Fred Hoyle, cosmologist
Professor Sir Fred Hoyle, FRS (1915-2001) was born in Yorkshire and became a mathematician, astronomer and cosmologist. He frequently broke ranks with […]
Read MoreMonth: February 2019
Marie Stopes & family planning
If Marie Stopes (1880-1958) were alive today, one wonders what she would think of the hundreds of abortion clinics across the world […]
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King Edward VIII’s abdication
King Edward VIII (1894-1972) is the only British monarch to have abdicated. He ascended the throne in January 1936, but eleven months […]
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George Orwell
George Orwell was the pen-name of Eric Blair (1903-50), who died of tuberculosis shortly after the publication of his 1949 anti-communist novel, […]
Read MoreGeorge Orwell was the pen-name of Eric Blair (1903-50), who died of tuberculosis shortly after the publication of his 1949 anti-communist novel, ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’, describing an extreme society with ‘thought-police’, ‘Big Brother’ and no privacy or free will. He also wrote ‘Animal Farm’, published in 1945, which was another dark exposé of man’s inhumanity and the injustice of the class system.
Image: The National Archives UK at Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
Prior to this, Orwell had purposely placed himself in conditions of poverty and physical hardship, even joining the republican militia in the Spanish Civil War in 1936 until he was shot in the neck. Coming from a middle-class family, his drive for social and political reform put him out of sync with those around him. Once he started writing full-time in 1933 he decided to use a pen-name because he did not want to cause embarrassment to his family.
Always an outsider in his lifetime, George Orwell has since been at the centre of any debate on the future of our society, with the description ‘Orwellian’ being one that crops up more and more in modern times.
(Image: pexels.com)
“We shall fight on the beaches”
In 1940 the war with Germany was not going well. Belgium, The Netherlands and France had all been overrun and by 26th […]
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The Cabinet
The Prime Minister, other senior Ministers and various key parliamentary personnel must keep in close contact on a weekly basis if the […]
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The Boat Race
Aside from being Cockney rhyming slang for ‘face’, the Boat Race is a traditional sporting competition between the Oxford University Boat Club […]
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Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle was originally built in the 12th century in the time of the Scottish King David I. It stands on the […]
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St. Augustine
Some say that our first Christian visitors landed in Britain in the year 37. Certainly the religion was being practised long before […]
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Elton John
Sir Elton John, CBE, was born in 1947 in Middlesex and is an award-winning, record-breaking musical phenomenon. Not only was he playing […]
Read MoreSir Elton John, CBE, was born in 1947 in Middlesex and is an award-winning, record-breaking musical phenomenon. Not only was he playing the piano from age 3, but he has been touring since the age of 17. His tribute song ‘Candle in the Wind 1997’ which he played at Princess Diana’s funeral and never again, was the fastest and biggest-selling single since Bing Crosby’s ‘White Christmas’. All the profits went to charity.
He met his lyricist, Bernie Taupin, in 1967. From 1970 to 1976 they had hit after hit, with chart-toppers such as ‘Your Song’, ‘Crocodile Rock’, ‘Rocket Man’, and ‘Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting’. There was already a ‘Greatest Hits’ album by 1974! Elton was an immediate success in the USA and developed a flambuoyant, showman-style act.
Since then, his keenness to collaborate with other musicians ~ John Lennon, George Michael, Stevie Wonder, The Who, Billy Joel and Nik Kershaw, to name but a few ~ has been part of his continuing success. With Tim Rice he wrote the music for Disney’s Lion King animation, for which he received an Oscar in 1994. His three-year farewell tour round the world, ending in 2020, is a measure perhaps of how difficult stepping away will be.
(Top image [cropped]: Cindy Andrie at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Discrimination in the workplace
All British subjects possess what are called ‘protected characteristics’ in one way or another. These encompass gender, age, race, creed, religion, beliefs, […]
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Sir Edward Elgar
Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) was born in Worcestershire and taught himself to play the piano and the violin in his father’s music […]
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