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The West Pier
The ''Gorse Trilogy'' is a series of three novels, the last published works of the author Patrick Hamilton. The stories follow the anti-hero Ernest Ralph Gorse, whose heartlessness and lack of scruple are matched only by the inventiveness and panache with which he swindles his victims. He is thought to have been based on the real-life con-man and murderer Neville George Heath, executed in 1946. Gorse insinuates himself into the lives of his victims with his good looks and easy confidence, and always with a good story. His victims are women, and he flatters his way into their affections until he is in a position to turn things to his advantage. Graham Greene called ''The West Pier'' "the best book written about Brighton", while L.P. Hartley said, "The entertainment value of this brilliantly told story could hardly be higher." Writing for '' The Independent'', critic D. J. Taylor called ''Unknown Assailant'' "an inferior work" while '' The Guardian'' called it "drink-soaked." An ...
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Novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the histori ...
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Black Spring Press
Black Spring Press is an independent English publishing house founded in the early 1980s. The first Black Spring publication was a reprint of Anais Nin's ''D.H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study'', which on its first publication in 1932 had been only the second study of Lawrence's work to appear. This was followed by Patrick Kearney's ''The Paris Olympia Press: An Annotated Bibliography'', which carried a Foreword by Maurice Girodias. Later publications included translations of early Soviet short stories and an epistolary first novel from the French; Nick Cave's debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ..., ''And the Ass Saw the Angel'', which had been commissioned five years previously; reprints of Leonard Cohen's novels together with new editions of his titles ' ...
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Novels Set In Sussex
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the historica ...
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Novel Series
A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their publisher. Publishers' reprint series Reprint series of public domain fiction (and sometimes nonfiction) books appeared as early as the 18th century, with the series ''The Poets of Great Britain Complete from Chaucer to Churchill'' (founded by British publisher John Bell in 1777). In 1841 the German Tauchnitz publishing firm launched the ''Collection of British and American Authors'', a reprint series of inexpensive paperbound editions of both public domain and copyrighted fiction and nonfiction works. This book series was unique for paying living authors of the works published even though copyright protection did not exist between nations in the 19th century. Later British reprint series were to include the ''Routledge's Railway Library ...
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1955 British Novels
Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijiangshan Islands: The Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army seizes the islands from the Republic of China (Taiwan). * January 22 – In the United States, The Pentagon announces a plan to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), armed with nuclear weapons. * January 23 – The Sutton Coldfield rail crash kills 17, near Birmingham, England. * January 25 – The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union announces the end of the war between the USSR and Germany, which began during World War II in 1941. * January 28 – The United States Congress authorizes President Dwight D. Eisenhower to use force to protect Formosa from the People's Republic of China. February * February 10 – The United States Sev ...
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1953 British Novels
Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yugoslavia. ** The CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel first meets to discuss the UFO phenomenon. * January 15 – Georg Dertinger, foreign minister of East Germany, is arrested for spying. * January 19 – 71.1% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into ''I Love Lucy'', to watch Lucy give birth to Little Ricky, which is more people than those who tune into Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration the next day. This record has yet to be broken. * January 20 – Dwight D. Eisenhower is sworn in as the 34th President of the United States. * January 24 ** Mau Mau Uprising: Rebels in Kenya kill the Ruck family (father, mother, and six-year-old son). ** Leader of East Germany Walter Ulbricht announces that agriculture will be c ...
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1952 British Novels
Year 195 ( CXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Scrapula and Clemens (or, less frequently, year 948 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 195 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus has the Roman Senate deify the previous emperor Commodus, in an attempt to gain favor with the family of Marcus Aurelius. * King Vologases V and other eastern princes support the claims of Pescennius Niger. The Roman province of Mesopotamia rises in revolt with Parthian support. Severus marches to Mesopotamia to battle the Parthians. * The Roman province of Syria is divided and the role of Antioch is diminished. The Romans annexed the Syrian cities of Edessa and Nisibis. Severus re-establish his head ...
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English Novels
English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national identity, an identity and common culture ** English language in England, a variant of the English language spoken in England * English languages (other) * English studies, the study of English language and literature * ''English'', an Amish term for non-Amish, regardless of ethnicity Individuals * English (surname), a list of notable people with the surname ''English'' * People with the given name ** English McConnell (1882–1928), Irish footballer ** English Fisher (1928–2011), American boxing coach ** English Gardner (b. 1992), American track and field sprinter Places United States * English, Indiana, a town * English, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * English, Brazoria County, Texas, an unincorporated community * Engli ...
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Kim Newman
Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula (1931 English-language film), Dracula'' at the age of eleven—and alternative history, alternative fictional versions of history. He has won the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award, and the BSFA award. Early life Kim Newman was born 31 July 1959 in Brixton, London, the son of Bryan Michael Newman and Julia Christen Newman, both potters.Kim James Newman. ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Gale (publisher), Gale, 2007. His sister, Sasha, was born in 1961, and their mother died in 2003. Newman attended "a progressive kindergarten and a primary school in Brixton, and then Huish Episcopi County Primary School in Langport, Somerset." In 1966 the family moved to Aller, Somerset. He was educated at Dr. Morgan's Grammar School for Boy ...
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Patrick Hamilton (dramatist)
Anthony Walter Patrick Hamilton (17 March 1904 – 23 September 1962) was an English playwright and novelist. He was well regarded by Graham Greene and J. B. Priestley, and study of his novels has been revived because of their distinctive style, deploying a Dickensian narrative voice to convey aspects of inter-war London street culture. They display a strong sympathy for the poor, as well as an acerbic black humour. Doris Lessing wrote in ''The Times'' in 1968: "Hamilton was a marvellous novelist who's grossly neglected". His two most successful plays, ''Rope'' and ''Gas Light'', were made into famous films: Alfred Hitchcock's ''Rope'' (1948) and the British-made ''Gaslight'' (1940), followed by the 1944 American version. Life and works Hamilton was born on 17 March 1904, at Dale House, in the Sussex village of Hassocks, near Brighton, to (Walter) Bernard Hamilton (1863-1930), a writer and non-practising barrister, and his second wife, Ellen Adèle (née Hockley; 1861-1934 ...
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Nigel Havers
Nigel Allan Havers (born 6 November 1951) is an English actor. His film roles include Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film ''Chariots of Fire'', which earned him a BAFTA nomination; as Dr. Rawlins in the 1987 Steven Spielberg war drama, ''Empire of the Sun''; and as Ronny in the 1984 David Lean epic ''A Passage to India''. Television roles include Tom Latimer in the British TV comedy series '' Don't Wait Up'' and Lewis Archer in ''Coronation Street'', between 2009 and 2019. Early life and family Havers was born in Edmonton, London, Edmonton, Middlesex, and is the younger of two boys (with an older brother, Philip), born of Michael Havers, Baron Havers, Sir Michael Havers (later Lord Havers), who was a barrister who became a controversial Attorney General for England and Wales and, briefly, Lord Chancellor in the Conservative Government in the 1980s. His paternal aunt, Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, Baroness Butler-Sloss, Lady Butler-Sloss, his grandfather Cecil Havers, Sir Ce ...
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The Charmer (TV Series)
''The Charmer'' was a 1987 British television serial set in the 1930s, and starring Nigel Havers as Ralph Ernest Gorse, a seducing conman, Rosemary Leach as Joan Plumleigh-Bruce, a smitten victim widow and Bernard Hepton as Donald Stimpson, Plumleigh-Bruce's would-be beau, who vengefully pursues Gorse after he has conned her. It was made by London Weekend Television (LWT) for ITV, and loosely based on the 1953 novel '' Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse'' by Patrick Hamilton, the second work in the Gorse Trilogy. The series was repeated in February and March 1990. ITV3 also repeated the series in full at 1:45 a.m. from 5 September 2009. Narrative repeats were on Mondays from 7 September 2009 at 10:05 a.m. It was broadcast in the US on '' Masterpiece Theater'' starting April 30, 1989. Cast *Nigel Havers – Ralph Ernest Gorse *Rosemary Leach – Joan Plumleigh-Bruce *Bernard Hepton – Donald Stimpson *Fiona Fullerton – Clarice Mannors * George Baker – Harold Bennett *Jud ...
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