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Random Quest
"Random Quest" is a science fiction novelette, which is also a love story, by British writer John Wyndham. It was included in his 1961 collection '' Consider Her Ways and Others''. It has been dramatised three times, twice under its original name and once as '' Quest for Love''. Plot summary The frame story deals with the elderly Dr Harshom, who lives in Herefordshire and has a very rare family name, all of whose bearers are in one way or another related and are in some contact with each other. In the early 1950s the Harshoms, scattered throughout England, are greatly mystified by the appearance of a young man named Colin Trafford, who systematically and persistently meets each and every one of them, asking about a young woman named Ottilie Harshom whom none of the Harshoms has ever heard of and who is evidently very important to him. Dr Harshom decides to talk to Trafford and the story consists mainly of what Trafford eventually tells him. Trafford is a physicist who was involv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romance Novel
A romance or romantic novel is a genre fiction novel that primarily focuses on the relationship and Romance (love), romantic love between two people, typically with an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Authors who have contributed to the development of this genre include Maria Edgeworth, Samuel Richardson, Jane Austen, and Charlotte Brontë. Romance novels encompass various subgenres, such as fantasy, Contemporary romance, contemporary, historical romance, paranormal fiction, Sapphic literature, sapphic, and science fiction. They also contain tropes like enemies to lovers, second chance, and forced proximity. Women have traditionally been the primary readers of romance novels, but according to the Romance Writers of America, 18% of men read romance novels. The genre of works conventionally referred to as "romance novels" existed in ancient Greece. Other precursors can be found in the literary fiction of the 18th and 19th centuries, including Samuel Richardson's sen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. Attlee was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Deputy Prime Minister during the Churchill war ministry, wartime coalition government under Winston Churchill, and Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition on three occasions: from 1935 to 1940, briefly in 1945 and from 1951 to 1955. He remains the longest serving Labour leader. Attlee was born into an upper middle class family, the son of a wealthy London solicitor. After attending Haileybury College and the University of Oxford, he practised as a Barristers in England and Wales, barrister. The volunteer work he carried out in London's East End exposed him to poverty, and his political views shifted leftwards thereafter. He joined the Independent Labour Party ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Barry
Christopher Chisholm Barry (20 September 1925 – 7 February 2014) was a British television director. He worked extensively in BBC television drama and became best known for his work on the science fiction series ''Doctor Who''. He also directed the direct to video ''Doctor Who'' spin-off ''Downtime'' in 1995. Early life and education Barry was the son of Sir Gerald Barry, editor of the ''News Chronicle'' and director general of the Festival of Britain in 1951, and his first wife Gladys, He attended Blundell's School in Devon and the University of Cambridge, before service in the Royal Air Force. Career Barry became a trainee at Ealing Studios and worked on the film '' The Ship That Died of Shame'' (1955) as an assistant director to Basil Dearden. He joined the BBC as a production assistant in 1955. In 1963, Barry was asked by producer Verity Lambert to be one of the initial directors of the BBC's new science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Barry's work on ''Docto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Out Of The Unknown
''Out of the Unknown'' is a British television science fiction and horror anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Most episodes of the first three series were dramatisations of science fiction short stories. Some were written directly for the series, but most were adaptations of published stories. The first three series were exclusively science fiction, but that genre was mostly abandoned in the final year in favour of horror-fantasy stories, with only one story based around science-fiction. Many videotapes of episodes were wiped in the early 1970s, as was standard procedure at the time. A large number of episodes are still missing, although some have resurfaced: for example, " Level Seven", an episode in series two originally broadcast on 27 October 1966, was returned to the BBC from the archives of a European broadcaster in January 2006. Origins Irene Shubik had been a science fiction fan since she was at uni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Register Office
General Register Office or General Registry Office (GRO) is the name given to the civil registry in the United Kingdom, many other Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth nations and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The GRO is the government agency responsible for the Public records, recording of vital records such as births, deaths, and marriages (or BDM), which may also include adoptions, stillbirths, civil unions, etc., and historically, sometimes included records relating to deeds and other property transactions. The director of a General Register Office is often titled Registrar General or Registrar-General. By country Australia The Australian states and territories have similar registries for birth, death and marriage, although their histories differ. These agencies are usually subordinate to the state Attorney-General Department or Department of Justice. The Australian Bureau of Statistics is responsible for collating the statistics based on these records. ACT: Until 1930, re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Somerset House
Somerset House is a large neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand, London, Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadrangle is built on the site of a Tudor period, Tudor palace ("Old Somerset House") originally belonging to the Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, Duke of Somerset. The present Somerset House was designed by William Chambers (architect), Sir William Chambers, begun in 1776, and was further extended with Victorian era outer wings to the east and west in 1831 and 1856 respectively. The site of Somerset House stood directly on the River Thames until the Victoria Embankment was built in the late 1860s. The great Georgian era structure was built to be a grand public building housing various government and public-benefit society offices. Its present tenants are a mixture of various organisations, generally centred around the arts and education. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhine
The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Switzerland border, Swiss-Austrian border. From Lake Constance downstream, it forms part of the Germany-Switzerland border, Swiss-German border. After that the Rhine defines much of the Franco-German border. It then flows in a mostly northerly direction through the German Rhineland. Finally, the Rhine turns to flow predominantly west to enter the Netherlands, eventually emptying into the North Sea. It drains an area of 185,000 km2. Its name derives from the Gaulish language, Gaulish ''Rēnos''. There are two States of Germany, German states named after the river, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, in addition to several districts of Germany, districts (e.g. Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, Rhein-Sieg). The departments of France, department ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivor Novello
Ivor Novello (born David Ivor Davies; 15 January 1893 – 6 March 1951) was a Welsh actor, dramatist, singer and composer who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. He was born into a musical family, and his first successes were as a songwriter. His first big hit was " Keep the Home Fires Burning" (1914), which was enormously popular during the First World War. His 1917 show, '' Theodore & Co'', was a wartime hit. After the war, Novello contributed numbers to several successful musical comedies and was eventually commissioned to write the scores of complete shows. He wrote his musicals in the style of operetta and often composed his music to the libretti of Christopher Hassall. In the 1920s he turned to acting, first in British films and then on stage, with considerable success in both. He starred in two silent films directed by Alfred Hitchcock, '' The Lodger'' and '' Downhill'' (both 1927). On stage, he played the title c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise"."Noel Coward at 70" ''Time'', 26 December 1969, p. 46 Coward attended a dance academy in London as a child, making his professional stage début at the age of eleven. As a teenager he was introduced into the high society in which most of his plays would be set. Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as ''Hay Fever (play), Hay Fever'', ''Private Lives'', ''Design for Living'', ''Pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
League Of Nations
The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace Conference that ended the World War I, First World War. The main organisation ceased operations on 18 April 1946 when many of its components were relocated into the new United Nations (UN) which was created in the aftermath of the World War II, Second World War. As the template for modern global governance, the League profoundly shaped the modern world. The League's primary goals were stated in its Covenant of the League of Nations, eponymous Covenant. They included preventing wars through collective security and Arms control, disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. Its other concerns included labour conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, Human trafficking, human and Illegal drug tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total population of over 84 million in an area of , making it the most populous member state of the European Union. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The Capital of Germany, nation's capital and List of cities in Germany by population, most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr. Settlement in the territory of modern Germany began in the Lower Paleolithic, with various tribes inhabiting it from the Neolithic onward, chiefly the Celts. Various Germanic peoples, Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. Nuclear bombs have had yields between 10 tons (the W54) and 50 megatons for the Tsar Bomba (see TNT equivalent). Yields in the low kilotons can devastate cities. A thermonuclear weapon weighing as little as can release energy equal to more than 1.2 megatons of TNT (5.0 PJ). Apart from the blast, effects of nuclear weapons include firestorms, extreme heat and ionizing radiation, radioactive nuclear fallout, an electromagnetic pulse, and a radar blackout. The first nuclear weapons were developed by the Allied Manhattan Project during World War II. Their production continues to require a large scientific and industrial complex, prim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
