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Nina Bawden
Nina Bawden CBE, FRSL, JP (19 January 1925 – 22 August 2012) was an English novelist and children's writer. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1987 and the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010. She is one of very few who have both served as a Booker judge and made a Booker shortlist as an author. She was a recipient of the Golden PEN Award. Biography Nina Bawden was born in 1925 in Ilford, Essex, England as Nina Mary Mabey.She lived in Ilford in "a rather nasty housing estate that ermother despised". Her mother was a teacher and her father a member of the Royal Marines. She was evacuated during World War II to Aberdare, Wales, at the age of fourteen. She spent school holidays at a farm in Shropshire with her mother and brothers. She attended Ilford County High School for Girls; Somerville College (B.A. 1946, M.A. 1951), Oxford, where she gained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. From 1946 to 1954 Bawden was married to Harry Bawden. They had two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
FRSL
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elected from among the best writers in any genre currently at work. Additionally, Honorary Fellows are chosen from those who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of literature, including publishers, agents, librarians, booksellers or producers. The society is a cultural tenant at London's Somerset House. History The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) was founded in 1820, with the patronage of George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent", and its first president was Thomas Burgess (bishop, born 1756), Thomas Burgess, Bishop of St David's (who was later translated as Bishop of Salisbury). At the heart of the RSL is its Fellowship, "which encompasses the most distinguished w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Somerville College, Oxford
Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Iris Murdoch, Vera Brittain and Dorothy L. Sayers. It began admitting men in 1994. Its library is one of Oxford's largest college libraries. The college's liberal tone derives from its founding by social liberals, as Oxford's first non-denominational college for women, unlike the Anglican Lady Margaret Hall, the other to open that year. In 1964, it was among the first to cease locking up at night to stop students staying out late. No gowns are worn at formal halls. In 2021 it was recognised as a sanctuary campus by City of Sanctuary UK. It is one of three colleges to offer undergraduates on-site lodging throughout their course. It stands near the Science Area, University Parks, Oxford University Press, Jericho and Green Templeton, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phoenix Award
The Phoenix Award annually recognizes one English-language children's book published twenty years earlier that did not then win a major literary award. It is named for the mythical bird phoenix that is reborn from its own ashes, signifying the book's rise from relative obscurity. The award was established and is conferred by the Children's Literature Association (ChLA), a nonprofit organization based in the United States whose mission is to advance "the serious study of children's literature". The winner is selected by an elected committee of five ChLA members, from nominations by members and outsiders. The token is a brass statue. The inaugural, 1985 Phoenix Award recognized ''The Mark of the Horse Lord'' by Rosemary Sutcliff (Oxford, 1965). Beginning 1989, as many as two runners-up have been designated "Honor Books", with 34 named for the 29 years to 2017. A parallel award for children's picture books, the Phoenix Picture Book Award was approved in 2010 and inaugurated in 2013 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guardian Children's Fiction Prize
The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize or Guardian Award was a literary award that annual recognised one fiction book written for children or young adults (at least age eight) and published in the United Kingdom. It was conferred upon the author of the book by ''The Guardian'' newspaper, which established it in 1965 and inaugurated it in 1967. It was a lifetime award in that previous winners were not eligible. At least from 2000 the prize was £1,500. The prize was apparently discontinued after 2016, though no formal announcement appears to have been made. Recent winners Piers Torday won the 2014 Guardian Prize, announced 13 November, for ''The Dark Wild'' from Quercus Publishing. It is the second book of a trilogy inaugurated by ''The Last Wild'', whose conclusion ''The Wild Beyond'' is forthcoming April 2015. The judges were ''Guardian'' children's book editor Julia Eccleshare and three British children's writers (as always): 2012 prize winner Frank Cottrell Boyce, Gillian C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carrie's War
''Carrie's War'' is a 1973 English children's novel by Nina Bawden set during the World War II, Second World War. It follows two young London Evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II, evacuees, Carrie and her younger brother Nick, into a Welsh village. It is often read in schools for its literary and historical interest. ''Carrie's War'' received the 1993 Phoenix Award and has been adapted for television. Plot A frame story has Carrie visiting the town as a widow with three children. She tells the children what happened thirty years before. Carrie Willow and her younger brother Nick are evacuated to a rundown mining town in Wales during the Second World War. After a traumatic difficulty in finding a family to foster them, they stay with a shopkeeper, Mr Evans, who dominates his gentle but weak younger sister, whom they call "Auntie Lou". Another evacuee whom Carrie has befriended, Albert Sandwich, is staying at a dilapidated country house called Druid's Bottom wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Birds On The Trees
''The Birds on the Trees'' is a novel by Nina Bawden first published in 1970 about a middle-class English family whose 19-year-old son does not live up to his parents' expectations. ''The Birds on the Trees'' was announced, on 26 March 2010, as one of six books that had been shortlisted for the "Lost Man Booker Prize" of 1970, "a contest delayed by 40 years because a reshuffling of the fledgeling competition’s rules that year disqualified nearly a year’s worth of high-quality fiction from consideration". Plot summary Toby Flower is a shy, reticent youth who has grown his hair long and who has started wearing a burnous. His father, an editor, and his mother, a novelist, are thrown into despair when Toby is expelled from school because he has been taking drugs. At a loss as to what to do in order to help their son, Charlie and Maggie Flower keep projecting their own goals and aspirations onto their son. They still talk about his going to university despite Toby's assertion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Witch's Daughter
''The Witch's Daughter'' is a children's novel by Nina Bawden, first published in 1966. It has been dramatised for television twice, with Fiona Kennedy (1971) and Sammy Glenn (1996) in the title role. Plot summary On the small remote Scottish isle of Skua, Perdita has been branded "the witch's daughter" by islanders. They believe her mother died cursing the sea on which they depend for their livelihood (most of the men are fishermen). She lives in a tumbledown house by the loch, alone apart from the housekeeper Annie, never goes to school and has no friends. The house's owner, Mr Smith, is usually absent and expects Perdita to keep out of his way when he is there. The village children avoid or bully her, saying she's a witch like her mother. One summer Janey, who is blind, and her elder brother Tim visit the island with their naturalist father who wants to find a rare orchid that might grow there. Another English tourist, Mr Jones, arrives at the same time and also stays in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
On The Run (novel)
''On the Run'' (also ''Three on the Run'') is a 1964 children's novel by British author Nina Bawden. It was also published as ''Three on the Run'' in the United States. It is an independent sequel to ''The House of Secrets''.Saturday review, book 48, 1965, p. 13Online/ref> Plot When Ben's cousins, whom he lives with, are unwell, he is forced to spend the summer with his father and stepmother-to-be. They live in London and have little time to spend with Ben. So Ben decides to explore the gardens of the terrace houses in his street. He walks along the walls connecting all the houses until he comes to one covered in jagged glass. Ben then falls into the garden and meets Thomas, a young boy from Tiga, who is being kept in London, while his father, Chief Okapi, is exiled there. When Ben discovers a plot to kidnap Thomas, he, Thomas and Lil (a friend of Thomas) decide to run away. Bawden's comments on the book Bawden said that the novel is set in London and in Herne Bay, ‘a se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Permanent Way
''The Permanent Way'' is a play by David Hare first performed in 2003. In 1991 the British government decided to privatise the country's railways. David Hare recounts the development through the first-hand accounts of those most intimately involved. From passengers to government ministers, their voices bear witness to a narrative of national mismanagement. Inspired by Ian Jack's book ''The Crash That Stopped Britain'' , the play is a piece of verbatim theatre based on numerous interviews, by the actors themselves, of the people involved. Theatre director Max Stafford-Clark and transport journalist Christian Wolmar selected the interviewees. Collation and editing, with a little linking narration added, allowed the quotations to take the form of drama: Actor Lloyd Hutchison of Out of Joint, the original acting company, describes Hare's contribution thus: "He puts in very, very little bridging material. The play is really one statement after another. He hasn't exactly writt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Hare (playwright)
Sir David Hare is an English playwright, screenwriter and theatre and film director. Best known for his stage work, Hare has also enjoyed great success with films, receiving two Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing ''The Hours'''' ''in 2002, based on the novel written by Michael Cunningham, and ''The Reader'''' ''in 2008, based on the novel of the same name written by Bernhard Schlink. In the West End, he had his greatest success with the plays'' Plenty'' (1978), which he adapted into a 1985 film starring Meryl Streep, ''Racing Demon'' (1990), ''Skylight'' (1997), and ''Amy's View'' (1998). The four plays ran on Broadway in 1982–83, 1996, 1998 and 1999 respectively, earning Hare three Tony Award nominations for Best Play for the first three and two Laurence Olivier Awards for Best New Play. Other notable projects on stage include ''A Map of the World'', ''Pravda'' (starring Anthony Hopkins at the National Theatre in London), ''Murmu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Potters Bar Rail Crash
There have been four railway accidents at Potters Bar (England). Those in 1898 and 1946 were signals passed at danger. The accident in 2002 led to substantial public debate and a national change in policy relating to maintenance of infrastructure. 1898 On 19 March 1898, the 7:50 p.m train from Hatfield to King's Cross ran past the signals at danger when it reached Potters Bar. The train cut through the catch points and buffers and crashed onto the platform. The front part of the engine was smashed and the leading coach wrecked. No one was killed. The driver, fireman and guard narrowly escaped injury. Some passengers complained of being shaken but were able to go home.PBHistory.co.uk , Railway Crashes 1899 On 16 May 1899 the |
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area, covering . New Zealand is about east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and then developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
