Author: Frank Muir
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448109108
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 466
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Book Description
For more than twenty-five years Frank Muir, in partnership with Denis Norden, produced some of the most sparkling and original comedy ever written for radio and television. On programmes such as My Word! and My Music his distinctive voice became familiar to millions as he displayed an astonishingly well-stocked mind and a genius for ad libbing and outrageous puns. Later, working at the BBC and then at London Weekend Television, he produced some of the best television comedy of the 1960s and 70s. He has written highly successful books for children, and two bestselling anthologies of humour. Frank Muir recalls, in glorious detail, a happy 1920s childhood in the seaside town of Ramsgate, where he was born in his grandmother's pub in Broadstairs, and in London, where he attended an inexpensive but excellent school of a kind no longer to be found. He remembers his very first joke at the age of six, when he knew that his destiny was to make people laugh. He also knew from an early age that he wanted to write, but it took a childhood illness for him to discover that humour and writing could be combined. The death of his father forced him to leave school at the age of fourteen and work in a factory making carbon paper. Then, at the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the RAF as an air photographer and his memories of the war years, as might be imagined, are engagingly different from the usual kind. It was during those years, with their rich fund of comic material, that he began his career as scriptwriter and performer. At his demob in 1945 he moved naturally to London and the Windmill Theatre, that remarkable breeding ground of talent where new comedians like Jimmy Edwards and Alfred Marks vied with nude girls for the attention of the audience. In story after story he recalls the lost world of London in the 1940s and early 50s, when the laughter and creative ideas seemed to explode out of post-war shabbiness and austerity. Then came the BBC, the legendary partnership with Denis Norden, and half a century of fulfilling the boyhood ambition of that Kentish lad. 'All I ever wanted to do was to write and amuse people.'
Author: Frank Muir
Publisher: Corgi
ISBN: 9780552165990
Category : Comedians
Languages : en
Pages : 432
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Book Description
"For more than twenty-five years Frank Muir, in partnership with Denis Norden, produced some of the most sparkling and original comedy ever written for radio and television. On programmes such as My Word! and My Music his distinctive voice became familiar to millions as he displayed an astonishingly well-stocked mind and a genius for ad libbing and outrageous puns. Later, working at the BBC and then at London Weekend Television, he produced some of the best television comedy of the 1960s and 70s. He has written highly successful books for children, and two bestselling anthologies of humour. Frank Muir recalls, in glorious detail, a happy 1920s childhood in the seaside town of Ramsgate, where he was born in his grandmother's pub in Broadstairs, and in London, where he attended an inexpensive but excellent school of a kind no longer to be found. He remembers his very first joke at the age of six, when he knew that his destiny was to make people laugh. He also knew from an early age that he wanted to write, but it took a childhood illness for him to discover that humour and writing could be combined. The death of his father forced him to leave school at the age of fourt
Author: Andrew Roberts
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750990295
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 317
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Book Description
The double act has been at the heart of the British entertainment scene for over 150 years: from its start in the music halls, through radio shows such as Hancock's Half Hour playing in virtually every household and on cinema and television, from Carry On films to Withnail and I. Explore the influence of comedy duos on their audience and how their performances evolved over time, the importance of the subtle art of the straight man next to the comic and discover some acts who might have passed you by. This book is a tribute to the comedians who have entertained the public for so long, dedicating their lives to adding a bit of laughter to the mundane everyday. The Double Act will appeal to all lovers of British comedy as it takes them through the golden moments of its history.
Author: David Matthews
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
ISBN: 1785356240
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 403
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Book Description
No-one thought Bertie Simmonds could speak. So, when he is heard singing an Easter hymn, this is not so much the miracle some think as a bolt drawn back, releasing long-repressed emotions with potentially devastating consequences... A decade later, Bertie marries Anstace, a woman old enough to be his mother, and another layer of mystery starts to peel away. Beginning in a village in Kent and set between the two World Wars, That They Might Lovely Be stretches from the hell of Flanders, to the liberating beauty of the Breton coast, recounting a love affair which embraces the living and the dead.
Author: Walter Besant
Publisher: London : A. & C. Black
ISBN:
Category : London (England)
Languages : en
Pages : 500
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Book Description
Author: Alwyn W. Turner
Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group USA
ISBN: 184513687X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 486
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Book Description
A “splendidly entertaining” biography of the British tv writer acclaimed for his invention of a fictional alien race for Doctor Who (Dominic Sandrook, author of State of Emergency—The Way We Were: Britain 1970–1974). The Daleks are one of the most iconic and fearsome creations in television history. Since their first appearance in 1963, they have simultaneously fascinated and terrified generations of children, their instant success ensuring, and sometimes eclipsing, that of Doctor Who. They sprang from the imagination of Terry Nation, a failed stand-up comic who became one of the most prolific writers for television that Britain ever produced. Survivors, his vision of a post-apocalyptic England, so haunted audiences in the Seventies that the BBC revived it over thirty years on, and Blake’s 7, constantly rumored for return, endures as a cult sci-fi classic. But it is for his genocidal pepperpots that Nation is most often remembered, and now, more than 50 years after their creation they continue to top the Saturday-night ratings. Yet while the Daleks brought him notoriety and riches, Nation played a much wider role in British broadcasting’s golden age. He wrote for Spike Milligan, Frankie Howerd and an increasingly troubled Tony Hancock, and as one of the key figures behind the adventure series of the Sixties—including The Avengers, The Saint and The Persuaders!—he turned the pulp classics of his boyhood into a major British export. In The Man Who Invented the Daleks, acclaimed cultural historian Alwyn W. Turner, explores the curious and contested origins of Doctor Who’s greatest villains, and sheds light on a strange world of ambitious young writers, producers and performers without whom British culture today would look very different.
Author: Nicky Lee
Publisher: HarperChristian Resources
ISBN: 0310116686
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 385
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Book Description
Today we are facing a global crisis when it comes to families. Marriages are under more pressure than ever. Many children are growing up without experiencing the security of their parents' love and commitment—and as a result are finding it harder to receive God's unconditional love. There is an urgent need to invest in marriage and family life, for strong societies are built on strong families, and strong families are built on strong marriages. The Marriage Book, developed by Nicky and Sila Lee of Alpha, has been revised and updated to address these needs and provides practical tools to help couples at every stage of their relationship. Along with the companion seven-session Marriage Course, this resource will help couples: Better understand each other's needs Communicate more effectively Grow closer by learning methods to resolve conflicts Recover from the way they may have hurt each other Recognize how their upbringing has affected their relationship Improve relationships with parents and in-laws The Marriage Book is based on a Christian understanding of love and serves to strengthen marriages within the church while, at the same time, being accessible for all couples from any cultural background. Full of practical advice, it will help couples prepare, build, and even mend their marriages.
Author: Brian Taves
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786484438
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 229
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Book Description
Beloved British humorist P.G. Wodehouse produced a wealth of literature in his lengthy career, contributing novels, short stories, plays, lyrics and essays to the canon of comic writing. His work in film and television included two stints as a screenwriter in Hollywood in the 1930s, and his stories have been the basis for more than 150 film and television productions. He also wrote 20 stories and essays about Hollywood, satirizing the city and its entertainment magnates. This book studies P.G. Wodehouse's extensive, but often overlooked relationship with Tinsel Town. The book is arranged chronologically, covering Wodehouse's Hollywood career from his early efforts in silent film, to his later contributions in television, to his work adapted posthumously for the screen. Radio is covered as well, including a discussion of his internment in occupied France and his brief appearances on German radio. Reflecting Wodehouse's international appeal, the book covers Wodehouse films and television in England, Germany, Sweden, and India. Also included are a comprehensive, detailed list of Wodehouse's stories and articles about Hollywood, and a complete filmography of motion picture and television works to which he contributed or which were based on his stories.
Author: John Dann
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1785899716
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 392
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Book Description
One woman’s transformation from ingénue chorus girl to wealthy Mayfair hostess – whilst hiding some dark secrets... Dorothy Hartman, known to her intimates as ‘Dodo’, a glamorous society hostess and a successful businesswoman, had a hidden past. Her ‘missing’ earlier life had been shrouded in mystery; a deceit she deliberately cultivated. The love child of a Cockney music hall artiste, born in poverty during the Victorian Fin de Siècle, Dodo emerged as an attractive West End chorus girl, compelled to marry an army officer twice her age during the First World War. Her aristocratic second husband disinherited her on his death-bed, following a string of affairs. Dodo’s next marriage secured a partnership in Lendrum & Hartman, the most prestigious transatlantic car dealership in London, patronised by royalty – including the Princes of Wales and Wallis Simpson. Using her theatrical charm Dodo seamlessly moved amongst fashionable society becoming a regular passenger to America during the golden age of sea travel, a renowned Mayfair hostess whose guests were drawn from the theatrical world such as Charlie Chaplin, Frances Day and Valerie Hobson, including business and political circles like Jack Profumo. She rode with the Beaufort hunt, which included Britain’s top wartime spymaster. Maud Coleno’s Daughter contains largely unpublished material about a once well-known, now forgotten Mayfair hostess, who succeeded in a man’s world despite disadvantage of birth. It throws another perspective on little-known aspects of some influential British and American business people involved in the smoke and mirrors world of pre-war political espionage, set against country house balls and high society. The book will appeal to fans of biographies and ‘rags to riches’ stories.
Author: Philip Kaplan
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473812402
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 694
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Book Description
In the history of aviation there have been many attempts to produce aircraft of extraordinary proportions to expand the limits of technology and create new performance standards. With few exceptions, the early attempts did not become the successes envisaged until post-World War II when such aircraft as the Boeing B-52 long-range heavy bomber and the Boeing 747 'Jumbo Jet' airliner changed the face of aviation in both the military and civil roles. Big Wings is a well-researched, highly informative and sometimes nostalgic look at the sixteen most significant giants of the air. Each chosen aircraft is introduced and its raison d'?tre explained, then follows an in-depth review of the successful and failed technical aspects of the design, its operational history, first-hand accounts from those that had flown the aircraft and finally some startling facts and statistics. The aircraft selected are as follows: Military—Douglas B–19, Boeing B-29, Consolidated B-36, Northrop B-49 and Boeing B-52, Airliners—Bristol Brabazon, Boeing 747 and Airbus A380, Heavy Lifters—Messerschmitt Me323, Consolidated XC-99, Lockheed C5 and Antonov AN-225, Flying Boats—Dornier Do-X, Martin JRM Mars, Hughes HK-1 and Saunders Roe Princess.
