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Richard Morant
Richard Morant (30 October 1945 – 9 November 2011) was an English actor. Biography Morant was born in Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire. His father was the Shakespearean actor Philip Morant (1909–1993). His sister is the actress Angela Morant. He was also a nephew of actors Bill and Linden Travers, and a cousin of actress Penelope Wilton. He trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama before joining the Prospect Theatre Company, and touring with Ian McKellen in ''Richard II'', ''Edward II'' and ''Twelfth Night''. He enjoyed a long television and theatrical career, first creating an impression as the bully Flashman in a BBC adaptation of the Thomas Hughes novel, ''Tom Brown's Schooldays'' (1971), and had a starring role in Thames Television's Armchair Theatre play ''Verité'' (1972) and followed this up with a regular role as Dr Dwight Enys in the popular BBC series of ''Poldark'' (1975). Morant also appeared in several BBC classic serials, including adaptations o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shipston-on-Stour
Shipston-on-Stour is a town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England. It is located on the banks of the River Stour, south-southeast of Stratford-upon-Avon, 10 miles (16 km) north-northwest of Chipping Norton, south of Warwick and 14.5 miles (23 km) west of Banbury. In the 2021 census, Shipston-on-Stour had a population of 5,849. This area is sometimes termed the Vale of Red Horse, close to the Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire borders.Beckinsale, R. (1980) ''The English Heartland'', Duckworth, p.5 History Etymology linked to sheep and wool trade In the 8th century, the toponym was ''Scepwaeisctune'', Old English for Sheep-wash-Town. It had a sheep marketplace for many centuries. The name evolved through ''Scepwestun'' in the 11th century, ''Sipestone'', ''Sepwestun'' and ''Schipton'' in the 13th century and ''Sepestonon-Sture'' in the 14th century. Church (vestry) administration, township and parish formation It was a township in the pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Paget Flashman
Sir Harry Paget Flashman is a fictional character created by Thomas Hughes (1822–1896) in the semi-autobiographical ''Tom Brown's School Days'' (1857) and later developed by George MacDonald Fraser (1925–2008). Harry Flashman appears in a series of 12 of Fraser's books, collectively known as ''The Flashman Papers'', with covers illustrated by Arthur Barbosa and Gino D’Achille. Flashman was played by Malcolm McDowell in the Richard Lester 1975 film ''Royal Flash''. In ''Tom Brown's School Days'' (1857), Flashman is portrayed as a notorious Rugby School bully who persecutes Tom Brown and is finally expelled for drunkenness, at which point he simply disappears. Fraser decided to write the story of Flashman's later life, in which the school bully would be identified as an "illustrious Victorian soldier", experiencing many of the 19th-century wars and adventures of the British Empire and rising to high rank in the British Army, to be acclaimed as a great warrior, while still ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey (later 17th Duke of Denver) is the fictional protagonist in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers (and their continuation by Jill Paton Walsh). A dilettante who solves mysteries for his own amusement, Wimsey is an archetype for the British gentleman detective. He is often assisted by his valet and former batman, Mervyn Bunter; by his good friend and later brother-in-law, police detective Charles Parker; and, in a few books, by Harriet Vane, who becomes his wife. Biography Background Born in 1890 and ageing in real time, Wimsey is described as being of average height, with straw-coloured hair, a beaked nose, and a vaguely foolish face. Reputedly his looks are patterned after those of academic and poet Roy Ridley, whom Sayers briefly met after witnessing him read his Newdigate Prize-winning poem "Oxford" at the Encaenia ceremony in July 1913. Wimsey also possesses considerable intelligence and athletic ability, evid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982 Film)
''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' is a 1982 British romantic adventure television film set during the French Revolution. It is based on the novels ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' (1905) and ''Eldorado'' (1913) by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, and stars Anthony Andrews as Sir Percy Blakeney/the Scarlet Pimpernel, the protagonist, Jane Seymour as Marguerite St. Just, the love interest, and Ian McKellen as Chauvelin, the antagonist. In 1792 during the Reign of Terror, the Scarlet Pimpernel rescues French aristocrats while posing as the wealthy but foppish and seemingly empty-headed Sir Percival Blakeney. Percy marries the beautiful French actress Marguerite St. Just, but her previous relationship with Robespierre's agent Paul Chauvelin may endanger the Pimpernel's plans to save the young Dauphin, eldest son of the former King of France. The story differs from the book but is largely inspired by it. Plot In 1792 during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, a secret league of brave Englishmen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman who became one of the best-known, influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. As a member of the Estates-General, the Constituent Assembly, and the Jacobin Club, he campaigned for universal manhood suffrage, the right to vote for people of color, Jews, actors, domestic staff and the abolition of both clerical celibacy and French involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. In 1791, Robespierre was elected as " public accuser" and became an outspoken advocate for male citizens without a political voice, for their unrestricted admission to the National Guard, to public offices, and to the commissioned ranks of the army, for the right to petition and the right to bear arms in self defence. Robespierre played an important part in the agitation which brought about the fall of the French monarchy on 10 August 1792 and the convocation of the Nati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conrad Of Montferrat
Conrad of Montferrat (Italian: ''Corrado del Monferrato''; Piedmontese: ''Conrà ëd Monfrà'') (died 28 April 1192) was a nobleman, one of the major participants in the Third Crusade. He was the ''de facto'' King of Jerusalem (as Conrad I) by virtue of his marriage to Isabella I of Jerusalem from 24 November 1190, but officially elected only in 1192, days before his death. He was also the eighth Marquess of Montferrat from 1191. Early life Conrad was the second son of Marquess William V of Montferrat, "the Elder", and his wife Judith of Babenberg. He was a first cousin of Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, as well as Louis VII of France and Leopold V of Austria. Conrad was born in Montferrat, which is now a region of Piedmont, in northwest Italy. The exact place and year are unknown. He is first mentioned in a charter in 1160, when serving at the court of his maternal uncle, Conrad, Bishop of Passau, later Archbishop of Salzburg. (He may have been named after him, or af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Talisman (Scott Novel)
''The Talisman'' is one of the Waverley novels by Sir Walter Scott. Published in 1825 as the second of his '' Tales of the Crusaders'', it is set during the Third Crusade and centres on the relationship between Richard I of England and Saladin. Composition and sources At the beginning of April 1824, two months before he completed ''Redgauntlet'', Scott envisaged that it would be followed by a four-volume publication containing two tales, at least one of which would be based on the Crusades. He began composition of the first story, ''The Betrothed'', in June, but it made slow progress and came to a halt in the second volume at some point in the autumn after criticisms by James Ballantyne. Scott then changed course and began work on the companion novel ''The Talisman'', and the first two chapters and part of the third were set in type by the end of the year. January 1825 was full of distractions, but a decision to resume ''The Betrothed'' was made in mid-February 1825 and it was e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles II Of Great Britain
Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651, and King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest surviving child of Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and Henrietta Maria of France. After Charles I's execution at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War, the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II king on 5 February 1649. But England entered the period known as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth, and the country was a de facto republic led by Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, and Charles fled to mainland Europe. Cromwell became virtual dictator of England, Scotland and Ireland. Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands. The political crisis that followed Cromwell's death in 16 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woodstock (novel)
''Woodstock, or The Cavalier. A Tale of the Year Sixteen Hundred and Fifty-one'' (1826) is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, one of the Waverley novels. Set just after the English Civil War, it was inspired by the legend of the Good Devil of Woodstock, which in 1649 supposedly tormented parliamentary commissioners who had taken possession of a royal residence at Woodstock, Oxfordshire. The story deals with the escape of Charles II in 1652, during the Commonwealth, and his final triumphant entry into London on 29 May 1660. Composition and sources Scott began composing ''Woodstock'' at the very end of October 1825. He appears to have made rapid progress at first, but there were many interruptions during December and the second volume was not finished until 11 February 1826. He completed the final volume on 26 March. The ''History of England'' by David Hume (1754‒62), which Scott admired above all others, gave him most of what he needed for the historical background, thou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (novel), Rob Roy'', ''Waverley (novel), Waverley'', ''Old Mortality'', ''The Heart of Mid-Lothian'' and ''The Bride of Lammermoor'', and the narrative poems ''The Lady of the Lake (poem), The Lady of the Lake'' and ''Marmion (poem), Marmion''. He had a major impact on European and American literature. As an advocate, judge and legal administrator by profession, he combined writing and editing with daily work as Clerk of Session and Sheriff court, Sheriff-Depute of Selkirkshire. He was prominent in Edinburgh's Tory (political faction), Tory establishment, active in the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, Highland Society, long a president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1820–1832), and a vice president of the Society o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poldark (1975 TV Series)
''Poldark'' is a series of historical novels by Winston Graham, published from 1945 to 1953 and continued from 1973 to 2002. The first novel, '' Ross Poldark'', was named for the protagonist of the series. The novel series was adapted twice for television by the BBC, firstly in 1975 and later in 2015. Historical setting The series comprises 12 novels: the first seven are set in the 18th century, concluding in Christmas 1799; the remaining five are concerned with the early years of the 19th century and the lives of the descendants of the previous novels' main characters. Graham wrote the first four ''Poldark'' books during the 1940s and 1950s. Following a long hiatus, he decided to resume the series and published ''The Black Moon'' in 1973. Novels Each of the novels is subtitled ''A Novel of Cornwall''. In a preface to ''The Black Moon'', Graham explained his decision to revive the series after a two-decade hiatus. Main characters Ross Poldark Ross Poldark is the eponymou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
