains a rare medieval Cloth Hall, an adjoining half timbered granary, and the 15th-century St Nicolas Church, along with 17th- and 18th-century listed buildings. As well as being home to Newbury Racecourse, it is the headquarters of Vodafone and software company Micro Focus International. In the valley of the River Kennet, south of Oxford, north of Winchester, southeast of Swindon and west of Reading. Newbury lies on the edge of the Berkshire Downs; part of the North Wessex Downs Area of outstanding natural beauty, north of the Hampshire-Berkshire county boundary. In the suburban village of Donnington lies the part-ruined Donnington Castle and the surrounding hills are home to some of the country's most famous racehorse training grounds (centred on nearby Lambourn). To the south ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkhas, and 28,330 volunteer reserve personnel. The modern British Army traces back to 1707, with antecedents in the English Army and Scots Army that were created during the Restoration in 1660. The term ''British Army'' was adopted in 1707 after the Acts of Union between England and Scotland. Members of the British Army swear allegiance to the monarch as their commander-in-chief, but the Bill of Rights of 1689 and Claim of Right Act 1689 require parliamentary consent for the Crown to maintain a peacetime standing army. Therefore, Parliament approves the army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years. The army is administered by the Ministry of Defence and commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. The Brit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Herbs
''The Herbs'' is a television series for young children made for the BBC by Graham Clutterbuck's FilmFair company. It was written by Michael Bond (creator of Paddington Bear), directed by Ivor Wood using 3D stop motion model animation and first transmitted from 12 February 1968 in the BBC1 '' Watch with Mother'' timeslot. There were 13 episodes in the series, each one 15 minutes long. A spin-off series entitled '' The Adventures of Parsley'' was transmitted from 6 April 1970 in the 5-minute period between the end of children's TV and the BBC Evening News. This had 32 episodes, some of which were released on VHS as ''Parsley the Lion and Friends''. ''The Herbs'' consisted of a fantasy mix of human and animal characters inhabiting the magical walled garden of a country estate. At the beginning of each episode, the narrator ( Gordon Rollings) spoke the magic word, "Herbidacious", which caused the garden gate to open. As with ''The Magic Roundabout'', the sophisticated writing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olga Da Polga
Olga da Polga is a fictional guinea pig, who is the heroine of a series of books for children written by Michael Bond and published between 1971 and 2002. Unlike Bond's more famous character, Paddington Bear, Olga is a teller of tall tales in the style of Baron Munchausen. The typical plot of each story is that something fairly ordinary happens to Olga, and she gives her animal friends a wildly exaggerated version of events, subsequently revealed to be untrue by what the humans say. Bond's books were memorably illustrated by Danish artist Hans Helweg, who was also well known for his "pulp fiction" covers for Pan paperbacks. His illustrations are still strongly associated with Olga, although later editions have used different imagery including artwork by Catherine Rayner for Usborne. Olga was named after the Bond family's real guinea pig: in 2014, '' Guardian'' journalist Michelle Pauli met Olga number six. In 2022, the BBC commissioned 13 episodes of a live-action TV series of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guinea Pig
The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy (), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus '' Cavia'' in the family Caviidae. Breeders tend to use the word ''cavy'' to describe the animal, while in scientific and laboratory contexts, it is far more commonly referred to by the common name ''guinea pig''. Despite their common name, guinea pigs are not native to Guinea, nor are they closely related biologically to pigs, and the origin of the name is still unclear. They originated in the Andes of South America. Studies based on biochemistry and hybridization suggest they are domesticated animals that do not exist naturally in the wild, descendants of a closely related cavy species such as '' C. tschudii''. They were originally domesticated as livestock for a source of meat, and are still consumed in some parts of the world. In Western society, the guinea pig has enjoyed widespread popularity as a pet since its intr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Paddington Station
Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great Western Railway and its successors since 1838. Much of the main line station dates from 1854 and was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Paddington is the London terminus of the Great Western Main Line; passenger services are primarily operated by Great Western Railway, which provides the majority of commuter and regional passenger services to west London and the Thames Valley region as well as long-distance intercity services to South West England and South Wales. The station is also the eastern terminus for Heathrow Express and the western terminus for Elizabeth line services from Shenfield. Elizabeth line services also run through Paddington westwards to Reading, Heathrow Terminal 5, and Heathrow Terminal 4, and eastwards to Abbey ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marmalade
Marmalade is a fruit preserve made from the juice and peel of citrus fruits boiled with sugar and water. The well-known version is made from bitter orange. It is also made from lemons, limes, grapefruits, mandarins, sweet oranges, bergamots, and other citrus fruits, or a combination. Citrus is the most typical choice of fruit for marmalade, though historically the term has often been used for non-citrus preserves.Maguelonne-Samat, (Anthea Bell, tr.) ''A History of Food'' 2nd ed. 2009, p. 507 The preferred citrus fruit for marmalade production is the Spanish Seville or bitter orange, ''Citrus aurantium'' var. ''aurantium'', prized for its high pectin content, which sets readily to the thick consistency expected of marmalade. The peel imparts a bitter taste. The word "marmalade" is borrowed from the Portuguese , from 'quince'. Unlike jam, a large quantity of water is added to the fruit in a marmalade, the extra liquid being set by the high pectin content of the fruit. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'', which do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1966. In general, the political position of ''The Times'' is considered to be centre-right. ''The Times'' is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, such as '' The Times of India'', ''The New York Times'', and more recently, digital-first publications such as TheTimesBlog.com (Since 2017). In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as , or as , although the newspaper is of nati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lime Grove Studios
Lime Grove Studios was a film, and later television, studio complex in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The complex was built by the Gaumont Film Company in 1915. It was situated in Lime Grove, a residential street in Shepherd's Bush, and when it first opened was described by Gaumont as "the finest studio in Great Britain and the first building ever put up in this country solely for the production of films". Many Gainsborough Pictures films were made here from the early 1930s. Its sister studio was Islington Studios, also used by Gainsborough; films were often shot partly at Islington and partly at Lime Grove. In 1949, the complex was purchased by the BBC, who used it for television broadcasts until 1991. It was demolished in 1993. Gaumont-British Picture Corporation In 1922, Isidore Ostrer along with brothers Mark and Maurice, acquired control of Gaumont-British from its French parent. In 1932 a major redevelopment of Lime Grove Studios was completed, creating one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara Ker Wilson
Barbara Ker Wilson (24 September 1929 – 10 September 2020) was an English-born Australian novelist. She is credited as the person who "discovered" Paddington Bear. She wrote over twenty books and collated collections of stories. She gained awards for helping other writers. Life Wilson was born in Sunderland in 1929. Her parents were Margaret (born Rogers) and William Ker Wilson. Her father was an aeronautical engineer who wrote on that subject. After she attended the North London Collegiate School in 1938, she entered publishing in 1949 at Oxford University Press where she became an assistant editor. She went on to work for Bodley Head and in 1957 she moved to Collins where she discovered a draft by Michael Bond. He had created a book for children featuring the talking bear from Peru named Paddington Bear. After reading the draft at one sitting she phoned the author at the number given. She was put through to Lime Green Studios and Michael Bond who told her that as a TV camera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Peter
''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Television Centre in London until September 2011, when the programme moved to dock10 studios at MediaCityUK in Salford, Greater Manchester. It is currently shown Live television, live on the CBBC (TV channel), CBBC television channel on Fridays at 5pm. The show is also repeated on Saturdays at 11:30am, Sundays at 9:00am and a BSL version is shown on Tuesdays at 2:00pm. Following its original creation, the programme was developed by a BBC team led by Biddy Baxter; she became the programme editor in 1965, relinquishing the role in 1988. Throughout the show's history there have been 41 presenters; currently, it is hosted by Richie Driss, Mwaksy Mudenda and Joel Mawhinney. The show uses a nautical title and theme. Its content, which follows a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guinea (coin)
The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where much of the gold used to make the coins was sourced. It was the first English machine-struck gold coin, originally representing a value of 20 shillings in sterling specie, equal to one pound, but rises in the price of gold relative to silver caused the value of the guinea to increase, at times to as high as thirty shillings. From 1717 to 1816, its value was officially fixed at twenty-one shillings. In the Great Recoinage of 1816, the guinea was demonetised and the word "guinea" became a colloquial or specialised term. Although the coin itself no longer circulated, the term ''guinea'' survived as a unit of account in some fields. Notable usages included professional fees (medical, legal, etc.), which were often invoiced in guineas, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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