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The Old Vicarage, Grantchester
"The Old Vicarage, Grantchester" is a light poem by the English Georgian poet Rupert Brooke (1887-1915), written while in Berlin in 1912. After initially titling the poem "Home" and then "The Sentimental Exile", the author eventually chose the name of his occasional residence near Cambridge. The poem's references can be overly obscure because of the many specific Cambridgeshire locations and English traditions to which the poem refers. Some have seen it as sentimentally nostalgic, which it is, while others have recognised its satiric and sometimes cruel humour. Using octosyllabics—a meter often favored by Brooke—the author writes of Grantchester and other nearby villages in what has been called a seriocomic style. It is very much a poem of "place": the place where Brooke composed the work, Berlin and the Café des Westens, and the contrast of that German world ("Here am I, sweating, sick, and hot") with his home in England. Yet it is more than just the longing of an exile f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English People
The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture. The English identity is of Anglo-Saxon origin, when they were known in Old English as the ('race or tribe of the Angles'). Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who migrated to Great Britain around the 5th century AD. The English largely descend from two main historical population groups the West Germanic tribes (the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians) who settled in southern Britain following the withdrawal of the Romans, and the partially Romanised Celtic Britons already living there.Martiniano, R., Caffell, A., Holst, M. et al. Genomic signals of migration and continuity in Britain before the Anglo-Saxons. Nat Commun 7, 10326 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10326 Collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, they founded what was to become the Kingdom of England ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kidnap Of Heinrich Kreipe
The kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe was an operation executed jointly by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and local resistance members in Crete in German-occupied Greece during the Second World War. The operation was launched on 4 February 1944, when SOE officer Patrick Leigh Fermor landed in Crete with the intention of abducting notorious war criminal and commander of 22nd Air Landing Division, Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller. By the time of the arrival of the rest of the abduction team, led by William Stanley Moss, two months later, Müller had been succeeded by Heinrich Kreipe, who was chosen as the new target. On the night of 26 April, Kreipe's car was ambushed while en route from his residence to his divisional headquarters. Kreipe was tied and forced into the back seat while Leigh Fermor and Moss impersonated him and his driver respectively. Kreipe's notorious impatience at roadblocks enabled the car to pass numerous checkpoints before being abandoned at the ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
An Unofficial Rose
''An Unofficial Rose'' is a novel by Iris Murdoch. Published in 1962, it was her sixth novel. Plot The novel begins with the funeral of Fanny Peronett, the wife of Hugh Peronett. Hugh is a retired civil servant whose son Randall owns a successful rose nursery near Romney Marsh. Randall and his wife Ann have a fourteen-year-old daughter, Miranda. Randall is having an affair in London with Lindsay Rimmer, a young woman who is the secretary and companion of Emma Sands, a detective novelist with whom Hugh had had an affair twenty five years earlier. Randall is determined to leave Ann for Lindsay, and asks his father for financial help. Hugh complies by selling a valuable painting and giving the proceeds to Randall. Randall takes Lindsay off to Italy, and asks his wife for a divorce. For emotional and religious reasons she is reluctant to grant his request. Felix Meecham, an army officer and family friend, has been in love with Ann for years. After Randall leaves and asks Ann for a d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iris Murdoch
Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her first published novel, '' Under the Net'' (1954), was selected in 1998 as one of Modern Library's 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Her 1978 novel '' The Sea, the Sea'' won the Booker Prize. In 1987, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for services to literature. In 2008, ''The Times'' ranked Murdoch twelfth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". Her other books include '' The Bell'' (1958), ''A Severed Head'' (1961), '' The Red and the Green'' (1965), '' The Nice and the Good'' (1968), '' The Black Prince'' (1973), '' Henry and Cato'' (1976), '' The Philosopher's Pupil'' (1983), ''The Good Apprentice'' (1985), '' The Book and the Brotherhood'' (1987), '' The Message to the Planet'' (1989), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denis Norden
Denis Mostyn Norden (6 February 1922 – 19 September 2018) was an English comedy writer and television presenter. After an early career working in cinemas, he began scriptwriting during the Second World War. From 1948 to 1959, he co-wrote the BBC Radio comedy programme '' Take It from Here'' with Frank Muir. Muir and Norden remained associated for more than 50 years, appearing regularly together on the radio panel programmes '' My Word!'' and '' My Music'' after they stopped collaborating on scripts. He also wrote scripts for Hollywood films. He presented television programmes on ITV for many years, including the nostalgia quiz ''Looks Familiar'' and blooper shows '' It'll be Alright on the Night'' and ''Laughter File''. Early life and career Norden was born as Denis Moss Cohen into a Jewish family in Hackney, in London's East End. His parents were George Cohen, a tailor specializing in bridal gowns, and his wife Ginny (née Lubelsky), who was of Polish heritage. The famil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Muir
Frank Herbert Muir (5 February 1920 – 2 January 1998) was an English comedy writer, radio and television personality, and raconteur. His writing and performing partnership with Denis Norden endured for most of their careers. Together they wrote BBC Radio's '' Take It from Here'' for over 10 years, and then appeared on BBC radio quizzes '' My Word!'' and '' My Music'' for another 35. Muir became Assistant Head of Light Entertainment at the BBC in the 1960s, and was then London Weekend Television's founding Head of Entertainment. His many writing credits include editorship of ''The Oxford Book of Humorous Prose''. Birth and early life Muir was the second son of steam tug engineer Charles James Muir (1888–1934), originally from New Zealand, and his wife Margaret, daughter of ship's carpenter Harry Harding. Harry Harding had died young at sea; his widow, Elizabeth Jane (née Cowie) subsequently married Frank Herbert Webber, a former lighthouse inspector and licensee of the De ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Balham, Gateway To The South
"Balham, Gateway to the South" is a comedy sketch that parodies cinema travelogues by presenting the South London suburb of Balham as an exotic locale. It was written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden for the short-lived BBC radio series ''Third Division'' and featured in the second edition broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 2 February 1949. The sketch's depication of Balham as a faraway, desirable location contrasted with the real area during postwar austerity. One memorable part of the sketch is the pronunciation of Balham as "Bal-Ham" in an American accent, instead of the British pronunciation "Bal-um". The original sketch was performed by Peter Sellers as narrator, with others such as Benny Hill and Michael Bentine contributing other voices. The script features the narration of exaggerated claims regarding the attractions of the area. The sketch was later performed solo by Peter Sellers, in a parody of the American newsreel-travelogue host James A. Fitzpatrick, on th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
It Can't Happen Here
''It Can't Happen Here'' is a 1935 dystopian political novel by American author Sinclair Lewis. It describes the rise of a United States dictator similar to how Adolf Hitler gained power. The novel was adapted into a play by Lewis and John C. Moffitt in 1936. Premise The novel was published during the heyday of fascism in Europe, which was reported on by Dorothy Thompson, Lewis's wife. The novel describes the rise of Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a demagogue who is elected President of the United States, after fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and traditional values. After his election, Windrip takes complete control of the government via self-coup and imposes totalitarian rule with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force, in the manner of European fascists such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. The novel's plot centers on journalist Doremus Jessup's opposition to the new regime and his subsequent struggle a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters." He is best known for his novels '' Main Street'' (1920), '' Babbitt'' (1922), '' Arrowsmith'' (1925), '' Elmer Gantry'' (1927), '' Dodsworth'' (1929), and '' It Can't Happen Here'' (1935). His works are known for their critical views of American capitalism and materialism in the interwar period. He is also respected for his strong characterizations of modern working women. H. L. Mencken wrote of him, " fthere was ever a novelist among us with an authentic call to the trade ... it is this red-haired tornado from the Minnesota wilds." Early life Born February 7, 1885, in the village of Sauk Centre, Minneso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leslie Howard (actor)
Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 18931 June 1943) was an English actor, director and producer.Obituary '' Variety'', 9 June 1943. He wrote many stories and articles for '' The New York Times'', '' The New Yorker'', and '' Vanity Fair'' and was one of the biggest box-office draws and movie idols of the 1930s. Active in both Britain and Hollywood, Howard played Ashley Wilkes in '' Gone with the Wind'' (1939). He had roles in many other films, often playing the quintessential Englishman, including '' Berkeley Square'' (1933), '' Of Human Bondage'' (1934), '' The Scarlet Pimpernel'' (1934), '' The Petrified Forest'' (1936), '' Pygmalion'' (1938), '' Intermezzo'' (1939), ''"Pimpernel" Smith'' (1941), and '' The First of the Few'' (1942). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for ''Berkeley Square'' and ''Pygmalion''. Howard's World War II activities included acting and filmmaking. He helped to make anti-German propaganda and shore up support for the Allies—two ye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
"Pimpernel" Smith
''"Pimpernel" Smith'' (released in the USA as ''Mister V'') is a 1941 British anti-Nazi thriller, produced and directed by its star Leslie Howard, which updates his role in ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' (1934) from Revolutionary France to pre-Second World War Europe. The ''British Film Yearbook for 1945'' described his work as "one of the most valuable facets of British propaganda". The film helped to inspire the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg to lead a real-life rescue operation in Budapest that saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from Nazi concentration camps during the last months of the Second World War. Plot In the spring of 1939, months before the outbreak of the war, eccentric Cambridge archaeologist Horatio Smith takes a group of British and American archaeology students to Nazi Germany to help in his excavations. His research is supported by the Nazis, since he professes to be looking for evidence of the Aryan origins of German civilisation. However, he has a s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Is There Honey Still For Tea?
"Is There Honey Still for Tea?" is the third episode of the eighth series of the British sitcom ''Dad's Army'', which was originally transmitted on Friday 19 September 1975. The title is taken from the concluding lines of Rupert Brooke's 1912 poem, ''The Old Vicarage, Grantchester'': :''Stands the Church clock at ten to three?'' :''And is there honey still for tea?'' Synopsis Private Godfrey's Cherry Tree Cottage is set to be knocked down for a new aerodrome to be built. Captain Mainwaring must find the right way to bring him the bad news. Plot It is three months since Swallows Bank was bombed and Captain Mainwaring is keenly anticipating the arrival of his new office door (the last having been destroyed by bomb damage). He is disappointed, however, to discover the replacement is made out of paper. Various misfortunes occur to it, leaving the door in ruins in a matter of minutes. The Colonel arrives and informs Mainwaring that Private Godfrey's cottage is to be demolished to m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
