A book " Old Filth" by Jane Gardam

Jane Gardam

Born

Yorkshire, England

Genre

Children, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Short Stories

 

Biography

Novelist Jane Gardam was born Jean Mary Pearson in Coatham, North Yorkshire on 11 July 1928. She was educated at Saltburn High School for Girls, and won a scholarship to the University of London where she read English at Bedford College. In 1951 she worked as a Red Cross Travelling Librarian to Hospital Libraries, afterwards taking up editorial posts at Weldon Ladies Journal (sub-editor, 1952) and the literary weekly Time and Tide (Assistant Editor, 1952-4). Her first book for adults, Black Faces, White Faces (1975), a collection of linked short stories about Jamaica, won both the David Higham Prize for Fiction and the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize. Subsequent collections of short stories include The Pangs of Love and Other Stories (1983), winner of the Katherine Mansfield Award; Going into a Dark House (1994), which was awarded the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award (1995); and Missing the Midnight: Hauntings & Grotesques (1997).

 Jane Gardam's first novel for adults, God on the Rocks (1978), a coming-of-age novel set in the 1930s, was adapted for television in 1992. It won the Prix Baudelaire (France) in 1989 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Her other novels include The Queen of the Tambourine (1991), a haunting tale about a woman's fascination with a mysterious stranger, which won the Whitbread Novel Award; Faith Fox (1996), a portrait of England in the 1990s; and The Flight of the Maidens (2000), set just after the Second World War, which narrates the story of three Yorkshire schoolgirls on the brink of university and adult life. This book was adapted for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour. In 1999 Jane Gardam was awarded the Heywood Hill Literary Prize in recognition of a distinguished literary career.

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The book "Old Filth"

 

A book to love.

It is beautifully written and strangely moving. It is the story of Old Filth,nickname of Sir Edward Feathers, a successful colonial judge ,retired and living in Dorset at the beginning of the story. The novel moves back and forth in time , between the past and the present. The word 'filth' is an acronym for 'Failed In London, Try Hong Kong'.

He was one of the so-called Orphans of the Empire,children who were sent from the colonies of the British Empire back to England ,so that they could be brought up by strangers .He was born in Malaya before World War II,his mother dies three days later.He lived between the indigenous for four years and was sent to England. You will be surprised by the end of the book. I highly recommend you to read.

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Watch this video.Sorry, it is in Spanish but you will not regret.

The Logical Song by Supertramp

  

Supertramp are a British rock band formed in 1969.

The Logical song was written by Roger Hodgson when he was still in his teens, before he even met Rick and co-founded Supertramp.This classic is just as relevant today as it was when it was released.In 1980, Roger won the Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters for this song. The Logical Song was named the best song both musically and lyrically.

Watch the video

In order to practise the phonetic transciptions go to this link

http://www.isabelperez.com/songs/logical.htm

Whitney Houston Funeral

THE ARTICLE
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1202/120213-whitney_houston.html
Read this article about Whitney´s death and do the exercises.

Pop superstar Whitney Houston has passed away aged 48. The blues and
soul songstress died in a Beverly Hills hotel room on Sunday, just hours
before she was to appear at a pre-Grammy Awards party. Ms Houston
was expected to receive a lifetime achievement award at the main
ceremony. Medics arrived at her room around 3.43 pm and administered
CPR. She was pronounced dead 12 minutes later. The cause of her death
is not yet known. Her body was quickly removed from the hotel to avoid
the chaos of the world’s media, which had congregated to cover the
story. A police officer told reporters: "She has been positively identified
by friends and family…and next of kin have already been notified.”
Whitney Houston was one of the world’s most influential, successful and
popular singers. She was born into a musical family. Her mother Cissy
was a gospel singer and her aunt was the legendary Dionne Warwick.
Houston won six Grammy awards among many other top prizes. She
released seven studio albums and sold over 170 million CDs, singles and
videos. Her most famous song is her worldwide hit, "I Will Always Love
You." In 1992, she married soul singer Bobby Brown. They had a rocky
relationship that was widely covered in the press. The last 10 years of her
life were dominated by drug use. Tributes to her have poured in from the
world’s music superstars. Rihanna posted on Twitter: "No words, just
tears."

Watch the video: Friends and family gather at New Hope Baptist Church to say goodbye.

Watch her five Memorable Performances here.

" I wanna dance with somebody"    lyrics

" I will always love you"                  lyrics

" My love is your love"                   song worksheet                       

Ways of Learning English

Learn Languages English (Android app)

Practice languages in a fun and effective way.
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LISTENING
The app dictates the text in a website in English while you read along. Practice your listening and reading at the same time. For example, you can brush up on your English by having the app read the "New York Times" to you.

PHRASEBOOK
Our phrasebook give you a comprehensive mix of practical and social words and phrases.
Tap a phrase and it will be spoken for you in your language and then in English.

TRANSLATE
Translate lets you instantly translate between the following languages:
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- Spanish
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The Costa Concordia Cruise Ship

For Reporter, Cruise Ship Disaster Is A Local Story

by Sylvia Poggioli

The Costa Concordia cruise ship remains half-submerged three weeks after it crashed. And it continues to be a source of anger for local residents.

February 5, 2012

It rarely happens to a reporter that a major story breaks in her own neighborhood. And well, it's not really a neighborhood, but the Tuscan archipelago, where a cruise ship crashed last month, is an area I know very well.

I spend summers there, and just last August I was boating a few yards from Le Scole, a rocky reef near Giglio island that is the scene of the disaster.

For the past three weeks, the half-submerged Costa Concordia has dominated the landscape of Giglio and looms ominously over the island's future as a haven for nature lovers and scuba divers.

She's not the first ship to make her grave in these waters. Archaeologists have led excavations of at least one ancient Roman ship and of an Etruscan vessel dating from 600 B.C.

But islanders say this shipwreck is anything but a tourist attraction — they fear it will keep Giglio's traditional visitors away.

The grounded carcass of the Costa Concordia looks like something out of a disaster movie, an alien that came from out of nowhere and plopped down alongside the wooden dinghies moored in the small fishing port. The 1,000-foot-long ship is clearly visible from the mainland eight nautical miles away.

A huge hunk of granite from that reef is now embedded in the hull of the marooned Costa Concordia, lying on its side on a rocky ledge just outside the port.

Read more here.

Wanna Live Forever? Become a Noun

 

 What is an Eponym?

A person after whom a discovery, invention, place etc is named or thought to be named.

There´s Mr. Zamboni, Mr. Walt, Mr. Silhoutte,Mr. Guillotine.

     

      Once upon a time, these were all real people with troubles and families and dreams.But now they live on,not exactly as people, more as nouns. Now, it is hard to say if this is a step up or a step down,´cause when you are a noun you are kind of immortal, but you are also sort of biographically missing.

Watch this video

and do the listening: click here.

If you want, you can read the transcript

Here you can see photos of some people who became nouns.