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The Wheatsheaf, Fitzrovia
The Wheatsheaf is a pub in Rathbone Place, Fitzrovia, London, that was popular with London's bohemian set in the 1930s. Its customers included George Orwell, Dylan Thomas, Edwin Muir and Humphrey Jennings, who were known for a while as the ''Wheatsheaf writers'' Other habitués included the singer and dancer Betty May, and the writer and surrealist poet Philip O'Connor, Nina Hamnett, Julian Maclaren-Ross, Anthony Carson and Quentin Crisp. Dylan Thomas In spring 1936, the poet Dylan Thomas met Caitlin Macnamara (1913–1994), a 22-year-old blonde-haired, blue-eyed dancer of Irish descent. She had run away from home, intent on making a career in dance, and aged 18 joined the chorus line at the London Palladium. Introduced by the artist Augustus John, Caitlin's lover, they met in The Wheatsheaf.Paul Ferris "Thomas , Caitlin (1913–1994)", ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip O'Connor
__NOTOC__ __NOTOC__ Philip Marie Constant Bancroft O'Connor (8 September 1916 – 29 May 1998) was a British writer and surrealist poet, who also painted. He was one of the 'Wheatsheaf writers' of 1930s Fitzrovia (who took their name from a pub). In his ''Memoirs of a Public Baby'' (1958, Faber and Faber) O'Connor wrote about his early life, which was "shrouded in a good deal of mystery and make-believe". According to O'Connor, his father, Bernard, was an Oxford-educated surgeon of sophisticated tastes, descended from the last High King of Ireland; he allegedly died early in the First World War whilst serving in the Navy. Notwithstanding O'Connor's account, "neither the Admiralty, Oxford University nor the various doctors' registers are able to authenticate" what he wrote. His mother considered his father "riff-raff" and "a cad". She was Winifred Xavier Rodyke-Thompson, of an Irish Roman Catholic family; she claimed her grandfather had been born into the Spring Rice family headed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Augustus John
Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sargent and Charles Wellington Furse "was over. The age of Augustus John was dawning." He was the younger brother of the painter Gwen John. Early life Born in Tenby, at 11,12 or 13 The Esplanade, now known as The Belgrave Hotel, Pembrokeshire, John was the younger son and third of four children. His father was Edwin William John, a Welsh solicitor; his mother, Augusta Smith, from a long line of Sussex master plumbers, died young when he was six, but not before inculcating a love of drawing in both Augustus and his older sister Gwen. At the age of seventeen he briefly attended the Tenby School of Art, then left Wales for London, studying at the Slade School of Art, University College London. He became the star pupil of drawing teacher Henry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Palladium
The London Palladium () is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in the famous area of Soho. The theatre holds 2,286 seats. Of the roster of stars who have played there, many have televised performances. Between 1955 and 1969 ''Sunday Night at the London Palladium'' was held at the venue, which was produced for the ITV network. The show included a performance by The Beatles on 13 October 1963. One national paper's headlines in the following days coined the term "Beatlemania" to describe the increasingly hysterical interest in the band. While the theatre has a resident show, it is also able to host one-off performances, such as concerts, TV specials and Christmas pantomimes. It has hosted the Royal Variety Performance 43 times, most recently in 2019. In March 2020, the venue closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on the theatre industry, but reopened over four months later on 1 August 2020. Architecture Walter Gibbons, an early moving-pictures m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caitlin Thomas
Caitlin Thomas (née Macnamara; 8 December 1913 – 31 July 1994) was an author and the wife of the poet and writer Dylan Thomas. Their marriage was a stormy affair, fuelled by alcohol and infidelity, though the couple remained together until Dylan's death in 1953. After his death, she wrote the book ''Leftover Life to Kill'', an account of her self-exile to Italy. She paints a portrait of a grieving widow seeking solace in distance, a younger lover, and alcohol. Early history Caitlin Macnamara was born in Hammersmith, London, to Francis Macnamara and Yvonne Majolier.Ferris (1989), pg 149. The couple had a son and three daughters, of whom Caitlin was the youngest. Her eldest sister Nicolette became an artist and author. The Macnamaras were descended from a family of Anglo-Irish landlords, and her grandfather, Henry Vee Macnamara, was the squire of two estates in County Clare. Caitlin's maternal grandfather, Edouard Majolier, was a French Quaker corn merchant in London, whil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quentin Crisp
Quentin Crisp (born Denis Charles Pratt; – ) was an English raconteur, whose work in the public eye included a memoir of his life and various media appearances. Before becoming well-known, he was an artist's model, hence the title of his most famous work, '' The Naked Civil Servant''. He afterwards became a gay icon due to his flamboyant personality, fashion sense and wit. His iconic status was occasionally controversial, due to remarks about subjects like the AIDS crisis. This invited censure from gay activists, including human-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. During his teen years, he worked briefly as a rent boy. He then spent thirty years as a professional model for life-classes in art colleges. The interviews he gave about his unusual life attracted great curiosity, and he was soon sought after for his personal views on social manners and the cultivation of style. His one-man stage show was a long-running hit both in Britain and America, and he also appeare ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Carson (writer)
Anthony Carson (1907-1973) was a British journalist and humorous travel writer. Biography Anthony Carson was the literary pseudonym of Peter Brooke, born Peter von Bohr. In the 1940s, he drank at The Wheatsheaf pub in Fitzrovia, London with Dylan Thomas, Julian Maclaren-Ross, George Barker, Peter Vansittart, Mulk Raj Anand, Fred Urquhart, Paul Potts and Tambimuttu. His portrait by Daniel Farson was included in the National Portrait Gallery exhibition, ''Famous in the Fifties: Photographs by Daniel Farson'', in 2012. He is mentioned in the memoirs of Julian Maclaren Ross and Rupert Croft-Cooke, and is one of the subjects of Paul Johnson's book of biographies, ''Brief Lives'' (2011). Colin MacInnes described him in The Observer as "one of the few great English humorous writers of the century". Songs *''Violin: Sweet and Low Played the Bow'', written by Allan Gray & Peter Brooke, Sydney: J. Albert & Son, 1941 Novels & travel writing *''Our Lady of the Earthquakes'', London: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nina Hamnett
Nina Hamnett (14 February 1890 – 16 December 1956) was a Welsh artist and writer, and an expert on sailors' chanteys, who became known as the Queen of Bohemia. Early life Hamnett was born in Shirley House, Picton Road in the small coastal town of Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales. Her father George Hamnett was an army officer, born in Madras (now Chennai), India. Her mother Mary was born in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Nina was sent to a private boarding school at Westgate-on-Sea before moving on aged 12, to the Royal School for Daughters of Officers of the Army in Bath, Somerset from 1902 to 1905. Her father was dishonourably discharged from the army and took work as a taxi driver. Her education had to be funded by her aunts and by a loan against a future bequest. From 1906 to 1907 she studied at the Pelham Art School and then at the London School of Art until 1910. In 1914 she went to Montparnasse, Paris to study at Marie Vassilieff's Academy. While study ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surrealist
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to leader André Breton, to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality", or ''surreality.'' It produced works of painting, writing, theatre, filmmaking, photography, and other media. Works of Surrealism feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and '' non sequitur''. However, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost (for instance, of the "pure psychic automatism" Breton speaks of in the first Surrealist Manifesto), with the works themselves being secondary, i.e. artifacts of surrealist experimentation. Leader Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was, above all, a r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rathbone Place
Rathbone Place is a street in central London that runs roughly north-west from Oxford Street to Percy Street. it is joined on its eastern side by Percy Mews, Gresse Street, and Evelyn Yard. The street is mainly occupied by retail and office premises. History The street was originally known as Glanville Street.Rathbone Street , ''Survey of London, Volume 21, The parish of St Pancras part 3: Tottenham Court Road & Neighbourhood''. 1949. British History Online. Retrieved 13 November 2014. It was renamed after Captain Thomas Rathbone, who had owned a house on the street since 1684. Inhabitants The essayist and critic lived at No. 12 from 1802 to 1805, while the ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betty May
Betty May (born Bessie Golding 1894, died after 1955) was a British singer, dancer, and model, who worked primarily in London's West End of London, West End. She was a member of the London Bohemianism, Bohemian set of the inter-war years, claimed to have joined a criminal gang in Paris, was associated with occultist Aleister Crowley,Tiger-Woman: Betty May and the Abbey of Thelema Caroline Potter, ''A Sketch of the Past'', 2013. Retrieved 31 July 2014. and sat for Augustus John and Jacob Epstein. She became known as the "Tiger Woman".Betty May. Boundary Gallery, 2011. Retrieved 31 July 2014. She adopted the name Betty M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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