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The Pyrates
''The Pyrates'' is a comic novel by George MacDonald Fraser, published in 1983. Fraser called it "a burlesque fantasy on every swashbuckler I ever read or saw". Plot Written in arch, ironic style and containing a great deal of deliberate anachronism, it traces the adventures of a classic hero (Captain Benjamin Avery, RN, very loosely based on Henry Avery), multiple damsels in distress, and the six captains who lead the infamous Coast Brotherhood ( Calico Jack Rackham, Black Bilbo, Firebeard, Happy Dan Pew, Akbar the Terrible and Sheba the She-Wolf). It also concerns the charismatic anti-hero, Colonel Thomas Blood (cashiered), a rakish dastard who is loosely modeled on the historical figure, Thomas Blood. All of the above face off against the malevolently hilarious Spanish viceroy of Cartagena, Don Lardo. The book's 400 pages of continuous action travel from England to Madagascar to various Caribbean ports of call along the Spanish Main. Adaptations The book is completely unrela ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malcolm Stoddard
Malcolm Stoddard (born 20 July 1948) is a British actor who has appeared in films and television. Early life He attended the all-male grammar school Chichester High School For Boys. Career His TV credits include ''The Voyage of Charles Darwin'', ''Colditz'', '' The Brothers'', '' The New Avengers'', '' Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill'' (1974), ''Blake's 7'', ''The Treachery Game'', ''Oxford Blues'' (1984), ''Rain on the Roof'', ''The Assassination Run'', ''Squadron'', ''By the Sword Divided'', ''Juliet Bravo'', ''Boon'', ''The Bill'', ''Families'', ''Emmerdale'', ''The Campbells'', '' Heartbeat'' and '' Road to Avonlea''. His films include '' Cari Genitori'' (1973), ''Luther'' (1974), '' S.O.S. Titanic'' (1979), ''The Godsend'' (1980), ''Tree of Hands'' (1989), ''Innocent Victim'' (1989), '' Gulliver's Travels'' (1996), ''Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Steven ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George MacDonald Fraser
George MacDonald Fraser (2 April 1925 – 2 January 2008) was a British author and screenwriter. He is best known for a series of works that featured the character Flashman. Biography Fraser was born to Scottish parents in Carlisle, England, on 2 April 1925. His father was a doctor and his mother a nurse. It was his father who passed on to Fraser his love of reading, and a passion for his Scottish heritage. Fraser was educated at Carlisle Grammar School and Glasgow Academy; he later described himself as a poor student due to "sheer laziness". This meant that he was unable to follow his father's wishes and study medicine. War service In 1943, during World War II, Fraser enlisted in the Border Regiment and served in the Burma campaign, as recounted in his memoir ''Quartered Safe Out Here'' (1993). After completing his Officer Cadet Training Unit (OCTU) course, Fraser was granted a commission into the Gordon Highlanders. He served with them in the Middle East and North Africa i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Adams (actor)
Anthony Frederick Charles "Tom" Adams (9 March 1938 – 11 December 2014) was an English actor with roles in adventure, horror and mystery films and several TV shows. He was best known for his role as Daniel Fogarty in several series of ''The Onedin Line''. Early life Adams was born in Poplar, London and his father was a commercial chauffeur. After school he did national service in the Coldstream Guards, then joined the Unity Theatre, London. He adopted the stage name of Tom Adams and taught English and drama at the Cardinal Griffin secondary modern school, Poplar, in the 1960s between acting jobs with repertory companies.Tom Adams obituary at Daily Express Retrieved 20 December 2014 [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1983 British Novels
The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the true Internet). * January 24 – Twenty-five members of the Red Brigades are sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1978 murder of Italian politician Aldo Moro. * January 25 ** High-ranking Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia. ** IRAS is launched from Vandenberg AFB, to conduct the world's first all-sky infrared survey from space. February * February 2 – Giovanni Vigliotto goes on trial on charges of polygamy involving 105 women. * February 3 – Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Fraser is granted a double dissolution of both houses of parliament, for elections on March 5, 1983. As Fraser is being granted the dissolution, Bill Hayden resigns as leader of the Australian Labor Party, and in the subsequent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan and critical reviews. IMDb began as a fan-operated movie database on the Usenet group "rec.arts.movies" in 1990, and moved to the Web in 1993. It is now owned and operated by IMDb.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon. the database contained some million titles (including television episodes) and million person records. Additionally, the site had 83 million registered users. The site's message boards were disabled in February 2017. Features The title and talent ''pages'' of IMDb are accessible to all users, but only registered and logged-in users can submit new material and suggest edits to existing entries. Most of the site's data has been provided by these volunteers. Registered users with a prov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Captain In Calico
''Captain in Calico'' is a 2015 novel by George MacDonald Fraser. It was published seven years after his death in 2008 and is about the pirate Jack Rackham. Mary Read and Anne Bonny also appear as characters in this novel. Plot Jack Rackham asks the governor of the Bahamas, Woodes Rogers, for a royal pardon. Rogers agrees for his own reasons. Background The novel was written in 1959 and was heavily influenced by authors Fraser long admired, such as Rafael Sabatini, PC Wren, GA Henty and Sir 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' ..., along with pirate films like ''Captain Blood''. The manuscript was found by Fraser’s three children when they cleared out their parents’ home following the death of their mother. According to Fraser's daughter Caro: In the l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Defiant Theatre
Defiant Theatre was a Chicago-based theatre company founded in 1993 by a group of students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which includes Nick Offerman. The eclectic troupe specialized in productions that emphasized inventive stagecraft, perverse and controversial topics, and skillful stage combat. While the company is highly regarded for original plays such as ''Action Movie: The Play'' and ''Godbaby'', Defiant Theatre received notable attention for productions of plays by Caryl Churchill, Alfred Jarry, Sarah Kane, and William Shakespeare. Chicago Magazine named Defiant the "Best Experimental Theatre" in their August 1999 Best of Chicago issue. The company disbanded in 2004. Production history 1993/1994 Season ''Hamlet'' by William Shakespeare directed by Christopher Johnson Opened Friday, November 19, 1993 at The Greenview Arts Center "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern may be dead; Defiant Theatre's ''Hamlet'' most certainly is not." - Chicago Reader ''Landsca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no maritime experience, but he rose to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II and King James II through patronage, diligence, and his talent for administration. His influence and reforms at the Admiralty were important in the early professionalisation of the Royal Navy. The detailed private diary that Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th century and is one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period. It provides a combination of personal revelation and eyewitness accounts of great events, such as the Great Plague of London, the Second Dutch War, and the Great Fire of London. Early life Pepys was born in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, London, on 23 Februar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Lang
Howard Lang (born Donald Yarranton; 20 March 1911 – 11 December 1989) was an English actor known for playing Captain William Baines in the BBC nautical drama ''The Onedin Line''. Early life Lang was born in Marylebone, London, the son of Edward John Yarranton (1884–1954) and Clara Ann (née Malkin) (1888–1921). His father had left the family's bookbinding business to become a senior commercial traveller for Winsor & Newton, the manufacturer of artists' materials. Lang served for seven years in the Royal Navy including during World War II. In January 1941 he was appointed Temporary Sub-Lieutenant, and in January 1942 Temporary Lieutenant, a position he held until the end of the war. His younger brother from his father's second marriage was Sir Peter Yarranton (1924–2003), chairman of the United Kingdom Sports Council from 1989 to 1994, and a notable figure in the world of rugby union, both as a player and as an administrator, for more than 40 years. Acting career For ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Savident
John Savident (born 21 January 1938) is a retired British actor, known for his numerous television roles, including his portrayal of Fred Elliott in the soap opera '' Coronation Street'' from 1994-2006. He is also known for his performance as Monsieur Firmin in the West End debut of The Phantom of the Opera and ''The Lion King.'' Early life Savident was born in Guernsey and still lived there at the time of the German occupation of the island in 1940. He and his family escaped to England in a fishing boat. During his early years, he was a police officer before turning to acting as his profession. Career Savident created the role of Monsieur Firmin in the original production of ''Phantom of the Opera'', which opened on 9 October 1986 at Her Majesty's Theatre in Haymarket, London. He appeared as the renegade scientist Egrorian in a 1981 episode of the cult science fiction TV series ''Blake's 7''. He also had other television appearances in '' The Saint'', ''Callan'' and '' Doc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anne Bonney
Anne Bonny (8 March 1697 – disappeared April 1721), sometimes Anne Bonney, was an Irish pirate operating in the Caribbean, and one of the few female pirates in recorded history. What little that is known of her life comes largely from Captain Charles Johnson's 1724 book ''A General History of the Pyrates''. Bonny was born in Ireland around 1700 and moved to London and then to the Province of Carolina when she was about 10 years old. Around 1718 she married sailor James Bonny, assumed his last name, and moved with him to Nassau in the Bahamas, a sanctuary for pirates. It was there that she met Calico Jack Rackham and became his pirate partner and lover. She was captured alongside Rackham and Mary Read in October 1720. All three were sentenced to death, but Bonny and Read had their executions stayed because both of them were pregnant. Read died of a fever in jail in April 1721 (likely due to complications from the pregnancy), but Bonny's fate is unknown. Early life Bonny's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wanda Ventham
Wanda Ventham (born 5 August 1935) is an English actress with many roles on British television since beginning her career in the 1950s. She played Colonel Virginia Lake in the 1970s science-fiction television series ''UFO'' and had a recurring role as Cassandra Trotter's mother Pamela Parry in the sitcom ''Only Fools and Horses'' between 1989 and 1992. Her many other television appearances include ''The Sweeney'', '' The Avengers'', ''The Saint'', ''Doctor Who'', ''The Gentle Touch'', '' Heartbeat'' and ''Holby City'', and she appeared in two ''Carry On'' films. In April 2014, ''People'' magazine featured her in its "Most Beautiful People in the World" edition. Early life Ventham was born in Brighton on 5 August 1935, the daughter of Gladys Frances (née Holtham) and Frederick Howard Ventham.Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Birth Index: 1916–2005 atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: General Register Office. England and Wales Civil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
