1.
Western canon
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The Western canon is the body of books, music, and art that scholars generally accept as the most important and influential in shaping Western culture. Some examples of media such as cinema have attained a precarious position in the canon. There has been a debate over the nature and status of the canon since at least the 1960s, much of which is rooted in critical theory, feminism, critical race theory. The Bible, a product of Middle Eastern culture, has been a force in shaping Western culture, and has inspired some of the great monuments of human thought, literature. Although the term is associated with the Western canon, it can be applied to works of literature, music and art, etc. from all traditions. Historically, the word refers to a work of a high standard produced in order to obtain membership of a Guild or Academy. The first writer to use the classic was Aulus Gellius. Such classification began with the Greeks’ ranking their cultural works, with the word canon, contemporarily, the Western canon defines the best of Western culture. In the ancient world, at the Alexandrian Library, scholars coined the Greek term Hoi enkrithentes to identify the writers in the canon. There has been a debate over the nature and status of the canon since at least the 1960s, much of which is rooted in critical theory, feminism, critical race theory. Classicist Bernard Knox made direct reference to this topic when he delivered his 1992 Jefferson Lecture, some intellectuals have championed a high conservative modernism that insists that universal truths exist, and have opposed approaches that deny the existence of universal truths. Many argued that law was the repository of timeless truths. Bloom further comments, But one thing is certain, wherever the Great Books make up a part of the curriculum. His book was cited by some intellectuals for its argument that the classics contained universal truths. Defenders maintain that those who undermine the canon do so out of political interests. Ironically, the tradition is now regarded as oppressive. The texts once served a function, now we are told that it is the texts which must be unmasked. One of the objections to a canon of literature is the question of authority
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Biblical canon
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A biblical canon or canon of scripture is a list of texts which a particular religious community regards as authoritative scripture. The word canon comes from the Greek κανών, meaning rule or measuring stick, Christians became the first to use the term in reference to scripture, but Eugene Ulrich regards the idea as Jewish. In contrast, a canon, which permits the addition of books through the process of continuous revelation. These canons have developed through debate and agreement by the authorities of their respective faiths. Believers consider canonical books as inspired by God or as expressive of the history of the relationship between God and his people. Differences exist between the Jewish Tanakh and Christian biblical canons, and between the canons of different Christian denominations, the differing criteria and processes of canonization dictate what the various communities regard as inspired scripture. In some cases where varying strata of scriptural inspiration have accumulated, Rabbinic Judaism recognizes the twenty-four books of the Masoretic Text, commonly called the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. According to Marc Zvi Brettler, the Jewish scriptures outside the Torah, the book of Deuteronomy includes a prohibition against adding or subtracting which might apply to the book itself or to the instruction received by Moses on Mt. Sinai. The Book of Nehemiah suggests that the priest-scribe Ezra brought the Torah back from Babylon to Jerusalem, both I and II Maccabees suggest that Judas Maccabeus likewise collected sacred books, indeed some scholars argue that the Jewish canon was fixed by the Hasmonean dynasty. However, these sources do not suggest that the canon was at that time closed, moreover. They lived in a period of two centuries ending c.70 AD. In addition to the Tanakh, mainstream Rabbinic Judaism considers the Talmud to be another central and it takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs, and history. There are numerous citations of Sirach within the Talmud, even though the book was not ultimately accepted into the Hebrew canon, the Talmud is the basis for all codes of rabbinic law and is often quoted in other rabbinic literature. Certain groups of Jews, such as the Karaites, do not accept the oral Law as it is codified in the Talmud, Ethiopian Jews—also known as Beta Israel —possess a canon of scripture that is distinct from Rabbinic Judaism. Mäṣḥafä Kedus is the name for the literature of these Jews. Their holiest book, the Orit, consists of the Pentateuch, as well as Joshua, Judges, the rest of the Ethiopian Jewish canon is considered to be of secondary importance. It consists of the remainder of the Hebrew canon—with the possible exception of the Book of Lamentations—and various deuterocanonical books. These include Sirach, Judith, Tobit,1 and 2 Esdras,1 and 4 Baruch, the three books of Meqabyan, Jubilees, Enoch, the Testament of Abraham, the Testament of Isaac, the latter three patriarchal testaments are distinct to this scriptural tradition
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Religious text
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Religious texts are texts which religious traditions consider to be central to their religious practice or set of beliefs. It is not possible to create an exhaustive list of religious texts, one of the oldest known religious texts is the Kesh Temple Hymn of Ancient Sumer, a set of inscribed clay tablets which scholars typically date around 2600 BCE. For example, the content of a Protestant Bible may differ from the content of a Catholic Bible, the word canon comes from the Sumerian word meaning standard. Hierographology is the study of sacred texts, the following is an in-exhaustive list of links to specific religious texts which may be used for further, more in-depth study. The writings of Franklin Albert Jones a. k. a, some denominations also include the Apocrypha. For Protestantism, this is the 66-book canon - the Jewish Tanakh of 24 books divided differently, some denominations also include the 15 books of the Apocrypha between the Old Testament and the New Testament, for a total of 81 books. For Catholicism, this includes seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament for a total of 73 books, called the Canon of Trent. For the Eastern Orthodox Church, this includes the anagignoskomena, which consist of the Catholic deuterocanon, plus 3 Maccabees, Psalm 151, the Prayer of Manasseh,4 Maccabees is considered to be canonical by the Georgian Orthodox Church. Some Syriac churches accept the Letter of Baruch as scripture, christian Scientists The Bible Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. This textbook, along with the Bible, serves as the permanent impersonal pastor of the church, the Community of Christ uses the Joseph Smith Translation, which it calls the Inspired Version, as well as updated modern translations. Seventh-day Adventists The Bible The writings of Ellen White are held to a status, though not equal with the Bible. Also known as the Gospel of Mani and The Living Gospel the Treasure of Life the Pragmateia the Book of Mysteries The Book of Giants the Epistles the Psalms, the Shabuhragan The Arzhang The Kephalaia, Discourses, found in Coptic translation. Odù Ifá Jaap Verduijns Odu Ifa Collection Primary religious texts, that is, the Avesta collection, The Yasna, the Visperad, a collection of supplements to the Yasna. The Yashts, hymns in honor of the divinities, the Vendidad, describes the various forms of evil spirits and ways to confound them. Shorter texts and prayers, the Yashts the five Nyaishes, the Sirozeh, there are some 60 secondary religious texts, none of which are considered scripture. The Khordeh Avesta, Zoroastrian prayer book for lay people from the Avesta, religious full text online library Ancient texts library Internet Sacred Text Archive
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Arthur Conan Doyle
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He is also known for writing the fictional adventures of Professor Challenger, a second character he invented, and for propagating the mystery of the Mary Celeste. He was a writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction. Doyle is often referred to as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or simply Conan Doyle and his baptism entry in the register of St Marys Cathedral, Edinburgh, gives Arthur Ignatius Conan as his given names and Doyle as his surname. It also names Michael Conan as his godfather, the cataloguers of the British Library and the Library of Congress treat Doyle alone as his surname. Steven Doyle, editor of the Baker Street Journal, wrote, shortly after he graduated from high school he began using Conan as a sort of surname. But technically his last name is simply Doyle, when knighted, he was gazetted as Doyle, not under the compound Conan Doyle. Nevertheless, the use of a compound surname is demonstrated by the fact that Doyles second wife was known as Jean Conan Doyle rather than Jean Doyle. Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh and his father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was English, of Irish Catholic descent, and his mother, Mary, was Irish Catholic. In 1864 the family dispersed because of Charless growing alcoholism, in 1867, the family came together again and lived in squalid tenement flats at 3 Sciennes Place. Doyles father died in 1893, in the Crichton Royal, Dumfries, supported by wealthy uncles, Doyle was sent to England, at the Jesuit preparatory school Hodder Place, Stonyhurst in Lancashire at the age of nine. He then went on to Stonyhurst College until 1875, from 1875 to 1876, he was educated at the Jesuit school Stella Matutina in Feldkirch, Austria. He later rejected the Catholic faith and became an agnostic and he also later became a spiritualist mystic. From 1876 to 1881, Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, including working in Aston, Sheffield and Ruyton-XI-Towns. During that time, he studied botany at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. While studying, Doyle began writing short stories and his earliest extant fiction, The Haunted Grange of Goresthorpe, was unsuccessfully submitted to Blackwoods Magazine. His first published piece, The Mystery of Sasassa Valley, a set in South Africa, was printed in Chamberss Edinburgh Journal on 6 September 1879. Doyle was employed as a doctor on the Greenland whaler Hope of Peterhead in 1880 and, C. M. as a ships surgeon on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast. He completed his M. D. degree on the subject of tabes dorsalis in 1885, arriving in Portsmouth in June 1882 with less than £10 to his name, he set up a medical practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm Grove, Southsea
5.
Star Trek (film)
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Star Trek is a 2009 American science fiction adventure film directed by J. J. Abrams, written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Kirk and Spock aboard USS Enterprise as they combat Nero, a Romulan from their future who threatens the United Federation of Planets, the story takes place in an alternate reality because of time travel by both Nero and the original Spock. The alternate timeline was created in an attempt to free the film, the idea for a prequel film which would follow the Star Trek characters during their time in Starfleet Academy was discussed by series creator Gene Roddenberry in 1968. After the separation between Viacom and CBS Corporation, former Paramount president Gail Berman convinced CBS to allow Paramount to produce a feature film, Orci and Kurtzman, both fans of the Star Trek series, were approached to write the film and Abrams was approached to direct it. Kurtzman and Orci used inspiration from novels and graduate school dissertations as well as the series itself, principal photography commenced on November 7,2007 and ended on March 27,2008. The film was shot in locations around California and Utah. Abrams wanted to avoid using bluescreen and greenscreen, opting to use sets, heavy secrecy surrounded the films production and was under the fake working title Corporate Headquarters. Industrial Light & Magic used digital ships for the film, as opposed to the films in the franchise. Production for the film concluded by the end of 2008 and it was released in the United States and Canada on May 8,2009, to critical acclaim. Critics praised the development as well as the storyline in the film. Star Trek became a box office success, grossing over $385.7 million worldwide against its budget of $150 million. The DVD and Blu-ray for the film were released on October 19,2010, the film is followed by two sequels, Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond with a fourth having been announced. In the 23rd century, the Federation starship USS Kelvin is investigating a storm in space. A Romulan ship, Narada, emerges from the storm and attacks Kelvin, naradas first officer, Ayel, demands that Kelvins Captain Robau come aboard to negotiate a truce. Robau is questioned about the current stardate and an Ambassador Spock, naradas commander, Nero, kills him, and resumes attacking Kelvin. George Kirk, Kelvins first officer, orders the ships personnel, including his pregnant wife Winona, Kirk sacrifices his life to ensure Winonas survival as she gives birth to James T. Kirk. Seventeen years later on the planet Vulcan, a young Spock is accepted to join the Vulcan Science Academy, realizing that the Academy views his human mother Amanda as a disadvantage, he joins Starfleet instead. On Earth, Kirk becomes a reckless but intelligent young adult, three years later, Commander Spock accuses Kirk of cheating during the Kobayashi Maru simulation
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Star Wars (film)
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Star Wars is a 1977 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. The first installment in the Star Wars film series, it stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, David Prowse, James Earl Jones, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and Peter Mayhew co-star in supporting roles. The plot focuses on the Rebel Alliance, led by Princess Leia, and its attempt to destroy the Galactic Empires space station and this conflict disrupts the isolated life of farmhand Luke Skywalker, who inadvertently acquires a pair of droids that possess stolen architectural plans for the Death Star. Star Wars was released theatrically in the United States on May 25,1977 and it earned $461 million in the U. S. and $314 million overseas, totaling $775 million. It surpassed Jaws to become the film of all time until the release of E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial. When adjusted for inflation, Star Wars is the film in North America. It received ten Academy Award nominations, winning seven and it was among the first films to be selected as part of the U. S. Library of Congress National Film Registry as being culturally, historically, at the time, it was the most recent film on the registry and the only one chosen from the 1970s. Its soundtrack was added to the U. S. National Recording Registry in 2004, today, it is often regarded as one of the best films of all time, as well as one of the most important films in the history of motion pictures. It launched an industry of tie-in products, including TV series spinoffs, novels, comic books, and video games, the films success led to two critically and commercially successful sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. A prequel trilogy was released between 1999 and 2005, followed by a trilogy beginning in 2015. In 2016, Rogue One was released as a prequel to the original Star Wars film. The galaxy is in the midst of a civil war, spies for the Rebel Alliance have stolen plans to the Galactic Empires Death Star, a heavily armed space station capable of destroying an entire planet. Rebel leader Princess Leia has the plans, but her ship is captured by Imperial forces under the command of the evil Darth Vader, before she is captured, Leia hides the plans in the memory of an astromech droid, R2-D2, along with a holographic recording. R2-D2 flees to the surface of the desert planet Tatooine with C-3PO, the droids are captured by Jawa traders, who sell them to moisture farmers Owen and Beru Lars and their nephew Luke Skywalker. While cleaning R2-D2, Luke accidentally triggers part of Leias message, the next morning, Luke finds R2-D2 searching for Obi-Wan, and meets Ben Kenobi, an old hermit who lives in the hills and reveals himself to be Obi-Wan. Contrary to his uncles statements, Luke learns that his father, Anakin, Obi-Wan tells Luke that Vader was his former pupil who turned to the dark side of the Force and killed Anakin. Obi-Wan then presents to Luke his fathers weapon – a lightsaber, Obi-Wan views Leias complete message, in which she begs him to take the Death Star plans to her home planet of Alderaan and give them to her father for analysis
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Star Trek
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Star Trek is an American science fiction media franchise based on the television series created by Gene Roddenberry. The first television series, simply called Star Trek and now referred to as The Original Series, debuted in 1966 and it followed the interstellar adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and his crew aboard the starship USS Enterprise, an exploration vessel. The Star Trek canon of the franchise include The Original Series, a series, four spin-off television series, its film franchise. In creating Star Trek, Roddenberry was inspired by the Horatio Hornblower novels, the satirical book Gullivers Travels and these adventures continued in the short-lived Star Trek, The Animated Series and six feature films. The adventures of The Next Generation crew continued in four feature films. In 2009, the franchise underwent a reboot set in an alternate timeline, or Kelvin Timeline. This film featured a new cast portraying younger versions of the crew from the show, their adventures were continued in the sequel film. The thirteenth film feature and sequel, Star Trek Beyond, was released to coincide with the franchises 50th anniversary, a new Star Trek TV series, titled Star Trek, Discovery, will premiere in May 2017 on the digital platform CBS All Access. Star Trek has been a phenomenon for decades. Fans of the franchise are called Trekkies or Trekkers, the franchise spans a wide range of spin-offs including games, figurines, novels, toys, and comics. Star Trek had an attraction in Las Vegas that opened in 1998. At least two museum exhibits of props travel the world, the series has its own full-fledged constructed language, Klingon. Several parodies have been made of Star Trek, in addition, viewers have produced several fan productions. As of July 2016, the franchise had generated $10 billion in revenue, Star Trek is noted for its cultural influence beyond works of science fiction. The franchise is also noted for its civil rights stances. The Original Series included one of televisions first multiracial casts, Star Trek references can be found throughout popular culture from movies such as the submarine thriller Crimson Tide to the animated series South Park. As early as 1964, Gene Roddenberry drafted a proposal for the series that would become Star Trek
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Star Trek: Enterprise
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Star Trek, Enterprise is an American science fiction television series created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga as a prequel to Star Trek, The Original Series. It originally aired from September 26,2001 to May 13,2005 on UPN, Set in the 22nd century 100 years before the USS Enterprises five-year mission, the series follows the adventures of the crew of the first Starfleet starship, Enterprise, as they explore the galaxy. An ongoing storyline, referred to as the Temporal Cold War, continued through the third season, in the third season, an escalation of this campaign introduced the Xindi and dealt with the repercussions of their attack on Earth. After being asked to produce a fifth Star Trek series by UPN, Braga and Berman sought to create a basic and relatable series set after the events of the film Star Trek. The episodes concentrated on a trio of characters, Captain Jonathan Archer, Commander Charles Trip Tucker III. It was filmed on the Paramount lot in Los Angeles, California, on the stages that had housed the Star Trek series and films since the abandoned Star Trek. Although Berman and Braga wanted to do a prequel to the original Star Trek series. At the start of the season, Braga said that the storyline would continue to be included while viewers were still interested. The pilot, Broken Bow, was received positively by critics, with praise for the writing and its ratings were good enough that a full seven-season order was expected. However, reviews became more mixed as the first season progressed, by the following season, reviews improved during the last two seasons, but ratings continued to decline. UPN cut its orders for the third and fourth seasons by two episodes each, and canceled the series in 2005. Prior to cancellation, work had begun on planning episodes for the fifth season. Star Trek, Enterprise follows the adventures of the crew of the starship Enterprise and they are the first deep space explorers in Starfleet, using the first Warp 5 equipped vessel. At the start of the series, it is revealed that the Vulcans have withheld advanced technology from humanity since their first contact, concerned that humans were not ready for it. This has delayed human space exploration and caused resentment in Captain Jonathan Archer, whose father developed the Warp 5 engine, Enterprise was intentionally equipped with less advanced versions of technologies seen in previous series. For example, it has no tractor beam, uses instead of photon torpedoes. Communications Officer Linguist Hoshi Satos expertise in linguistics helps compensate for the lack of advanced universal translators, the series also showed the crew making first contacts with a number of races previously seen in the franchise. This particular change was attributed by Berman and Braga to advancements in makeup and they felt that contradictions in the continuity such as the Klingon ridges were unavoidable, as well as those involving technology
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George Lucas
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George Walton Lucas Jr. is an American filmmaker and entrepreneur. He is best known as the creator of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as the founder of Lucasfilm and he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm, before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Upon graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967, Lucas co-founded American Zoetrope with fellow filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, Lucas wrote and directed THX1138, based on his earlier student short Electronic Labyrinth, THX1138 4EB, which was a critical success but a financial failure. His next work as a writer-director was the film, American Graffiti, inspired by his teen years in early 1960s Modesto, California, the film was critically and commercially successful, and received five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Following the first Star Wars film, Lucas produced and co-wrote the following installments in the trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, along with Steven Spielberg, Lucas co-created and wrote the Indiana Jones films Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade. Lucas also produced and/or wrote a variety of films through Lucasfilm in the 1980s and 1990s, Lucas also returned to directing with the Star Wars prequel trilogy, consisting of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. He later collaborated on the story for the Indiana Jones sequel Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, five of Lucass seven features are among the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Lucas is one of the American film industrys most financially successful filmmakers, Lucas is considered a significant figure in the New Hollywood era. Lucas was born and raised in Modesto, California, the son of Dorothy Ellinore Lucas and George Walton Lucas and he is of German, Swiss-German, English, Scottish, and distant Dutch and French descent. Growing up, Lucas had a passion for cars and motor racing, on June 12,1962, while driving his souped-up Autobianchi Bianchina, another driver broadsided him, flipping over his car, nearly killing him, causing him to lose interest in racing as a career. He attended Modesto Junior College, where he studied anthropology, sociology and he also began shooting with an 8 mm camera, including filming car races. At this time, Lucas and his friend John Plummer became interested in Canyon Cinema, screenings of underground, avant-garde 16 mm filmmakers like Jordan Belson, Stan Brakhage, and Bruce Conner. Lucas and Plummer also saw classic European films of the time, including Jean-Luc Godards Breathless, François Truffauts Jules et Jim, thats when George really started exploring, Plummer said. Through his interest in racing, Lucas met renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler, another race enthusiast. Wexler, later to work with Lucas on several occasions, was impressed by Lucas talent, George had a very good eye, and he thought visually, he recalled. Lucas then transferred to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, USC was one of the earliest universities to have a school devoted to motion picture film. During the years at USC, Lucas shared a room with Randal Kleiser. Along with classmates such as Walter Murch, Hal Barwood, and John Milius and he also became good friends with fellow acclaimed student filmmaker and future Indiana Jones collaborator, Steven Spielberg
10.
Russell T Davies
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He left the BBC in the early 1990s to work for Granada Television and later became a freelance writer. Davies moved into writing adult television dramas in 1994 and he revived and ran Doctor Who after a sixteen-year hiatus, with Christopher Eccleston, and later David Tennant, in the title role. Davies moved to Los Angeles, California in 2009, where he oversaw production of Torchwood, Miracle Day, after his partner developed cancer in late 2011, Davies returned to the UK, and co-created a new drama for CBBC, Wizards vs Aliens. Stephen Russell Davies was born on 27 April 1963 at Mount Pleasant Hospital in Swansea and his father, Vivian Davies, and his mother, Barbara, were teachers. Davies was the youngest of three children and their only son, because he was born by C-section, his mother was placed on a morphine drip and was institutionalised after an overdose resulted in a psychotic episode. He described his mothers experience as literally, like science fiction and an early inspiration for his writing career. As a child, Davies was almost always referred to by his middle name and he grew up in a household that never switched the TV off until after closedown, and he subsequently became immersed in dramas such as I, Claudius and Doctor Who. One of his first memories, at the age of three, was the 1966 Doctor Who serial The Tenth Planet and he was also an avid cartoonist and comics enthusiast, and purchased series such as Asterix and Peanuts. Davies attended the local Tycoch Primary School in Sketty and enrolled at Olchfa Comprehensive School aged 11, in his first year, the main school buildings were closed off for renovation after inspectors discovered that the cement used in construction had caused other public buildings to collapse. Lessons were instead held in buildings, which influenced Davies imagination to create mystery, science-fiction. He also immersed himself in such as Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence and The Crystal Mouse by Babs H Deal. At age 14, he auditioned for and joined the newly formed West Glamorgan Youth Theatre Company, the groups founder and director, Godfrey Evans, considered him to be a total all-rounder who was talented and popular with the other students. Working with the group allowed him to define his sexual identity and he later came out as homosexual in his teenage years. In 1981, he was accepted by Worcester College, Oxford to study English literature, at Oxford, he realised that he was enamoured with the narrative aspect of fiction, especially 19th-century literature such as Charles Dickens. In 1984, he made his performance for the WGYT. He worked sporadically for the Sherman Theatres publicity department and claimed unemployment benefit in the interim, Davies was taken on as a member of the BBC Wales childrens department in 1985 and given one-day contracts and commissions, such as illustrating for Why Dont You. As he was given three days of work per month by the BBC, he continued to freelance and volunteer for the Sherman Theatre. In 1986, he was approached by the Sunday Sport before its launch to provide a daily strip
