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Barbara Flynn

Barbara Flynn

Barbara Flynn (born 5 August 1948) is a British actress. She became known for her appearances in several successful television comedy dramas during the 1980s. She tends to play, in her own words, "feisty strong women" [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2004/12_december/08/souls_flynn.shtml (BBC interview)].

Appearances

Television

- Open All Hours (1973 series) - as The Milk Woman
- The Beiderbecke Affair (1984 series) - co-starred as Jill Swinburne
- A Very Peculiar Practice (1986 series) - as Dr Rose Marie
- The Beiderbecke Connection (1988 series)
- The Beiderbecke Tapes (series)
- Cracker (series) - as Judith Fitzgerald
- Sea Of Souls (2004) - as Lt Colonel Summers
- Mystery! Malice Aforethought (2005) - as Julia Bickleigh
- A Family at War (2005)

Film

- King Lear (1998)
- Wives And Daughters (1999)
- Lorna Doone (2001)

References

- [http://www.andibradley.com/whatya/aug05.htm Source of birthdate] Flynn, Barbara Flynn

5 August

August 5 is the 217th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (218th in leap years), with 148 days remaining.

Events

- 642 - Battle of Maserfeld - Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Bernicia
- 1100 - Henry I crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey
- 1305 - William Wallace, who led Scottish resistance to England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution.
- 1583 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes first English colony in North America, at what is now St John's, Newfoundland.
- 1689 - 1,500 Iroquois attack village of Lachine, in New France.
- 1763 - Pontiac's War - Battle of Bushy Run - British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeat Chief Pontiac's Indians at Bushy Run.
- 1772 - First Partition of Poland begins.
- 1812 - War of 1812: Tecumseh's Indian force ambushes Thomas Van Horne's 200 Americans at Brownstone Creek, causing them to flee and retreat.
- 1858 - Cyrus West Field and others complete the first transatlantic telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts. It operated for less than a month.
- 1860 - Carl IV of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway, in Trondheim.
- 1861 - American Civil War: In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government issues the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US $800; rescinded in 1872).
- 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Baton Rouge - Along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops drive Union forces back into the city.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Mobile Bay begins - At Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports.
- 1874 - Japan launches its postal savings system, modeled after a similar system in England.
- 1882 - Standard Oil of New Jersey is established.
- 1882 - Martial law is enacted in Japan.
- 1884 - The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.
- 1912 - Japan's first taxicab service begins in Ginza, Tokyo.
- 1914 - In Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light is installed.
- 1944 - World War II: Possibly the biggest prison breakout in history occurs as 545 Japanese POW's attempt to escape outside the town of Cowra, NSW, Australia. Most are killed but many escape and later commit suicide. Five Australian guards also die.
- 1944 - Holocaust: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.
- 1949 - In Ecuador an earthquake destroys 50 towns and kills more than 6000.
- 1960 - Burkina Faso, then known as "Upper Volta", becomes independent from France
- 1962 - Film actress and sex icon, Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her Los Angeles, California home after apparently overdosing on sleeping pills.
- 1963 - United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty.
- 1964 - Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow - American aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes attacked US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
- 1969 - Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers).
- 1974 - Vietnam War: The U.S. Congress places a $1 billion dollar limit on military aid to South Vietnam.
- 1981 - Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.
- 1995 - The city of Knin, a significant Serb stronghold, is liberated by Croatian forces during Operation Storm. The date is celebrated as the day of victory ("Homeland Thanksgiving Day") in Croatia.
- 1999 - Mark McGwire becomes the 16th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri.
- 2003 - A car bomb explodes in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.

Births

- 1301 - Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, English politician (d. 1330)
- 1623 - Antonio Cesti, Italian composer (d. 1669)
- 1641 - John Hathorne, American magistrate (d. 1717)
- 1662 - James Anderson, Scottish historian (d. 1728)
- 1694 - Leonardo Leo, Italian composer (d. 1744)
- 1802 - Niels Henrik Abel, Norwegian mathematician (d. 1829)
- 1813 - Ivar Aasen, Norwegian poet and language reformer (d. 1896)
- 1815 - Edward John Eyre, English explorer (d. 1901)
- 1850 - Guy de Maupassant, French author (d. 1893)
- 1872 - Oswaldo Cruz, Brazilian physician (d. 1917)
- 1866 - Carl Harries, German chemist (d. 1923)
- 1877 - Tom Thomson, Canadian painter (d. 1917)
- 1889 - Conrad Aiken, American writer (d. 1973)
- 1890 - Erich Kleiber, Austrian-born conductor (d. 1956)
- 1906 - John Huston, American director (d. 1987)
- 1906 - Wassily Leontief, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
- 1908 - Harold Holt, seventeenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)
- 1911 - Robert Taylor, American actor (d. 1969)
- 1918 - Betty Oliphant, co-founder of National Ballet of Canada (d. 2004)
- 1923 - Devan Nair, President of Singapore
- 1930 - Neil Armstrong, astronaut
- 1935 - John Saxon, American actor
- 1937 - Herb Brooks, American hockey coach (d. 2003)
- 1939 - Princess Irene of the Netherlands
- 1943 - Nelson Briles, baseball player (d. 2005)
- 1946 - Loni Anderson, American actress
- 1946 - Jimmy Webb, American composer and musician
- 1947 - Rick Derringer, American musician
- 1953 - Rick Mahler, baseball player (d. 2005)
- 1956 - Maureen McCormick, American actress
- 1961 - Clayton Rohner, American actor
- 1962 - Patrick Ewing, American basketball player
- 1964 - Adam Yauch, American musician
- 1966 - Jonathan Silverman, American actor
- 1972 - Christian Olde Wolbers, Belgian bassist (Fear Factory)
- 1974 - Antoine Sibierski, French footballer
- 1975 - Kajol Mukherjee, Indian actress
- 1977 - Mark Mulder, baseball player
- 1980 - Wayne Bridge, English footballer
- 1981 - Carl Crawford, baseball player
- 1981 - Kō Shibasaki, Japanese singer and actress

Deaths

- 882 - King Louis III of France (b. 863)
- 1063 - Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, Welsh prince
- 1364 - Emperor Kogon of Japan (b. 1313)
- 1572 - Isaac Luria, Palestinian-born Kabbalist (b. 1534)
- 1579 - Stanislaus Hosius, Polish Catholic cardinal (b. 1504)
- 1633 - Archbishop George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1562)
- 1678 - Juan García de Zéspedes, Mexican musician and composer (b. 1619)
- 1743 - John Hervey, Lord Hervey, English statesman and writer (b. 1696)
- 1778 - Charles Clémencet, French historian (b. 1703)
- 1799 - Richard Howe, British admiral (b. 1726)
- 1868 - Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes, French archaelogist (b. 1788)
- 1880 - Ferdinand Ritter von Hebra, Austrian physician (b. 1816)
- 1895 - Friedrich Engels, German philosopher (b. 1820)
- 1923 - Vatroslav Jagic, Croatian slavist (b. 1835)
- 1929 - Millicent Fawcett, British suffragist and feminist (b. 1847)
- 1955 - Carmen Miranda, Portuguese actress and singer (b. 1909)
- 1957 - Heinrich Otto Wieland, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)
- 1959 - Edgar Guest, English poet (b. 1881)
- 1960 - Arthur Meighen, ninth Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1874)
- 1962 - Marilyn Monroe, American actress (b. 1926)
- 1984 - Richard Burton, British actor (b. 1925)
- 1991 - Paul Brown, American football coach (b. 1908)
- 2000 - Sir Alec Guinness, British actor (b. 1914)
- 2002 - Josh Ryan Evans, actor (b. 1982)
- 2002 - Chick Hearn, American basketball announcer (b. 1916)
- 2005 - Polina Astakhova, Russian gymnast (b. 1936)
- 2005 - Jim O'Hora, American football coach (b. 1915)
- 2005 - Raul Roco, Philippine senator (b. 1941)

Holidays and observances

- Burkina Faso - Independence Day
- Croatia - Victory day and National Thanksgiving Day

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/5 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050805.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- August 4 - August 6 - July 5 - September 5 -- listing of all days ko:8월 5일 ms:5 Ogos ja:8月5日 simple:August 5 th:5 สิงหาคม

1980s

The 1980s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1980 and 1989. The decade was one of frantic change. It was also an era of political and economic decentralisation, especially in countries with mixed and command economies. Political events and trends of the 1980s culminated in the toppling of military governments and authoritarian regimes, including every communist Warsaw Pact state in Eastern Europe, bringing to a close the decades-long Cold War. The 1980s also saw very rapid developments in numerous sectors of technology which have defined the modern consumer world, particularly electronics like Personal Computers, gaming systems, the arrival of the first commercially available hand held mobile phones (the first being the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X in 1983) and various audio technologies such as the compact disc, which are still prominent well into the 2000s. The population of the world increased more dramatically in the 1980s than any other decade in human history, adding nearly one billion new people in the course of the decade. This is an important fact as such astronomical growth of the human race is unlikely to ever be repeated in the future due to current population trends, which are consistently showing a decline in birth rates across the globe. Children born in the 1980s are likely to have an extremely prominent position in world business and government affairs from the 2020s all the way through to the 2050s due to their immense population and potential voting powers.

Criticism/Backlash

Coined the "me decade," this decade has been somewhat derided since as early as 1989 for its perceived greediness among Yuppies, certain clothes/music/hairstyles which seem outlandish by modern standards, and of course the discovery of the AIDS virus in the early part of the decade, unlike the 1990s which have had a very positive receiving into the 21st Century despite criticism for the 90s' "slacker" image.

Technology

21st Century] 21st Century]
- Bulletin board system popularity.
- Popularization of personal computers, Walkmans, VHS videocassette recorders, and cassette players .
- Introduction of the IBM PC in 1981.
- Home video games become enormously popular, most notably Atari until the market crashes in 1983; the rise of Nintendo brings about full recovery.
- The first Space Shuttle mission, STS-1, launched in 1981.
- Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.
- The Soviet Union launches the space station Mir in 1986.
- Apple Macintosh, first commercially successful GUI, is released in 1984.
- Accident at Chernobyl nuclear reactor, April 1986.
- Framework (office suite) launched
- Internet actively used by geeks in late 1980s
- First commercial hand-held mobile phone - Motorola DynaTAC 8000X 1983.

Science

- Discovery of the W and Z bosons at CERN.
- Development of the scanning tunneling microscope by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer.
- English computer programmer Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web at CERN, Switzerland.

War, peace and politics

Switzerland]
- Cold War peaks; fall of the Iron Curtain.
- Jimmy Carter announces a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow; Eastern Bloc countries boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
- Solidarity movement in Poland launched in 1981. It eventually topples the country's Communist regime.
- Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi tackles with a growing Sikh insurgency and the Khalistan Movement. She orders Operation Blue Star on the holy Golden Temple. She is assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984.
- Ronald Reagan proposes the Strategic Defense Initiative, derided as "Star Wars." Deploys Pershing missiles in Western Europe to counter the Soviet SS-20, to some protests.
- Soviet fighters down Korean Air Flight 007 in 1983, leading to a high point in international tensions.
- Three Soviet Premiers die in rapid succession: Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, and Konstantin Chernenko.
- Gorbachev introduces Glasnost and Perestroika in the Soviet Union.
- Fall of the Berlin Wall in East Germany in 1989, preparing the way to German reunification.
- Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia.
- Revolution in Romania, execution of Ceauşescu.
- Margaret Thatcher and Thatcherism dominate British politics.
- The "Reagan Revolution", beginning with the election of 1980, introduces so-called neoconservatives to Washington.
- In 1981, François Mitterrand becomes France's President, the most politically successful Socialist in French history.
- Helmut Kohl is elected in West Germany in 1982, leading to the defeat of the anti-deployment movement; he becomes the longest serving Chancellor so far.
- Falklands War; Argentina invades the Falkland islands in 1982 but defeated by the United Kingdom.
- Israel invades Lebanon in 1982, . A suicide bomber kills 241 U.S. marines stationed there as peacekeepers.
- Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988 causes the deaths of at least hundreds of thousands.
- Over 120,000 flee Cuba in 1980 during the Mariel Boatlift, during which Fidel Castro released many criminals into American harbors.
- P.W. Botha suppresses anti-apartheid activists; international boycotts of South Africa continue.
- King Juan Carlos of Spain prevents a military coup in 1980. Spain joined NATO in 1982; it joined the European Union with Portugal in 1986.
- In 1989 students protest on Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China and are eventually suppressed.
- Large protests in the Philippines topples the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship; military rule ends after protests in Argentina and South Korea.
- Augusto Pinochet forms a new constitution, holds a referendum on rule and loses. Democracy is restored.
- The Soviet Union ends its disastrous military campaign in Afghanistan.
- Former United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim is exposed as a former Nazi
- Vietnam continues its military occupation of Cambodia.
- In Europe, rise of alleged neo-fascist parties (Le Pen in France, Schönhuber/Republikaner in Germany, Haider in Austria), parallel to a rise of Green parties.
- Political correctness becomes a concern in mainstream politics.
- Ronald Reagan decides to invade Grenada in 1984 and depose the nascent hard-line communist government.
- The Reagan administration bombs Libya in 1986 in response to alleged Libyan support for attacks on U.S. servicemen in Europe.
- Under George H. W. Bush, the U.S. invades Panama in 1989 to overthrow Manuel Noriega.
- The Reagan Doctrine implements support for anti-communist or anti-Soviet insurgencies most notably in Nicaragua, Angola, Cambodia, and Afghanistan. This leads to continued civil war, the deposition of several regimes, some democratization, but also the Iran-Contra scandal.
- The United States launches a covert war against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua and is condemned by the World Court for mining Nicaragua's harbour, an authority and judgment the U.S. administration did not recognize.
- President Tito of Yugoslavia dies.
- Release of Americans held hostage in Iran.
- Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini issues a fatwa urging the killing of Salman Rushdie.
- Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, UK.
- In 1985, A radical PLO offshoot called Palestine Liberation Front hijacks the Achille Lauro and shoots the wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer, throwing him overboard.
- Terror groups Abu Nidal and Hezbollah rise to prominence in Western attention.
- Dark years for Malta and its politics. Violence is culminated by the murder of Raymond Caruana and blocking entry to Nationalist supporters into the southern village of Zejtun.
- The Rainbow Warrior is sunk by French secret service agents.

Economics

secret service 1987 through 19 January 1988)]]
- Reaganomics, Thatcherism and Rogernomics.
- In the United States the longest bull market in history begins in 1983; Dow Jones Industrial Average passes 2000 point milestone January 8, 1987.
- OPEC controls slip; petroleum prices collapse below $10 per barrel by mid-1986, devastating oil-producing nations such as Mexico.
- U.S. Midwest Farm Crisis 1981–1985.
- East Asian Tigers' share of world trade rises significantly.
- U.S. balance of trade falls into chronic deficit; populists criticize trade relations with Japan.
- Stockmarkets across the world crash on Black Monday, October 19, 1987. The New York Stock Exchange suffers its largest one-day stock market drop.
- Late 1980s recession

Trends and Fashions

- The video game console begins to outstrip the arcade game.
- The Rubik's cube, Cabbage Patch Kids, "Baby on Board" signs, and Trivial Pursuit fads capture the interest of the American public.fad]
- Nerds are popular subject.
- Alcohol education expands.
- Hair becomes big and poofy, or otherwise eccentric. Examples include the Mullet and the Flock of Seagulls cuts.
- Power Dressing was a major fashion statement of the decade, characterised by the use of increasingly large shoulder pads - the origins of this trend are often attributed to the American television series "Dynasty" and, specifically to one of its stars - the British actress Joan Collins.
- Pop stars of the era such as Duran Duran and television shows like Miami Vice brought the trend to the male fashion world, often accompanied by "designer stubble" and blonde highlights.
- Women's Liberation movement increases women's role in the workplace, and establishes new precedents for US women. As a carry-over from the 1970s, more and more women take to calling themselves "Ms." versus "Mrs." or "Miss"
- No-Fault divorce laws pave the way for increased divorce rate, as depicted in the movie, Irreconcilable Differences. No-Fault divorce catapults record numbers of women and children into the throes of poverty. The increase in single parent homes and, perhaps more significantly, homes in which both parents work leads to the phenomenon of Latch-key children, where children come home to an empty house and watch a lot of television.
- Neo-prohibitionism grows in popularity.
- Ninja and martial arts mania sweeps North America due to the popularity of Kung Fu Theater and Ninja Movies. Many instructional books are published and sold by many authors claiming to be experts. This is also often blamed as the beginning of the McDojo trend.

Music

- Music videos (and MTV) begin to have an effect on record industry in the United States. Pop artists Michael Jackson and Madonna are pioneers; groups such as Duran Duran benefit.
- New Wave music, a form of synthesized pop-rock, popular throughout decade, esp in early 80s.
- House music - a new development in dance music mid-way through the decade, growing out of the post-disco scene early in the decade, later developing into acid house - a harder form of dance often associated with the developing late 1980s drug culture.
- Hair metal popular in late 80s
- Popular artists include Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi, Duran Duran, Madonna, U2, and a-ha.
- Massive sales for Ethiopian famine relief records by Band Aid ("Do They Know It's Christmas?") and USA for Africa ("We Are the World"), followed by Live Aid famine relief concert in London and Philadelphia. Other artists push for nuclear disarmament.
- The Hip hop scene evolves to become a powerful musical force, bringing with it several dance styles. Hip hop also brings artists like Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow and N.W.A.to the forefront; hip hop's spread outside of New York City, especially to Los Angeles, accelerates and then takes off beyond America's shores.

Television

- Television networks are challenged by cable television. In the U.S., Cheers and The Cosby Show top ratings and the Fox network is launched. CNN becomes the first 24-hour news channel.
- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, the first animated children's television program built exclusively around a toyline, starts a new trend of increasing the connection between children's programming and toy advertising, alarming many parents and watchdog organizations; an explosive number of toy tie-in cartoons follow.
- Animation in North America begins a dramatic comeback in production values and mainstream popular appeal both in feature films and on television.
- Soap operas gain popularity among high-schoolers and college students in the United States, thanks in part to the supercoupling of Luke and Laura on the most popular soap of the day, General Hospital.
- MTV breaks out influencing pop culture.

Film

- Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial opens in 1982 and shatters records for box office gross receipts.
- Ridley Scott's Blade Runner opens in 1982.
- Teen flicks and horror movies reach a high
- Movie sequels very common

Others

- The AIDS epidemic is identified and named.
- Assassination of John Lennon and Olof Palme, attempts on Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II.
- Violent crime and drug trafficking soar to record levels in most large American cities.
- Research increases on alcohol and weight.
- Assymmetrical and bizarre hairstyles from about 1980 to 1993.
- Remove Intoxicated Drivers grows rapidly.

People

World Leaders

- Chancellor Bruno Kreisky (Austria)
- Chancellor Fred Sinowatz (Austria)
- Chancellor Franz Vranitzky (Austria)
- Prime Minister Bob Hawke (Australia)
- Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser (Australia)
- President João Figueiredo (Brazil)
- President José Sarney (Brazil)
- Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (Canada)
- Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (Canada)
- General Augusto Pinochet (Chile)
- Deng Xiaoping (People's Republic of China)
- President Chiang Ching-kuo (Republic of China on Taiwan)
- Prime Minister Poul Schlüter (Denmark)
- Erich Honecker (East Germany)
- President Anwar Sadat (Egypt)
- President Hosni Mubarak (Egypt)
- President Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua)
- President Mengistu Haile Mariam (Ethiopia)
- President Urho Kekkonen (Finland)
- President Mauno Koivisto (Finland)
- President François Mitterrand (France)
- Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou (Greece)
- Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (India)
- Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (India)
- Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (Iran)
- President Saddam Hussein (Iraq)
- President Patrick Hillery (Ireland)
- Taoiseach Charles Haughey (Ireland)
- Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald (Ireland)
- Prime Minister Menachem Begin (Israel)
- Prime Minister Shimon Peres (Israel)
- Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
- Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone (Japan)
- Emir Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah (Kuwait)
- President Muammar al-Qaddafi (Libya)
- Pope John Paul II
- Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (Malaysia)
- Prime Minister Dom Mintoff (Malta)
- Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici (Malta)
- Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami (Malta)
- Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (Malaysia)
- President Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado (Mexico)
- President Samora Machel (Mozambique)
- Prime Minister Robert Muldoon (New Zealand)
- Prime Minister David Lange (New Zealand)
- Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer (New Zealand)
- Queen Juliana (Netherlands)
- General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (Pakistan)
- General Manuel Noriega (Panama)
- President Ferdinand Marcos (Philippines)
- President Corazon Aquino (Philippines)
- President Wojciech Jaruzelski (Poland)
- President Nicolae Ceauşescu (Romania)
- Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore)
- President and Prime Minister P.W. Botha (South Africa)
- President Chun Doo-hwan (South Korea)
- Premier Leonid Brezhnev (Soviet Union)
- General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev (Soviet Union)
- King Juan Carlos (Spain)
- Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa of Sri Lanka
- Prime Minister Olof Palme (Sweden)
- Queen Elizabeth II (United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Realms)
- Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (United Kingdom)
- President George H.W. Bush (United States)
- President Jimmy Carter (United States)
- President Ronald Reagan (United States)
- Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (West Germany)
- Chancellor Helmut Kohl (West Germany)
- President Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia)
- President Mobutu Sese Seko (Zaire)
- President Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe)

Entertainers

- AC/DC
- Brat Pack
- David Brooks
- Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Glory)
- The Cars
- Phoebe Cates (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Gremlins)
- Tom Cruise (Top Gun, Rain Man, Risky Business, The Color of Money)
- Bo Derek
- Matt Dillon
- Dalida
- Emilio Estevez (The Breakfast Club, The Outsiders, Young Guns)
- Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones series, Star Wars series, Blade Runner, Witness)
- Jodie Foster
- Michael J. Fox (Back to the Future series, Teen Wolf)
- Mel Gibson (Lethal Weapon series, Mad Max series)
- Debbie Harry (Blondie)
- Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee)
- John Hughes
- Chrissie Hynde (Pretenders)
- Michael Jackson (Thriller)
- Elton John
- Michael Keaton (Batman, Mr. Mom, Night Shift)
- Annie Lennox (Eurythmics)
- George Lucas (Indiana Jones series, Star Wars series, Captain Eo)
- Madonna (Material Girl)
- George Michael (Wham!)
- Motley Crue
- Eddie Murphy (Saturday Night Live, Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places)
- Jack Nicholson (Terms of Endearment, The Shining, Batman, Prizzi's Honor, Ironweed, Reds)
- Queen (band)
- Sean Penn
- Michelle Pfeiffer (Scarface, Dangerous Liaisons)
- Prince (Purple Rain, Sign O' the Times)
- Meg Ryan
- Charlie Sheen
- Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator, Predator, Conan the Barbarian)
- Sylvester Stallone (Rambo: First Blood)
- Patrick Swayze (Dirty Dancing)
- The Cure
- U2 (War, The Joshua Tree, Rattle and Hum)
- Van Halen
- Sigourney Weaver

Sports figures

- Alexis Arguello (Nicaraguan boxer)
- Marco van Basten (Dutchsoccer player)
- Wilfred Benitez (Puerto Rican boxer)
- Larry Bird (U.S. basketball player)
- Allan Border (Australian cricket captain/batsman)
- Ian Botham (Somerset & England cricket all-rounder)
- Mike Brearley (Middlesex & England cricket captain/batsman)
- George Brett (U.S. baseball player)
- Julio Cesar Chavez (Mexican boxer)
- Roberto Duran (Panamanian boxer)
- Paulo Roberto Falcão (Brazilian soccer player)
- Ric Flair (U.S. wrestler)
- Mike Gatting (Middlesex & England cricket captain/batsman)
- Sunil Gavaskar (India cricket opening batsman)
- Wilfredo Gómez (Puerto Rican boxer)
- Gordon Greenidge (West Indies cricket opening batsman)
- Wayne Gretzky (Canadian ice hockey player)
- Florence Griffith Joyner (U.S. track and field athlete)
- Richard Hadlee (New Zealand cricket fast bowler)
- Marvin Hagler (U.S. boxer)
- Alan Hansen (Liverpool & Scotland footballer))
- Thomas Hearns (U.S. boxer)
- Hulk Hogan (U.S. wrestler)
- Larry Holmes (U.S. boxer)
- Bo Jackson (U.S. American football and baseball player)
- Imran Khan (Pakistani cricket player)
- Jahangir Khan (Pakistani squash player)
- Earvin "Magic" Johnson (U.S. basketball player)
- Michael Jordan (U.S. basketball player)
- Jarmila Kratochvílová (Czech track and field athlete)
- Greg LeMond (U.S. cyclist)
- Sugar Ray Leonard (U.S. boxer)
- Carl Lewis (U.S. track and field athlete)
- Wally Lewis (Australian Rugby League player

The Beiderbecke Affair

The Beiderbecke Affair was the first in a series of three short television series produced in the UK by ITV in the mid 1980s, written by Alan Plater. Plotwise very little happens, the wrong records are delivered and a meeting is cancelled but the interplay between the characters is the main interest here. Trevor Chaplin (played by James Bolam) teaches woodwork and likes to listen to jazz. Jill Swinburne (played by Barbara Flynn) teaches English and wants to help save the planet, standing in a local election as the "Conservation candidate". After Jill left her husband, colleague Trevor began giving her lifts to school and from there a relationship blossomed. They have an easy-going relationship where half the words seem to be left unspoken but the viewer is never in any doubt as to the subtext. Trevor tries to buy some jazz records from a "dazzlingly beautiful platinum blonde" who calls at the door raising funds for the local cubs' football team. When the wrong records are delivered a hunt begins that draws the pair into unforeseen intrigue. Thrown in to the mix are Sgt Hobson – a suspicious yet incompetent police detective – and a pair of local tradesmen, 'Big Al' and 'Little Norm', who agree to help average-sized Trevor and Jill with their school supplies problems. It all unravels to a soundtrack of jazz music by Bix Beiderbecke. A further two series were made, both slightly shorter than the original: The Beiderbecke Tapes and The Beiderbecke Connection. All three are available on DVD as boxed sets. We are at the brink of a new era...if only...

External links

- [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/975477/index.html British Film Institute Screen Online] Beiderbecke Affair, The

A Very Peculiar Practice

A Very Peculiar Practice was a BBC comedy-drama series, first shown in 1986. It was the first major success for screenwriter Andrew Davies, and was inspired by his experiences as a lecturer at the University of Warwick. The series stood out because of its surreal humour. It concerned an idealistic young doctor, Stephen Daker (Peter Davison), taking up a post as a member of a university medical centre. The centre is staffed by a group of misfits including the bisexual Rose Marie (Barbara Flynn) and self-absorbed Bob Buzzard (David Troughton), and headed by decrepit Scot Jock McCannon (Graham Crowden). A central theme of the series is the increasing commercialisation of further education in Britain with the Vice-Chancellor Ernest Hemmingway (John Bird) trying to woo Japanese investors in the face of resistance from the academic old guard. Hugh Grant made one of his first television appearances in a bit part, as did Kathy Burke. In the second series Michael Shannon appeared as the new Vice-Chancellor Jack Daniels, continuing the running joke of naming the VC after an American. In the first series, Daker had a romance with a policewoman, Lyn Turtle (Amanda Hillwood), who rescued him from drowning in the university's swimming pool. In the second series, she was replaced as love interest by a visiting Polish academic Greta Gretowska (Joanna Kanska). In a sequel film, A Very Polish Practice, Daker went to live with her in Poland, where he struggled with the Communist system's antiquated health service. The programme was based on the University of East Anglia campus in Norwich, and it was the UEA campus which featured in the programme's title sequence. However, all of the filming for the programme was done at the universities of Keele and Birmingham, several hundred miles away. This was put down to UEA's concern of being associated with a comedy programme, which may have cast the institution in a bad light. The selection of UEA by the producers was not unintentional as it was the base for Malcolm Bradbury whose development of the British campus novel the series is much indebted. The first series was released on DVD (Region 2) in the UK in 2004.

External links

- [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/443794/index.html British Film Institute Screen Online]
- Very Peculiar Practice, A

The Beiderbecke Connection

External links

- [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/975477/index.html British Film Institute Screen Online] Beiderbecke Affair, The

Cracker

The word cracker has many meanings:
- A cracker is a kind of biscuit.
- "Cracker" is racist slang for a white person.
- A Christmas cracker is a tube, usually containing a toy of some sort, wrapped in foil or paper. They are popular Christmas gifts.
- A security cracker is a person who breaks computer security systems.
- A software cracker is one who circumvents software copy protection schemes.
- Cracker is the name of a British television crime drama. A later US remake of the series was also named Cracker.
- Crackers is a 1984 film starring Sean Penn.
- Crackers is a 1998 comedy film.
- Cracker is a rock band.
- Cracker was a children's British comic.
- A cracker is a tool used to pry open whipped-cream chargers, usually to allow the nitrous oxide contents to be inhaled as a recreational drug.
- Cracking is a chemical process in which large molecules (such as the hydrocarbons in crude petroleum) are broken up into simpler, smaller ones.
- A cracker is a short length of twisted twine or string attached to the end of a whip. It can also refer to a kind of whip used by Floridian cowboys.
- A nut cracker is a device used to break open the hard shells of nuts so that the edible kernel can be extracted. ja:クラッカー

A Family At War

A Family At War was a British television drama made by Granada Television for ITV. The series was transmitted between 1970 and 1972 and examined the lives of the working-class Ashton family of the city of Liverpool and their experiences during the Second World War. In its emphasis on the response of civilians to the war as opposed to gung-ho heroics, it could be argued that A Family At War was unique amongst TV representations of the period, and that it provided the template for the later Australian series The Sullivans. Family At War, A

King Lear

" by William Dyce (1806-1864)]] King Lear is generally regarded as one of William Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. It is believed to have been written in 1605 and is based on the legend of Leir, a king of pre-Roman Britain. His story had already been told in chronicles, poems and sermons, as well as on the stage, when Shakespeare undertook the task of retelling it. After the Restoration, the play was often modified by theatre practitioners who disliked its nihilistic flavour, but, since World War II, it has come to be regarded as one of Shakespeare's greatest achievements. The part of King Lear has been played by many great actors, but is generally considered a role to be taken on only by those who have reached an advanced age.

Characters

- King Lear is ruler of Britain. He's a patriarchal figure whose misjudgement of his daughters brings about his downfall.
- Goneril is Lear's treacherous eldest daughter and wife to the Duke of Albany.
- Regan is Lear's treacherous second daughter, and wife to the Duke of Cornwall.
- Cordelia (poss. "heart of a lion" ¹) is Lear's youngest daughter.
- The Duke of Albany² is Goneril's husband. Goneril scorns him for his "milky gentleness". He turns against his wife later in the play.
- The Duke of Cornwall² is Regan's husband. He has the Earl of Kent put in the stocks, leaves Lear out on the heath during a storm, and gouges out Gloucester's eyes. After his attack on Gloucester, one of his servants attacks and mortally wounds him.
- The Earl of Gloucester² is Edgar's father, and the father of the illegitimate son, Edmund. Edmund deceives him against Edgar, and Edgar flees, taking on the disguise of Tom of Bedlam.
- The Earl of Kent² is always faithful to Lear, but he is banished by the king after he protests against Lear's treatment of Cordelia. He takes on a disguise and serves the king without letting him know his true identity.
- Edmund is Gloucester's illegitimate son. He works with Goneril and Regan to further his ambitions, and the three of them form a romantic triangle.
- Edgar is the legitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester. Disguised as Tom of Bedlam, he helps his blind father. At the end of the play, he assumes reign of the kingdom.
- Oswald is Goneril's servant, and is described as "a serviceable villain". He tries to murder Gloucester, but is instead killed by Edgar.
- The Fool is a jester who is devoted to Lear and Cordelia.

Plot

The play begins with the earl of Gloucester commending his bastard son Edmund to the Earl of Kent. Thereafter we find King Lear taking the decision to abdicate the throne and divide his kingdom equally among his three daughters: Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. The eldest two are married, but Cordelia is much sought after as a bride, partly because she is her father's favourite. However, when Lear attempts to auction off his kingdom to the most admiring and flattering of his daughters, the plan backfires. Cordelia refuses to outdo the flattery of her elder sisters, as she feels it would only cheapen her true feelings to flatter him purely for reward. Lear, in a fit of pique, divides her share of the kingdom between Goneril and Regan, and Cordelia is banished. The King of France however marries her, even after she has been disinherited, possibly as he sees value in her honesty or as a casus belli to subsequently invade England. Almost as soon as Lear abdicates the throne, he finds that Goneril and Regan have betrayed him, and arguments ensue. The Earl of Kent, who has spoken up for Cordelia and been banished for his pains, returns disguised as the servant Caius, who will "eat no fish", in order to protect the king, to whom he remains loyal. Meanwhile, Goneril and Regan fall out with one another over their attraction to Edmund -- and are forced to deal with an army from France, led by Cordelia, sent to restore Lear to his throne. Eventually Goneril poisons Regan over their differences, and stabs herself when Edmund is wounded. Another subplot involves the Earl of Gloucester, whose two sons, the good Edgar and the evil Edmund, are at loggerheads, the bastard Edmund having concocted false stories about his legitimate half-brother. Edgar is forced into exile, affecting lunacy. Edmund engages in liaisons with Goneril and Regan, and Gloucester is blinded by Regan's husband, but is saved from death by Edgar, whose voice he fails to recognise. Lear appears in Dover, where he wanders about raving and talking to mice. Gloucester attempts to throw himself from a cliff, but is deceived by Edgar and comes off safely, encountering the King shortly after. Besides the subplot involving the Earl of Gloucester and his two sons, the principal innovation Shakespeare made to this story was the death of Cordelia and Lear at the end. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this tragic ending was much criticised, and alternative versions were written and performed, in which the leading characters survived and Edgar and Cordelia were married.

Sources for King Lear

- King Leir was a semi-legendary King of the Britons as accounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth.
- King Llyr was a semi-legendary king who reigned in Cornwall and Devon in present-day England. According to the Historia Britonum, Llyr may have been taken as a prisoner to Rome, and this traditional lore may be the origin of Shakespeare's play.
- Lear may also be Lir, a god of the sea in Celtic mythology; there, Lir's children include Bran and Mannanan, eponymous creator of the Isle of Man. One of Shakespeare's sources was an earlier play, King Leir. In this play Cordella and the King of France serve Leir disguised as rustics. However, the ancient folk tale of Lear had existed in many versions prior to that, and it's possible that Shakespeare was familiar with them. Shakespeare's most important source is thought to be the second edition of The Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande by Raphael Holinshed, published in 1587. Holinshed himself found the story in the earlier Historia Regum Britanniae by Geoffrey of Monmouth, which was written in the 12th century. The name of Cordelia was probably taken from Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, published in 1590. Spenser's Cordelia also dies from hanging, as in King Lear. Other likely sources are A Mirror for Magistrates (1574), by John Higgins; The Malcontent (1604), by John Marston; The London Prodigal (1605); Arcadia (1580-1590), by Sir Philip Sidney, from which Shakespeare took the main outline of the Gloucester subplot; Montaigne's Essays, which were translated into English by John Florio in 1603; An Historical Description of Iland of Britaine, by William Harrison; Remaines Concerning Britaine, by William Camden (1606); Albion's England, by William Warner, (1589); and A Declaration of egregious Popish Impostures, by Samuel Harsnett (1603), which provided some of the language used by Edgar while he feigns madness.

Points of debate

Confusing opening

The modern reader of King Lear could benefit from the demystification of some subtleties in the text, as Shakespeare often brushes over details that are made clearer in his sources, and were perhaps more familiar to Elizabethan theatregoers than to modern ones. Scene one features King Lear testing the extent of his daughters' loyalty and love for him. He is preparing to abdicate. Lacking a male heir, he decides to divide his land between the sisters and, for two of them, their husbands. He devises a test for them, asking "Which of you shall we say doth love us most?". This may strike us as somewhat senile, because if Lear has already made up his mind as to how the land is shared, the trial appears pointless. On the other hand, Shakespeare may have intended Lear's statement ("Which of you shall we say doth love us most? That we our largest bounty may extend / Where nature doth with merit challenge") to have been a mere formality or piece of rhetoric. Shakespeare has overlooked (purposely or absent-mindedly) the crux of the situation, which is that in another version (the anonymous play The True Chronicle History of King Leir) Cordelia has already vowed to marry for love, not whoever her father should choose, and Lear assumes that his youngest daughter will play along with his game. On receiving her proclamations of devout love and loyalty, he plans to force her into a marriage which she could not possibly object to after claiming such stolid obedience. Of course, the trap fails disastrously for all parties. It is not clear whether or not Shakespeare intended his audience to be aware of this subtext, or whether he assumed the details of the situation were not relevant.

Tragic ending

subtext The adaptations that Shakespeare made to the legend of King Lear to produce his tragic version are quite telling of the effect they would have had on his contemporary audience. The story of King Lear (or Leir) was familiar to the average Elizabethan theatre goer (as were many of Shakespeare's sources) and any discrepancies between versions would have been immediately apparent. Shakespeare's tragic conclusion gains its sting from such a discrepancy. The traditional legend and all adaptations preceding Shakespeare's have it that after Lear is restored to the throne, he remains there until "made ripe for death" (Edmund Spencer). Cordelia, her sisters also deceased, takes the throne as rightful heir, but after a few years is overthrown and imprisoned by nephews, leading to her suicide. Shakespeare shocks his audience by bringing the worn and haggard Lear onto the stage, carrying his dead youngest daughter. He taunts them with the possibility that she may live yet with Lear saying, "This feather stirs; she lives!" But Cordelia is dead. This was indeed too bleak for some to take, even many years later. King Lear was at first unsuccessful on the Restoration stage, and it was only with Nahum Tate's happy-ending version of 1681 that it became part of the repertory. Tate's Lear, where Lear survives and triumphs, and Edgar and Cordelia get married, held the stage until 1838. Samuel Johnson endorsed the use of Tate's version in his edition of Shakespeare's plays (1765): "Cordelia, from the time of Tate, has always retired with victory and felicity. And, if my sensations could add anything to the general suffrage, I might relate that I was many years ago so shocked by Cordelia's death, that I know not whether I ever endured to read again the last scenes of the play till I undertook to revise them as an editor".

Cordelia and the Fool

The character of Lear's Fool, important in the first act, disappears without explanation in the third. He appears in Act I, scene four, and disappears in Act III, scene six. His final line is "And I'll go to bed at noon", a line that many think might mean that he is to die at the highest point of his life, when he lies in prison separated from his friends. A popular explanation for the fool's disappearance is that the actor playing the Fool also played Cordelia. The two characters are never on stage simultaneously, and dual-roling was popular in Shakespeare's time. However, the Fool would have been performed by Robert Armin, the regular clown actor of Shakespeare's company, who is unlikely to have been cast as a tragic heroine. Even so, the play does ask us to at least compare the two; Lear chides Cordelia for foolishness in Act I, and chides himself as equal in folly in Act V. A more elaborate suggestion is that Cordelia never went to France but stayed behind disguised as Lear's Fool, serving her father in much the same manner as Edgar served his father Gloucester in the subplot. It has been suggested that Cordelia was aided in this service by the King of France who was disguised as a Servant/Knight/Gentleman. Near the end of the play, Lear says "and my poor fool is hanged", a line which could refer to the Fool (but in context is more likely to refer to the hanged Cordelia). An objection to this interpretation is that the fool was in Lear's service long before Cordelia was dismissed, and one of Lear's knights observes, "Since my young lady [Cordelia]'s going into France, sir, the fool hath much pined away.".

Edmund (Bastard son to Gloucester)

Gloucester’s younger illegitimate son is an opportunist, whose ambitions lead him to form a union with Goneril and Regan. The injustice of Edmund’s situation fails to justify his subsequent actions. Edmund rejects the laws of state and society in favour of the laws he sees as eminently more practical and useful—the laws of superior cunning and strength. Edmund’s desire to use any means possible to secure his own needs makes him appear initially as a villain without a conscience. But Edmund has some solid economic impetus for his actions, and he acts from a complexity of reasons, many of which are similar to those of Goneril and Regan. To rid himself of his father, Edmund feigns regret and laments that his nature, which is to honour his father, must be subordinate to the loyalty he feels for his country. Thus, Edmund excuses the betrayal of his own father, having willingly and easily left his father vulnerable to Cornwall’s anger. Later, Edmund shows no hesitation, nor any concern about killing the king or Cordelia. Yet in the end, Edmund repents and tries to rescind his order to execute Cordelia and Lear, and in this small measure, he does prove himself worthy of Gloucester’s blood.

Revision

The modern text of King Lear derives from three sources: two quartos (Q), published in 1608 and 1619 respectively, and the version in the First Folio of 1623 (F). The differences between these versions are significant. Q contains 285 lines not in F; F contains around 100 lines not in Q. The early editors, beginning with Alexander Pope, simply conflated the two texts, leading to a fairly long play by the standards of the time. Although the differences between the sources were remarked on, this traditional combination remained nearly universal for centuries. As early as 1931, Madeleine Doran suggested that the two texts had basically different provenances, and that the differences between them were critically interesting. This argument, however, was not widely discussed until the late 1970s, when it was revived, principally by Michael Warren and Gary Taylor. Their thesis, while controversial, has gained significant acceptance. It posits, essentially, that Q derives from something close to Shakespeare's original papers; F, from something like a playhouse version, prepared for production by Shakespeare or someone else. In short, Q is "authorial"; F is "theatrical." In criticism, the rise of "revision criticism" has been part of the pronounced trend away from mid-century formalism. The New Cambridge Shakespeare, among others, has published separate editions of Q and F; the New Arden edition edited by R.A. Foakes is not the only recent edition to offer the traditional conflated text.

Reworkings

Since the 1950s, there have been various "reworkings" of King Lear. These are the major works:
- The novel A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
- The play Lear by Edward Bond Further Trivia A radio performance of the play on BBC Radio 3 in the UK was used by the Beatles for the song "I Am the Walrus"; it can be heard at the end of the song. The character Oswald's exhortation, "bury my body", as well as his lament "O, untimely death!" (Act IV, Scene VI) were interpreted by fans as further pieces of "evidence" that band member Paul McCartney was dead.

Film adaptations

- 1915 - The play Hobson's Choice by Harold Brighouse is a comic version which takes place in Manchester in the 1880s. This in turn has been adapted to film numerous times, most notably by David Lean in 1954.
- 1953 - Directed by Andrew McCullough with Orson Welles as Lear. This one does not feature the subplot of Gloucester and his sons, and has Poor Tom as a character in his own right.
- 1969 - Directed by Grigori Kozintsev with Jüri Järvet as Lear, music by Dmitri Shostakovich. What makes this movie unique is the original interpretation of the King Lear's character and plot's clarity. It is considered one of the best adaptations of the tragedy by some critics. See
- 1971 - Directed by Peter Brook with Paul Scofield as Lear, Alan Webb as Duke of Gloucester, Irene Worth as Goneril, Susan Engel as Regan, Anne-Lise Gabold as Cordelia, Jack MacGowran as Fool. The text has been severely cut and the remainder has been reassembled. All is bleak in this black and white, existential experience.
- 1974 - A live recorded performance directed by Edwin Sherin.
- 1982 - Directed by Jonathan Miller with Michael Hordern as Lear. Part of the Shakespeare Plays series, this version follows the text closely.
- 1984 - Directed by Michael Elliott with Laurence Olivier as Lear. The film begins and ends at Stonehenge, and features Diana Rigg as Regan, John Hurt as the Fool, and Robert Lindsay as Edmund.
- 1985 - Akira Kurosawa adapted King Lear for the basis of his film Ran.
- 1987 - Jean-Luc Godard's version is set in a post-apocalyptic world with Burgess Meredith as gangster Don Learo and Molly Ringwald as Cordelia.
- 1991 - A modern retelling, set on a farm in Iowa, was Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres. This novel attempted to explain the elder sisters' hatred of their father, was later adapted as a 1997 film directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and starring Jason Robards, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Colin Firth.
- 1997 - Sir Ian Holm starred in a television adaptation, directed by Richard Eyre. Minimalist sets put the focus on the acting.
- 1999 - Starring (as Lear) and directed by Brian Blessed.
- 2001 - My Kingdom stars Richard Harris, Lynn Redgrave. A modern gangland version of King Lear.
- 2002 - Patrick Stewart played John Lear in a television adaptation called King of Texas, set in frontier Texas and directed by Uli Edel.

Notes

- ¹ While it has been claimed that "Cordelia" derives from the Latin "cor" (heart) followed by "delia", an anagram of "ideal", this is questionable. A more likely etymology is that her name is a feminine form of coeur de lion, meaning "lion-hearted". Another possible source is a Welsh word of uncertain meaning; it may mean "jewel of the sea" or "lady of the sea".
- ² These titles are anachronistic. The first use of the title of Duke of Albany occurred in 1398. The first use of the title of Duke of Cornwall took place about 1140. The first use of the title of Earl of Gloucester took place in 1122. The first use of the title Earl of Kent was in 1067.

External links

- the complete text of [http://larryavisbrown.homestead.com/files/Lear/lear_home.htm King Lear] with Quarto and Folio Variations, Annotations, and Commentary
- [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=1128 King Lear] - Project Gutenberg e-text
- [http://william-shakespeare.classic-literature.co.uk/the-tragedie-of-king-lear/ The Tragedie of King Lear] - HTML version of this title.
- [http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/catchus/chapters.html Cordelia, King Lear and His Fool] Free online book. Category:Shakespearean tragedies Category: English Renaissance plays

Wives and Daughters

Wives and Daughters is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, first published in the Cornhill Magazine as a serial from August 1864 to January 1866. When Mrs Gaskell died suddenly in 1865, it was not quite complete, and the last section was written by Frederick Greenwood. The story revolves around Molly Gibson, only daughter of a widowed doctor living in a provincial town in Middle England in the 1830s. Molly, who has grown up in a household full of men raised by her father and servants, finds a mother substitute in the wife of squire Hamley at Hamley Hall where she is treated as almost part of the family. Though it would be considered improper for her to form a closer attachment to either of the squire's sons, both of whom are expected to marry women of rank and wealth, Molly strikes up a shy friendship with younger son Roger. So strong are a society's obsession with maidenly propriety that when Molly's father decides to remarry he does so hardly out of inclination but mostly out of a perceived duty to provide teenage Molly with a chaperone. However, with the new Mrs. Gibson Molly does not only gain a difficult stepmother but also a troubling stepsister her own age. Cynthia, though instantly beloved by her stepsister, is more worldly than slightly awkward and naive Molly, has been to school in France and hides secrets in her past. Mrs. Gibson tries to bring about a marriage between her daughter Cynthia and Osborne, the heir of Hamley Hall, but it is actually Roger who falls in love with Cynthia, while Molly struggles against her growing love for Roger and Osborne, like Cynthia, has secrets of his own. Illness and death at Hamley Hall bring some secrets out into the open and shroud others in even deeper mystery, until Molly feels the world is out of joint and it is up to her, trusted by all but listened to by none, to set it right...

External link

- Category:1864 books

Lorna Doone

Lorna Doone, subtitled A Romance of Exmoor, is a novel by Richard Doddridge Blackmore, first published in 1869. Lorna Doone is also the name of a shortbread cookie sold by Nabisco.

Plot

The book is set in the 17th century in the region of Exmoor in Devon. John (or Jan) Ridd is the son of a respectable farmer who was murdered in cold blood by a member of the notorious Doone clan - a once-noble family now living in the isolated "Doone" valley. Battling his desire for revenge, John also grows into a respectable farmer and continues to take good care of his mother and two sisters. He falls hopelessly in love with Lorna, a girl he met quite by accident, who turns out to be not only the g