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Ken Loach

Ken Loach

Ken Loach (born June 17, 1936) is a British television and film director, known for his social realist style and socialist themes.

Biography

socialist BBC television play Cathy Come Home, one of Loach's most famous works.]] Born Kenneth Loach in Nuneaton, England, he studied law at St Peter's College, Oxford. He started out as an actor in repertory theatre, but in the early 1960s moved into producing television docu-dramas, notably the socially influential Cathy Come Home (1966). In the late 1960s he moved into directing films, and made Kes, the story of a troubled boy and his kestrel, based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines. It remains perhaps his best known film in Britain. The 1970s and 80s were less successful, with his films suffering from poor distribution, lack of interest and political censorship. His film The Save the Children Fund Film (1971) was commissioned by the charity, who disliked it so much they attempted to have the negative destroyed. It has yet to be shown in public. He was also commissioned by Channel 4 to make A Question of Leadership, a documentary on the UK miners' strike. However, the program was withheld by Channel 4 for political reasons. However, the 1990s saw Loach return to form, with the production of a series of critically acclaimed and popular films. During this period he was also three times awarded prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. In December 2003, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Birmingham. In November 2004, he was elected to the national council of the Respect coalition.

Film style

Loach is characterized by a particular view of what realism is. He likes in every area of film making to emphasize what he sees as genuine. He prefers unknown actors who have some of the life experience their characters are supposed to have had, to famous method actors. So for Bread and Roses he chose two leading actors who had experience of union organizing and life as an immigrant. To such an extent that the lead actress only learned English in order to play the part. He tries to make sure that actors express as genuinely as possible the feelings of their characters by filming the story in order, and crucially, not giving the actors the script until a few minutes before the filming. Frequently in a scene, only some of the actors will know what is going to happen - the others will often be able to express genuine surprise shock or sadness because they really are hit with the events of the scene. Two examples - in 'Kes' the boy actor discovers the dead bird at the end and believes that the director has had killed the bird he had become quite close to during the filming (in fact they had used a dead bird they found elsewhere). In 'Raining Stones' one of the actresses visites at her house by a loan shark had no ide that he was going to force her to take of her wedding ring and give it him as part payment. There are many other examples.

Filmography

Television


- Z Cars (series, 1962)
- Diary of a Young Man (1964)
- 3 Clear Sundays (1965)
- Up the Junction (1965)
- The End of Arthur's Marriage (1965)
- Coming Out Party (1965)
- Cathy Come Home (1966) (as Kenneth Loach)
- In Two Minds (1967)
- The Golden Vision (1968)
- The Big Flame (1969)
- The Rank and the File (1971) - part of the Play for Today series.
- After a Lifetime (1971)
- A Misfortune (1973)
- Days of Hope (mini-series, 1975)
- The Price of Coal (1977)
- Auditions (1980)
- A Question of Leadership (1981)
- The Red and the Blue: Impressions of Two Political Conferences - Autumn 1982 (1983)
- Questions of Leadership (1983)
- The View From the Woodpile (1989)

Cinema


- Poor Cow (1967)
- Kes (1969) (as Kenneth Loach)
- The Save the Children Fund Film (1971)
- Family Life (1971)
- Black Jack (1979)
- The Gamekeeper (1980)
- Looks and Smiles (1981) (as Kenneth Loach)
- Which Side Are You On? (1984)
- Fatherland (1986)
- Hidden Agenda (1990). Cannes Special Jury Prize.
- Riff-Raff (1990). Shown with subtitles in the USA, because of British dialects.
- Raining Stones (1993). Cannes Special Jury Prize.
- Ladybird Ladybird (1994)
- Land and Freedom (1995). FIPRESCI International Critics Prize and the Cannes Ecumenical Jury Prize.
- A Contemporary Case for Common Ownership (1995)
- Carla's Song (1996)
- The Flickering Flame (1997)
- My Name Is Joe (1998)
- Bread and Roses (2000)
- The Navigators (2001)
- Sweet Sixteen (2002)
- Ae Fond Kiss... (2004)
- Tickets (2005), along with Ermanno Olmi and Abbas Kiarostami

External links


-
- [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/loach.html Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database]
- [http://www.1worldfilms.com/kenloach.htm A biography]
- [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/458945/ Biography from BFI's screenonline]
- [http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/galleries/kenloach/ Posters and Stills Gallery from the BFI] Loach, Ken Loach, Ken Loach, Ken Loach, Ken Loach, Ken Loach, Ken ja:ケン・ローチ

June 17

June 17 is the 168th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (169th in leap years), with 197 days remaining.

Events


- 1497 - Battle of Deptford Bridge - Forces under King Henry VII soundly defeat troops led by Michael An Gof.
- 1565 - Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th Ashikaga Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru.
- 1579 - Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England.
- 1631 - Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spent more than 20 years to build her tomb, the Taj Mahal.
- 1775 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Bunker Hill - The battle actually takes place on Breed's hill by mistake. British forces take Breed's Hill outside of Boston.
- 1789 - In France, the Third Estate declares itself as a national assembly.
- 1839 - In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the Edict of Toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaii Catholic Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace is later established as a result.
- 1863 - Battle of Aldie in the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War
- 1876 - Indian Wars: Battle of the Rosebud - 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory. [http://ne.essortment.com/battlerosebud_rfks.htm]
- 1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.
- 1898 - The US Navy Hospital Corps is established.
- 1928 - Aviator Amelia Earhart starts her attempt to become the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean She was a passenger; Wilmer Stutz was pilot and Lou Gordon, mechanic.
- 1930 - U.S. President Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff into law.
  - Bonus Army: Around a thousand World War I veterans mass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.
- 1933 - Union Station Massacre: In Kansas City, Missouri, four FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash were gunned down by gangsters attempting to free Nash.
- 1939 - Last public execution in France. Eugene Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is guillotined in Versailles outside the prison Saint-Pierre.
- 1940 - World War II: Operation Ariel begins - Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.
  - World War II: Sinking of the RMS Lancastria by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France.
  - The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union.
- 1944 - Iceland becomes independent from Denmark and forms a republic.
- 1948 - A Douglas DC-6 carrying United Air Lines Flight 624 crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board.
- 1953 - Workers Uprising: In East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.
- 1960 - Ted Williams becomes the fourth member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Cleveland Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio.
- 1961 - The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.
- 1963 - The United States Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against allowing the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools.
- 1971 - Representatives of Japan and the United States sign the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, setting out a plan where the U.S. would return control of Okinawa.
- 1972 - Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee, in an attempt by some members of the Republican party to illegally wiretap the opposition.
- 1982 - The body of "God's Banker", Roberto Calvi is found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.
- 1991 - Apartheid: The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which had required all racial classification of all South Africans at birth.
- 1992 - A 'Joint Understanding' agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (this would be later codified in START II).
- 1994 - Following a televised highway chase and a failed attempt at suicide, O. J. Simpson is arrested for the murders of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Births

1239 to 1899


- 1239 - King Edward I of England (d. 1307)
- 1603 - Joseph of Cupertino, Italian saint (d. 1663)
- 1682 - King Charles XII of Sweden (d. 1718)
- 1691 - Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Italian painter and architect (d. 1765)
- 1693 - Johann Georg Walch, German theologian (d. 1775)
- 1703 - John Wesley, English founder of Methodism (d. 1791)
- 1704 - John Kay, English inventor (d. 1780)
- 1714 - Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, German philosopher (d. 1762)
- 1714 - César-François Cassini de Thury, French astronomer (d. 1784)
- 1718 - George Howard, British field marshal (d. 1796)
- 1808 - Henrik Wergeland, Norwegian author (d. 1845)
- 1810 - Ferdinand Freiligrath, German writer (d. 1876)
- 1811 - Jón Sigurðsson, Icelandic independence fighter (d. 1879)
- 1818 - Charles Gounod, French composer (d. 1893)
- 1832 - Sir William Crookes, English physicist and chemist (d. 1919)
- 1881 - Tommy Burns, Canadian boxer (d. 1955)
- 1882 - Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer (d. 1971)
- 1888 - Heinz Guderian, German General (d. 1954)
- 1898 - M. C. Escher, Dutch artist (d. 1972)
- 1898 - Carl Hermann, German physicist (d. 1961)

1900 to 1999


- 1900 - Martin Bormann, Nazi official (d. 1945)
- 1904 - Ralph Bellamy, American actor (d. 1991)
- 1907 - Charles Eames, American designer and architect (d. 1978)
- 1909 - Elmer Lee Andersen, Governor of Minnesota (d. 2004)
- 1910 - Red Foley, American musician (d. 1968)
- 1914 - John Hersey, American author (d. 1993)
- 1915 - Karl Targownik, Hungarian psychiatrist (d. 1996)
- 1915 - David "Stringbean" Akeman, American banjo player and actor (d. 1973)
- 1917 - Dean Martin, American singer (d. 1995)
- 1917 - Atle Selberg, Norwegian mathematician
- 1920 - François Jacob, French biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1923 - Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch, American football player (d. 2004)
- 1927 - Martin Böttcher, German conductor
- 1929 - Tigran Petrosian, Georgian chess player (d. 1984)
- 1930 - Brian Statham, English cricketer (d. 2000)
- 1933 - Christian Ferras, French violinist (d. 1982)
- 1940 - George Akerlof, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1942 - Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian International Atomic Energy Agency director, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- 1943 - Newt Gingrich, American politician
- 1943 - Barry Manilow, American musician
- 1945 - Tommy Franks, American General
- 1945 - Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London
- 1945 - Eddy Merckx, Belgian cyclist
- 1945 - Anupam Kher, Indian actor
- 1945 - Frank Ashmore, American actor
- 1946 - Peter Rosei, Austrian writer
- 1957 - Jon Gries, American actor
- 1958 - Jello Biafra, American musician and activist
- 1960 - Michael Monroe, Finnish singer (Hanoi Rocks)
- 1963 - Greg Kinnear, American actor
- 1964 - Michael Gross, German swimmer
- 1965 - Dermontti Dawson, American NFL, center
- 1966 - Jason Patric, American actor
- 1969 - Paul Tergat, Kenyan athlete
- 1975 - Chloe Jones, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1978 - Kumiko Aso, Japanese Actress
- 1979 - Nick Rimando, American soccer player
- 1980 - Venus Williams, American tennis player
- 1987 - Nozomi Tsuji, Japanese singer (W (Double You), Morning Musume, and MiniMoni)

Deaths

1091 to 1899


- 1091 - Dirk V, Count of Holland (b. 1052)
- 1463 - Princess Catherine of Portugal, writer (b. 1436)
- 1565 - Ashikaga Yoshiteru, Japanese shogun (b. 1536)
- 1694 - Philip Cardinal Howard, English Catholic Cardinal (b. 1629)
- 1696 - John III Sobieski, King of Poland (b. 1629)
- 1719 - Joseph Addison, English politician and writer (b. 1672)
- 1734 - Claude-Louis-Hector de Villars, Marshal of France (b. 1653)
- 1740 - William Wyndham, English politician (b. 1687)
- 1762 - Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, French writer (b. 1674)
- 1775 - Major John Pitcairn, British marine (killed in battle) (b. 1722)
- 1797 - Agha Muhammad Khan, Shah of Persia (b. 1742)
- 1813 - Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, English sailor and politician (b. 1726)
- 1898 - Edward Burne-Jones, English artist (b. 1833)

1900 to 1999


- 1940 - Arthur Harden, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
- 1952 - Jack Parsons, American rocket-fuel pioneer and renegade occultist (b. 1914)
- 1956 - Paul Rostock, German doctor (b. 1892)
- 1957 - Dorothy Richardson, English writer (b. 1873)
- 1961 - Jeff Chandler, American actor (b. 1918)
- 1979 - Duffy Lewis, baseball player (b. 1888)
- 1982 - Roberto Calvi, Italin banker (b. 1920)
- 1986 - Kate Smith, American singer (b. 1907)
- 1996 - Thomas Kuhn, American philosopher of science (b. 1922)

2000 onwards


- 2001 - Donald J. Cram, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1919)
- 2002 - Willie Davenport, American athlete (b. 1943)
- 2002 - Fritz Walter, German footballer (b. 1920)
- 2004 - Gerry McNeil, Canadian hockey player (b. 1926)

Holidays and observances


- 1944 - Icelandic Independence Day, from Denmark
- National holiday of West Germany until 1990, see Workers' Uprising of 1953 in East Germany

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/17 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.britannica.com/eb/dailycontent?month=6&day=17 Encyclopædia Britannica: This Day in History] ---- June 16 - June 18 - May 17 - July 17 -- listing of all days ko:6월 17일 ms:17 Jun ja:6月17日 simple:June 17 th:17 มิถุนายน

United Kingdom

:For other meanings of the terms "United Kingdom" and "UK" , see United Kingdom (disambiguation) and UK (disambiguation). :For an explanation of terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (usually shortened to the United Kingdom or the UK) is a country located off the north-western coast of continental Europe, surrounded by the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, the Irish Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is composed of four constituent parts: three constituent countries—England, Scotland, and Wales—on the island of Great Britain, and the province of Northern Ireland on the island of Ireland. The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland forms the United Kingdom's principal international land border, although there is a nominal frontier with France in the middle of the Channel Tunnel. The UK has several overseas territories and the Crown dependencies of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands come under the UK's sovereignty. The UK also has close relationships with the fifteen other Commonwealth Realms, as they all share the same head of state. The UK is also one of the largest member states of the European Union and a founding partner of both the UN and NATO.

Terminology


- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: The official name for the sovereign state
- United Kingdom: an abbreviation of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Britain: an informal term that sometimes means United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and sometimes means Great Britain
- British: an informal term that sometimes means from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and sometimes means from Great Britain
- Great Britain (as a geographical term): the largest island of the British Isles
- Great Britain (as a political term): England + Wales + Scotland
- British Isles (as a geographical term): Great Britain + Ireland + many smaller surrounding islands. This term is disputed, please see below.
- Ireland (as a geographical term): the second largest island of the British Isles
- Ireland (as a political term): an abbreviation of the Republic of Ireland, a sovereign state on the island of Ireland
- Northern Ireland: a political region of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Ulster (as a geographical term): Often used to refer to Northern Ireland. It is derived from the Irish Language term 'Ulad.' It was one of the ancient Irish provinces (the others were Connaught, Leinster and Munster.). Although it is normally used to refer to Northern Ireland, Ulster also (traditionally) includes Counties Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal, which lie in the Republic of Ireland. The term Ulster is often favoured by the Protestant community.

History

Protestant Today's state is the latest of several unions formed over the last 1000 years. Scotland and England have existed as separate unified entities since the 10th century. Wales, under English control since the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, became part of the Kingdom of England by the Laws in Wales Act 1535. With the Act of Union 1707, the separate kingdoms of England and Scotland, having shared the same monarch since 1603, agreed to a permanent union as the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Act of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland, which had been gradually brought under English control between 1169 and 1691, to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was formed in 1922, after bitter fighting which echoes down to the current political strife, the Anglo-Irish Treaty partitioned Ireland into the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, with the latter remaining part of the United Kingdom. As provided for in the treaty, Northern Ireland, which consists of six of the nine counties of the Irish province of Ulster, immediately opted out of the Free State and to remain in the UK. The nomenclature of the UK was changed in 1927 to recognise the departure of most of Ireland, with the current name being adopted. 1927 The United Kingdom, the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, played a leading role in developing Western world ideas of property, liberty, capitalism and parliamentary democracy - to say nothing of its part in advancing world literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one quarter of the Earth's surface and encompassed a third of its population. The first half of the 20th century saw the UK's strength seriously depleted from the effects of World War I and World War II. The second half witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the UK rebuilding itself into a modern and prosperous nation. The UK has been a member of the European Union since 1973. Its attitude towards further integration is conservative, and there is significant Euroscepticism in UK politics. It has not chosen to adopt the Euro, owing to internal political considerations and the government's judgement of the prevailing economic conditions.

Government and politics

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, with executive power exercised on behalf of the Queen by the Prime Minister and other cabinet ministers who head departments. The cabinet, including the Prime Minister, and other ministers collectively make up Her Majesty's Government. These ministers are drawn from and are responsible to Parliament, the legislative body, which is traditionally considered to be "supreme" (that is, able to legislate on any matter and not bound by decisions of its predecessors). The UK is one of the few countries in the world today that does not have a codified constitution, relying instead on customs and separate pieces of constitutional law. While the monarch is Head of State and holds all executive power, it is the Prime Minister who is the head of government. The government is answerable chiefly to the House of Commons and the Prime Minister is drawn from this chamber of Parliament by constitutional convention. The majority of cabinet members will be from the House of Commons, the rest from the House of Lords. Ministers do not, however, legally have to come from Parliament, though that is the modern day custom. The British system of government has been emulated around the world - a legacy of the United Kingdom's colonial past - most notably in the other Commonwealth Realms. The Prime Minister is chosen as the MP who can command a majority in the House of Commons - usually the leader of the largest party or, if there is no majority party, the largest coalition. The current Prime Minister is Tony Blair of the Labour Party, who has been in office since 1997. In the United Kingdom the monarch has extensive theoretical powers, but his or her role is mainly, though not exclusively, ceremonial. The monarch is an integral part of Parliament (as the "Crown-in-Parliament") and theoretically gives Parliament the power to meet and create legislation. An Act of Parliament does not become law until it has been signed by the Queen (being given Royal Assent), although no monarch has refused to assent to a bill that has been approved by Parliament since Queen Anne in 1708. Although the abolition of the monarchy has been suggested several times, the popularity of the monarchy remains strong in spite of recent controversies. Support for a British republic usually fluctuates between 15% and 25% of the population, with roughly 10% undecided or indifferent [http://www.mori.com/mrr/2000/c000616.shtml]. The current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II who acceded to the throne in 1952 and was crowned in 1953. Parliament is the national legislature of the United Kingdom. It is the ultimate legislative authority in the United Kingdom, according to the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. It is bicameral, composed of the elected House of Commons and the unelected House of Lords, whose members are mostly appointed. The House of Commons is the more powerful of the two houses. The House of Commons has 646 members who are directly elected from single-member constituencies based on population. The House of Lords has 724 members (though this number is not fixed): hereditary peers, life peers, and bishops of the Church of England. The Church of England is the established church of the state in England. established church]] The two largest political parties are the Labour Party and Conservative Party. The UK has long had a two-party system, but in the last 20 years the Liberal Democrats have re-emerged as a large third party. The electoral system used for general elections is first-past-the-post. The constitution of the United Kingdom is un-codified and partially unwritten, which means that no single document regulates how the government works, and unwritten constitutional conventions are used extensively. The constitution is based on the principle that Parliament is the ultimate sovereign body in the country. There has long been a widespread sense of national identity in the Celtic nations. Throughout the late 19th century the UK debated giving Ireland home rule. The Scottish National Party was founded in 1934, and Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) in 1925. Referenda for devolution succeeded in 1997 for Scotland and Wales and in 1998 for Northern Ireland. In 1999, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales were established, the former having primary legislative power. Proportional representation is used for the elections, which has resulted in a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition government in Scotland. Due to internal disagreements, the Northern Ireland Assembly has been suspended since 2002.

Subdivisions

The United Kingdom is a country that is divided into four constituent parts:
- England
- Scotland
- Northern Ireland
- Wales The constituent parts of the United Kingdom have administrative subdivisions as follows:
- The regions and administrative counties of England
- The council areas of Scotland
- The counties and county boroughs of Wales
- The districts of Northern Ireland The Laws in Wales Act 1535 incorporated Wales and England into England and Wales for legal purposes. Although all four have historically been divided into counties, England's population is an order of magnitude larger than the others so in recent years it has for some purposes been divided into nine intermediate-level Government Office Regions. Each region is made up of counties and unitary authorities, apart from London, which consists of London boroughs. Although at one point it was intended that each or some of these regions would be given its own regional assembly, the plan's future is uncertain, as of 2004, after the North East region rejected its proposed assembly in a referendum. Scotland consists of 32 Council Areas. Wales consists of 22 Unitary Authorities, styled as 10 County Boroughs, 9 Counties, and 3 Cities. Northern Ireland is divided into 26 Districts. Also sometimes associated with the United Kingdom, though not constitutionally part of the United Kingdom itself, are the Crown dependencies (the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, and the Isle of Man) as self-governing possessions of the Crown, and a number of overseas territories under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.

Military

The armed forces of the United Kingdom are known as the British Armed Forces or Her Majesty's Armed Forces, officially the Armed Forces of the Crown. Their Commander-in-Chief is the Queen and they are managed by the Ministry of Defence. Ministry of Defence The British Armed Forces are charged with protecting the United Kingdom and its overseas territories, promoting the United Kingdom's wider security interests, and supporting international peacekeeping efforts. They are active and regular participants in NATO and other coalition operations. The United Kingdom fields one of the most powerful and comprehensive military forces in the World. Its global power projection capabilities are second only to those of the United States Armed Forces. The British Army had a reported strength of 112,700 in 2004, including 7,600 women, and the Royal Air Force a strength of 53,400. The 40,900-member Royal Navy is in charge of the United Kingdom's independent strategic nuclear arm, which consists of four Trident Ballistic Missile Submarines, while the Royal Marines provide infantry units for amphibious assault and for specialist reinforcement forces in and beyond the NATO area. This puts total active duty military troops in the 210,000 range, currently deployed in over 80 countries. The UK's special forces, principally the SAS, provides elite commandos trained for quick, mobile, military responses; often where secrecy or covert operations are required. The Royal Navy is the second largest navy in the World in terms of gross tonnage. Despite the United Kingdom's wide ranging capabilities, recent pragmatic defence policy has a stated assumption that any large operation would be undertaken as part of a coalition. Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq (Granby, No-Fly-Zones, Desert Fox and Telic) may all be taken as precedent - indeed the last true war in which the British military fought alone was the Falklands War of 1982, in which military action was initiated by Argentina and the UK was fighting a defensive, rather than offensive, campaign. The British army has been actively involved in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. However, a programme of demilitarisation is being gradually implemented.

Geography

Troubles World Factbook Map of the United Kingdom]] Most of England consists of rolling lowland terrain, divided east from west by more mountainous terrain in the Northwest (Cumbrian Mountains of the Lake District) and north (the upland moors of the Pennines) and limestone hills of the Peak District by the Tees-Exe line. The lower limestone hills of the Isle of Purbeck, Cotswolds, Lincolnshire and chalk downs of the Southern England Chalk Formation. The main rivers and estuaries are the Thames, Severn and the Humber Estuary. The largest urban area is Greater London. Near Dover, the Channel Tunnel links the United Kingdom with France. There is no peak in England that is 1000 metres (3,300 ft) or greater. Wales is mostly mountainous, the highest peak being Snowdon at 1085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level. North of the mainland is the island of Anglesey. The largest and capital city is Cardiff, located in South Wales. Scotland's geography is varied, with lowlands in the south and east and highlands in the north and west, including Ben Nevis, the UK's highest mountain at 1343 metres (4,406 ft). There are many long and deep-sea arms, firths, and lochs. A multitude of islands west and north of Scotland are also included, notably the Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands. The largest city is Glasgow. Northern Ireland, making up the north-eastern part of Ireland, is mostly hilly. The main cities are Belfast ('Beal Feirste' in Irish) and Londonderry / Derry ('Doire' in Irish). The province is home to one of the UK’s World Heritage Sites, the Giant's Causeway, which consists of more than 40,000 six-sided basalt columns up to 40 feett (12 m) high. In total it is estimated that the UK includes around 1098 small islands, some being natural and some being crannogs, a type of artificial island which was built in past times using stone and wood, gradually enlarged by natural waste building up over time.

Economy

artificial island The United Kingdom, a leading trading power and financial centre, has an essentially capitalist economy, the fourth largest in the world in terms of market exchange rates and the sixth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates. Over the past three decades, the government has greatly reduced public ownership by means of privatisation programmes, and has contained the growth of the Welfare State. Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanised, and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with only 1% of the labour force. The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil reserves; primary energy production accounts for 10% of GDP, one of the highest shares of any industrial state. Services, particularly banking, insurance and business services, account for by far the largest proportion of GDP. Industry continues to decline in importance, although the UK is still Europe's largest manufacturer of armaments, petroleum products, personal computers, televisions, and mobile telephones. Tourism is also important: with over 24 million tourists a year, between China (33) and Austria (19.1), the United Kingdom is ranked as the sixth major tourist destination in the world. The Blair government has put off the question of participation in the Euro system, citing five economic tests that would need to be met before they recommend that the UK adopts the Euro, and hold a referendum.

Society

Demographics

At the April 2001 census, the United Kingdom's population was 58,789,194, the third-largest in the European Union (behind Germany and metropolitan France) and the twenty-first largest in the world. Its overall population density is one of the highest in the world. Almost one-third of the population lives in England's prosperous south-east and is predominantly urban and suburban--with about 7.2 million in the capital of London. The United Kingdom's high literacy rate (99%) is attributable to universal public education introduced for the primary level in 1870 and secondary level in 1900 (except in Scotland where it was introduced in 1696). Education is mandatory from ages five through sixteen. referendum The Church of England and the Church of Scotland function as the official national religions in their respective countries, but most religions found in the world are represented in the United Kingdom. Anglicanism is the state religion that has been established in England since 1534 during the reign of King Henry VIII. During his reign, England broke ties with the Roman Catholic church and established the Church of England as the offical religion of England. Reforms to the nature of the church's relationship to the state have been ongoing, especially concerning the nature of the House of Lords and the appointment of a fixed amount of the lordships going to Lords Temporal, bishops of the Church of England. A group of islands close to continental Europe, the British Isles have been subject to many invasions and migrations, especially from Scandinavia and the continent, including Roman occupation for several centuries. Contemporary Britons are descended mainly from the varied ethnic stocks that settled there before the eleventh century. The pre-Celtic, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse influences were blended on Great Britain under the Normans, Scandinavian Vikings who had lived in Northern France. Although Celtic languages persist in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, the predominant language is English, which is a West Germanic language descended from Old English, featuring a large amount of borrowings from Norman French.The other indigenous languages include the Celtic languages; Welsh, the closely related Irish and Scots Gaelic, and the Cornish language; as well as Lowland Scots, which is closely related to English; Romany; and British Sign Language (Northern Ireland Sign Language is also used in Northern Ireland). Celtic dialectal influences from Cumbric persisted in Northern England for many centuries, most famously in a unique set of numbers used for counting sheep. Recent immigrants, especially from the Commonwealth, speak many other languages, including Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. The United Kingdom has the largest number of Hindi speaking peoples outside of the Indian sub continent.

Culture

Urdu The United Kingdom contains many of the world's leading universities, including the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and the University of London (which incorporates, amongst others, Imperial College and University College London), and has produced many great scientists and engineers including Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Isambard Kingdom Brunel; the nation is credited with many inventions including the locomotive, vaccination, television, vacuum, and both the internal combustion and the jet engine. The English language has spread to all corners of the world (primarily because of the country’s empire) and is referred to as a ‘global language’. It is now taught as a second language more than any other around the world. Over the next few decades, it is estimated that approximately half the world’s population will be proficient in the language. Playwright William Shakespeare is arguably the most famous writer in the history of the English language; other well-known writers from the United Kingdom include the Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne), Jane Austen, William Thackeray, J. R. R. Tolkien, John Milton, H. G. Wells and Charles Dickens. Important poets include Lord Byron, Robert Burns, Lord Tennyson and William Blake. Notable composers from the United Kingdom have included William Byrd, John Taverner, William Lawes, John Dowland, Thomas Tallis, and Henry Purcell from the 16th and early 17th centuries, and, more recently, Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Arthur Sullivan (most famous for working with librettist Sir W. S. Gilbert), Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten in the 19th and 20th. George Frideric Handel spent most of his composing life in England. The BBC is the oldest and perhaps the most respected broadcasting network on the globe, with the BBC World Service radio channel and its news output held in particularly high regard. The other main television networks are ITV, Channel 4, five (TV) and Sky Television. Popular programmes in the UK include the three soaps Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, as well as the comedy news quiz Have I Got News For You and Reality TV shows Big Brother and The X Factor. Various British TV formats have been exported to other nations, notably Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, The Weakest Link and The Office. The UK was, with the US, one of the two main contributors in the development of rock and roll, and the UK has provided some of the most famous rock stars, including the Beatles, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, The Who and many others. The UK was at the forefront of punk rock music in the 1970s with bands such as the Sex Pistols and The Clash, and the subsequent rebirth of heavy metal with bands such as Motörhead and Iron Maiden. In mid to late '90s, the Britpop phenomenon has seen bands such as Oasis, Blur, Radiohead and Coldplay gain international fame. The UK is also at the forefront of electronica, with British artists such as Aphex Twin, Talvin Singh, Nitin Sawhney and Lamb at the cutting edge. The United Kingdom was also associated with music from the Caribbean, with a large number of Jamaicans and other Caribbean nationals being present in the UK.

Sport

A great number of major sports originated in the United Kingdom, including football, golf, cricket, rugby, tennis and boxing. The national sport of the UK is association football, but the UK does not compete as a nation in any major football tournament. Instead, the home nations compete individually as England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is because of this unique four-team arrangement that the UK currently does not compete in football events at the Olympic Games. However, a united team will probably take part in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, as these are hosted in London. The English and Northern Irish football associations have confirmed participation in this team while the Scottish FA and the Welsh FA have declined to participate. The UK also hosts many world-renowned football clubs, such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal in England and Rangers and Celtic in Scotland. Clubs compete in national leagues and competitions and some go on to compete in European competitions. Both forms of rugby are national sports. Rugby League originates from and is generally played in the North of England, whilst Rugby Union is played all over Britain. In Rugby League the UK plays as one nation - Great Britain - whilst in union it is represented by the four nations. England are the current holders of the Rugby Union World Cup. Every four years the British and Irish Lions (comprising the best players from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland) tour other countries. Cricket is also played in the UK, although it is focussed in England. The Wimbledon Championships are an international tennis event held in Wimbledon in south London every summer and are seen as the most prestigious of the tennis calendar. Golf is one of the most popular participation sports played in the UK and St Andrews in Scotland is the sport's home course.

Miscellaneous topics

External links


- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ BBC Nations] History of the nations within the UK.
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uk.html CIA World Factbook: UK.]
- [http://www.direct.gov.uk Gateway to UK governmental services and websites.]
- [http://www.number-10.gov.uk Number 10 Downing Street]
- [http://www.statistics.gov.uk Office of National Statistics]
- [http://www.opsi.gov.uk Office of Public Sector Information] Source for all UK legislation 1987-present (successor to Her Majesty's Stationery Office).
- [http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/britishisles/ The British Isles] Independent view of the UK.
- [http://www.royal.gov.uk The British Monarchy]
- [http://www.parliament.uk/ The United Kingdom Parliament]
- [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=5703&Pos=&ColRank=1&Rank=272 Official Yearbook of the UK] factbook produced by the Office for National Statistics (years 2000 to 2005 available online).
- [http://www.ukcities.co.uk UK Cities] lists a variety of useful resources for every city in the UK.
- [http://www.justuk.org UK travel guide] United Kingdom for travellers.
- [http://www.world66.com/europe/unitedkingdom World66 Guide to United Kingdom] A travel guide written by its users.
- [http://www.multimap.co.uk www.multimap.co.uk] provides online maps and aerial photographs of the UK.
- [http://www.streetmap.co.uk www.streetmap.co.uk] an alternative to multimap.
- [http://www.freeworldmaps.net/europe/united-kingdom/map.html Physical map of United Kingdom.]
- [http://www.upmystreet.com www.upmystreet.com] detailed localised information about places in the United Kingdom.
- [http://www.parks.it/world/UK/Eindex.html UK Parks] National parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and other protected areas. ----
Category:British Isles Category:European countries Category:European Union member states Category:Members of the Commonwealth of Nations Category:Monarchies A als:Grossbritannien und Nordirland zh-min-nan:Liân-ha̍p Ông-kok ko:영국 ms:United Kingdom ja:イギリス simple:United Kingdom th:สหราชอาณาจักร

Television director

A television director is usually responsible for directing the actors and other filmed/taped aspects of a television production. In contrast to a film director, the major creative control will likely reside with the producer(s) of the show. The majority of television series will use a director for individual episodes. On a miniseries or TV movie, the director may have a role closer to that on a film. As well, certain television series will rely more often on a single director for every episode; in such cases, his input would be more closely sought. Smaller television studios tend to rely more heavily on the director's ability to command and to provide direction for any given program. The directors responsiblities, in these situations, include producing rundowns for the program, shot sheets, talent instruction on top of his general tasks. Multi-camera directing of major productions like game shows, morning news magazines or live events require directors who create and "call" a non-stop sequence of shots that assemble a seamless fast paced event. They relay all the direction to the studio and technical crew in a continuous chain of commands that must be both artistic and accurate. There is no room for mistakes on live shows. There are a few notable live multi-camera directors including Canadian Sidney M. Cohen. In a live television production, the director is responsible for calling which specific shots and other production elements will go on the air in real time, while the producer will be coordinating the "big picture," including commercial breaks and the running length of the show ahead of time. In a smaller production, the director may be responsible for operating production equipment, usually the video switcher and CCUs, as well. Category:Entertainment occupations

Film director

A film director orchestrates the artistic and dramatic aspects of a film. The role typically includes:
- Defining the overall artistic vision of the film.
- Controlling the content and flow of the film's plot.
- Directing the performances of actors, both mechanically by putting them in certain positions (i.e. blocking), and dramatically by eliciting the required range of emotions.
- Organizing and selecting the locations in which the film will be shot.
- Managing technical details such as the positioning of cameras, the use of lighting, and the timing and content of the film's soundtrack.
- Any other activity that defines or realizes the artistic vision the director has for the film. In practice the director will delegate many of these responsibilities to other members of his or her film crew. For example, the director may describe the mood she or he wants from a scene, then leave it to other members of the film crew to find a suitable location, or to set up the appropriate lighting. The degree of control that a director exerts over a film varies greatly. Many directors are usually, but not essentially, subordinate to the studio and producer. This was especially true during the "Golden Era" of Hollywood from the 1930s through the 1950s, when studios had stables of directors, actors and writers under contract. Other directors bring a particular and intensely focused artistic vision to the pictures they make (see auteur theory). Their methods range from some who like to outline a general plot line and let the actors improvise dialogue (such as Robert Altman and Christopher Guest), to those who control every aspect, and demand that the actors and crew follow instructions precisely (such as Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, and Stanley Kubrick). Some directors also write their own scripts (such as James Cameron, Frank Darabont, and Quentin Tarantino), while others collaborate on screenplays with long-standing writing partners (such as Billy Wilder and his writing partner I.A.L. Diamond). Finally, certain directors star, often in leading roles, in their films, from Orson Welles to Woody Allen and Clint Eastwood to Mel Brooks. Directors often work closely with film producers, who are usually responsible for the non-artistic elements of the film, such as financing, contract negotiation and marketing. Directors will often take on some of the responsibilities of the producer for their films (e.g. Steven Spielberg), or work so closely with the producer that the distinction in their roles becomes blurred (as is the case with Joel and Ethan Coen). The early silent film director Alice Guy Blaché not only produced her own pictures but actually created her own highly successful studio. The official American film directors' trade union is the Directors Guild of America (DGA). In DGA pictures the credit for the director will always be the last credit in the film's title sequence. Directors, however, often get a second credit, "An (Insert Director Here) Film". The SAG has attacked this credit during contract negotations, arguing that it implies that directors have more authorship of films than actors. The key person in the making of a film is the director, the individual who visualizes the script and guides the production crew and actors to carry out that vision. The director has artistic control over everything from the script itself to the final cut of the film. It is the director's sense of the dramatic along with the creative visualization of the script that transforms a story into a well-made motion picture. The director is usually selected by the producer. Along with the producer, the director then puts together the production team

See also


- List of notable film directors
- Alan Smithee: often credited, but not a real film director
- Television director
- Theatre director
- Contrast with Film producer

External links


- [http://www.medialawyer.com/DIRART2.htm Smooth Negotiating: Making the Director Deal]
- [http://www.dga.org Director's Guild of America] Category:Entertainment occupations
- Film director Category:Film crew ja:映画監督

Social Realism

Social Realism is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts working class activities as heroic. Many artists who subscribed to Social Realism were painters with socialist political views. The movement therefore has some commonalities with the Socialist Realism used in certain Communist nations. The American painters Ben Shahn, Leon Bibel, the Australian painter Noel Counihan and the Mexican painters José Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera are all examples of Social Realists. The Australian playwright and novelist Dorothy Hewett is an example of a Social Realist author. Social Realism is not the same as Socialist Realism, which was the official art style of the Soviet Union. The two movements share common origins and themes, but are not identical. Socialist Realism can be described as a specific branch of Social Realism.

External links


- [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/social-realism.html Artcyclopedia - Social realism].
  - Chronological list of social realists in the visual arts.
- [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1037898/ ScreenOnline - Social realism].
  - Social realism in film.
- [http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/C20th/socrealism.htm Huntfor - Social realism v socialist realism]
  - Discusses both movements in the visual arts. Social Realism Category:Modern art

Cathy Come Home

Cathy Come Home is a British television play, originally broadcast on November 16 1966 on BBC1. Running to eighty minutes, the play was shown in the BBC's The Wednesday Play anthology strand, which was well known for tackling sensitive social issues, and Cathy Come Home was no exception. It remains one of the most famous one-off dramas in UK television history. Filmed in a grittily realistic drama documentary style, the play tells the story a young couple, Cathy (played by Carol White) and Reg (Ray Brooks). Initially their relationship flourishes, they have a child and move into a happy modern home, but when Reg loses his job and they are evicted, their lives spiral downwards through a process of unemployment, squatting, eviction and care homes. Finally, in a gripping final sequence filmed as-real with the cameras out of view on a suburban street in front of astonished passers-by, Cathy has her children forcibly taken away from her by the social services. The play proved to be hugely significant, as it alerted a mass audience to everyday problems faced by thousands of people in the UK, bringing attention to subjects that had not previously been widely discussed in the popular media. It provoked a wide-ranging debate on the issues of homelessness and unemployment, and the rights of mothers to keep their own children, and is often cited as one of the major factors behind changes in law and social trends in the UK regarding these issues. In particular, it is credited with leading to the founding of the homeless charity Shelter. The play was written by Jeremy Sandford, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach, who went on to become a major figure in British film. Loach employed a realistic documentary style, using predominantly 16mm film on location, which contrasted with the vast amount of BBC drama of the time which was commonly shot in studios on videotape. This realistic style very much helped heighten the impact of the piece, particularly the scene in which Cathy and Reg are forcibly evicted with their children by bailiffs from the home in which they have been unable to keep up rent payments. This powerful sequence, largely improvised, is often repeated in the UK in documentaries both about television history and the 1960s in general. In a 2000 poll of industry professionals conducted by the British Film Institute to determine the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century, Cathy Come Home was voted into second position, the highest-placed drama on the list, behind only Fawlty Towers overall. In 2003, it was released on VHS and DVD by the BFI as part of their Archive Television range.

External links


- [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/438481/ British Film Institute Screen Online]
- [http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/cathycomeho/cathycomeho.htm Encyclopedia of Television]
- Category:BBC television programmes Category:Social realism

Nuneaton

Nuneaton is the largest town in the English county of Warwickshire. The town is located roughly 8 miles (12 km) north of Coventry and 25 miles (40 km) east of Birmingham. Nuneaton has a population of 70,721 (2001 census). Although the population of its urban area, which includes the village of Hartshill is over 82,000. Hartshill Nuneaton is most famous for its associations with the 19th century author George Eliot, who was born on a farm on the Arbury Estate just outside Nuneaton in 1819 and lived in the town for much of her early life. Nuneaton is also the birthplace of film director Ken Loach, and the former "standards and morality" campaigner Mary Whitehouse. It was also the birthplace and home of the game show host Larry Grayson, and of footballer Nigel Winterburn. In fiction, Nuneaton is referred to as "Milby" in the George Eliot novel Scenes of Clerical Life (1858). The town is near the M6 and M69 motorways, and the A5 road. It is also an important railway junction, served by the West Coast Main Line and also by the Birmingham to Leicester railway line, and by a line to Coventry via Bedworth. The Coventry Canal and the River Anker run through the town. Places near to Nuneaton include: Hinckley, Bedworth, Atherstone and Coventry.

History

Nuneaton's name came from a 12th century Benedictine nunnery (parts of which still survive) from which much of the town grew around. Prior to this it was a settlement known as 'Etone'. The first recorded use of the modern name was in 1247 when a document recorded it as 'Nonne Eton'. Nuneaton grew gradually from the 17th century onwards, due to its position at the centre of the Warwickshire coalfields. At the time of the first national census in 1801 Nuneaton was already one of the largest towns in Warwickshire, with a population of 5,000. During the industrial revolution in the 19th century, Nuneaton developed a large textile industry. Other industries which developed in the town included brick and tile making and brewing. By 1901 the population of Nuneaton had grown to 25,000. Due largely to munitions factories located in Nuneaton, the town suffered heavy bombing damage during World War II. The heaviest bombing raid on Nuneaton took place on the 17th May 1941, when 100 people were killed, 380 houses were destroyed, and over 10,000 damaged, a few smaller raids took place on the town, most notably on the 25th June 1942. As a result of the bombing, much of the town centre was re-built in the post war years. On April 1 1974 Nuneaton's council was merged with that of nearby Bedworth to form the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth. On the 6 June 1975 6 people died and 38 were injured when a train crashed just south of Nuneaton railway station. Nuneaton's traditional industries like textiles and manufacturing have declined drastically in the postwar years. Due to its good transport links, Nuneaton is now largely a commuter town for nearby Coventry and Birmingham. However electronics and distribution remain major economic activities in the town. One of the biggest developments in the towns history, the multi-million pound Ropewalk Shopping Centre, opened on 1st September 2005 in the hope that it will give the town extra income from the shopping and visitors industry.

Media

The local area of Nuneaton is covered by Fosse Way Radio which the town shares with Hinckley and the surrounding towns and villages of the area. The local newspapers are the Heartland Evening News, Nuneaton Telegraph and the Weekly Tribune, which is a free paper delivered to each home in the area on a Thursday morning.

Sport

The major football team in the town is Nuneaton Borough, who play in the Conference North division. There are many leisure centres in the town and the Pingles Leisure Centre has just been rebuilt and includes indoor and outdoor swimming areas, saunas, gym, cafe, etc. The Pingles also has an athletics stadium known as the Pingles Stadium, this has a seated stand and is used for all athletics events such as running and javelin. The stadium is also used as a football ground and is used by Nuneaton Griff F.C.

External link


- [http://www.nuneatonandbedworth.gov.uk/ Nuneaton and Bedworth borough council] Category:Towns in Warwickshire

England

:For an explanation of often-confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). England is a nation and the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom accounting for more than 83% of the total UK population. It occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with fellow home nations Scotland, to the north, and Wales, to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the sea. England is named after the Angles, one of a number of Germanic tribes believed to have originated in Angeln in Northern Germany, who settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries. It has not had a distinct political identity since 1707, when Great Britain was established as a unified political entity; however, it has a legal identity separate from those of Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of the entity "England and Wales;". England's largest city, London, is also the capital of the United Kingdom.

History

Main article: History of England England has been inhabited for at least 500,000 years, although the repeated Ice Ages made much of Britain uninhabitable for extended periods until as recently as 20,000 years ago. Stone Age hunter-gatherers eventually gave way to farmers and permanent settlements, with a spectacular and sophisticated megalithic civilisation arising in western England some 4,000 years ago. It was replaced around 1,500 years later by Celtic tribes migrating from Western and continental Europe, mainly from France. These tribes were known collectively as "Britons", a name bestowed by Phoenician traders — an indication of how, even at this early date, the island was part of a Europe-wide trading network. The Britons were significant players in continental politics and supported their allies in Gaul militarily during the Gallic Wars with the Roman Republic. This prompted the Romans to invade and subdue the island, first with Julius Caesar's raid in 55 BC, and then the Emperor Claudius' conquest in the following century. The whole southern part of the island — roughly corresponding to modern day England and Wales — became a prosperous part of the Roman Empire. It was finally abandoned early in the 5th century when a weakening Empire pulled back its legions to defend borders on the Continent. Unaided by the Roman army, Roman Britannia could not long resist the Germanic tribes who arrived in the 5th and 6th centuries, enveloping the majority of modern day England in a new culture and language and pushing Romano-British rule back into modern-day Wales and western extremities of England, notably Cornwall and Cumbria. Others emigrated across the channel to modern-day Brittany, thus giving it its name and language (Breton). But many of the Romano-British remained in and were assimilated into the newly "English" areas. The invaders fell into three main groups: the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. As they became more civilised, recognisable states formed and began to merge with one another. (The most well-known state of affairs being the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy.) From time to time throughout this period, one Anglo-Saxon king, recognised as the "Bretwalda" by other rulers, had effective control of all or most of the English; so it is impossible to identify the precise moment when the Kingdom of England was unified. In some sense, real unity came as a response to the Danish Viking incursions which occupied the eastern half of "England" in the 8th century. Egbert, King of Wessex (d. 839) is often regarded as the first king of all the English, although the title "King of England" was first adopted, two generations later, by Alfred the Great (ruled 871–899). The principal legacy left behind in those territories from which the language of the Britons were displaced is that of toponyms. Many of the place-names in England and to a lesser extent Scotland are derived from celtic British names, including London, Dumbarton, York, Dorchester, Dover and Colchester. Several place-name elements are thought to be wholly or partly Brythonic in origin, particularly bre-, bal-, and -dun for hills, carr for a high rocky place, coomb for a small deep valley. Until recently it has been believed that those areas settled by the Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited at the time or the Britons had fled before them. However, genetic studies show that the British were not pushed out to the Celtic fringes – many tribes remained in what was to become England (see C. Capelli et al. A Y chromosome census of the British Isles. Current Biology 13, 979–984, (2003)). Capelli's findings strengthen the research of Steven Bassett of the University of Birmingham; his work during the 1990s suggests that much of the West Midlands was only very lightly colonised with Anglian and Saxon settlements.
This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
The English are great lovers of themselves, and of everything belonging to them; they think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other world but England; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner, they say that 'he looks like an Englishman', and that 'it is a great pity that he should not be an Englishmen'.
Venetian ambassador to England
Early 16th century
Charlotte Augusta Sneyd
Italian Relations of England (p. 20)
Richard II] Richard II] In 1066, William the Conqueror and the Normans conquered the existing Kingdom of England and instituted an Anglo-Norman administration and nobility who, retaining proto-French as their language for the next three hundred years, ruled as custodians over English commoners. Although the language and racial distinctions faded rapidly during the middle ages, the class system born in the Norman/Saxon divide persisted longer — arguably with traces lasting to the modern day. While Old English continued to be spoken by common folk, Norman feudal lords significantly influenced the language with French words and customs being adopted over the succeeding centuries evolving to a Romance-Germanic hybrid of Middle English widely spoken in Chaucer's time. England came repeatedly into conflict with Wales and Scotland, at the time an independent principality and an independent kingdom respectively, as its rulers sought to expand Norman power across the entire island of Britain. The conquest of Wales was achieved in the 13th century, when it was annexed to England and gradually came to be a part of that kingdom for most legal purposes, although in the modern era it is more usually thought of as a separate nation (fielding, for example, its own athletic teams). Norman power in Scotland waxed and waned over the years, with the Scots managing to maintain a varying degree of independence despite repeated wars with the English. Although it was on the whole only a moderately successful power in military terms, England became one of the wealthiest states in medieval Europe, due chiefly to its dominance in the lucrative wool market. The failure of English territorial ambitions in continental Europe prompted the kingdom's rulers to look further afield, creating the foundations of the mercantile and colonial network that was to become the British Empire. The turmoil of the Reformation embroiled England in religious wars with Europe's Catholic powers, notably Spain, but the kingdom preserved its independence as much through luck as through the skill of charismatic rulers such as Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's successor,