1.
British people
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British people, or Britons, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown dependencies, and their descendants. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, although early assertions of being British date from the Late Middle Ages, the creation of the united Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 triggered a sense of British national identity. The notion of Britishness was forged during the Napoleonic Wars between Britain and the First French Empire, and developed further during the Victorian era, because of longstanding ethno-sectarian divisions, British identity in Northern Ireland is controversial, but it is held with strong conviction by unionists. Modern Britons are descended mainly from the ethnic groups that settled in the British Isles in and before the 11th century, Prehistoric, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norse. The British are a diverse, multi-national and multicultural society, with regional accents, expressions. Although none of his own writings remain, writers during the time of the Roman Empire made much reference to them, the group included Ireland, which was referred to as Ierne inhabited by the different race of Hiberni, and Britain as insula Albionum, island of the Albions. The term Pritani may have reached Pytheas from the Gauls, who used it as their term for the inhabitants of the islands. Greek and Roman writers, in the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, name the inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland as the Priteni, the origin of the Latin word Britanni. It has been suggested that name derives from a Gaulish description translated as people of the forms. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a name for the British Isles. However, the term Britannia persisted as the Latin name for the island, during the Middle Ages, and particularly in the Tudor period, the term British was used to refer to the Welsh people and Cornish people. At that time, it was the held belief that these were the remaining descendants of the ancient Britons. This notion was supported by such as the Historia Regum Britanniae. Wales and Cornwall, and north, i. e. Cumbria, Strathclyde and this legendary Celtic history of Great Britain is known as the Matter of Britain. The indigenous people of the British Isles have a combination of Celtic, Norse, Anglo-Saxon, oppenheimer continues that the majority of the people of the British Isles share genetic commonalities with the Basques, ranging from highs of 90% in Wales to lows of 66% in East Anglia. Oppenheimers opinion is that. by far the majority of male gene types in the British Isles derive from Iberia, ranging from a low of 59% in Fakenham, Norfolk to highs of 96% in Llangefni, north Wales. The English had been unified under a single state in 937 by King Athelstan of Wessex after the Battle of Brunanburh. However, historian Simon Schama suggested that it was Edward I of England who was responsible for provoking the peoples of Britain into an awareness of their nationhood in the 13th century
2.
Children's literature
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Childrens literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are enjoyed by children. Modern childrens literature is classified in two different ways, genre or the age of the reader. Childrens literature can be traced to stories and songs, part of an oral tradition. The development of childrens literature, before printing was invented, is difficult to trace. Even after printing became widespread, many childrens tales were originally created for adults. Since the 15th century, a quantity of literature, often with a moral or religious message, has been aimed specifically at children. The late nineteenth and early centuries became known as the Golden Age of Childrens Literature as this period included the publication of many books acknowledged today as classics. There is no single or widely used definition of childrens literature and it can be broadly defined as anything that children read or more specifically defined as fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or drama intended for and used by children and young people. The International Companion Encyclopedia of Childrens Literature notes that the boundaries of genre. are not fixed but blurred, sometimes, no agreement can be reached about whether a given work is best categorized as literature for adults or children. Rowlings Harry Potter series was written and marketed for young adults, the series extreme popularity led The New York Times to create a separate best-seller list for childrens books. Despite the widespread association of childrens literature with picture books, spoken narratives existed before printing, seth Lerer, in the opening of Childrens Literature, A Readers History from Aesop to Harry Potter, says, This book presents a history of what children have heard and read. The history I write of is a history of reception, early childrens literature consisted of spoken stories, songs, and poems that were used to educate, instruct, and entertain children. It was only in the 18th century, with the development of the concept of childhood, that a genre of childrens literature began to emerge, with its own divisions, expectations. French historian Philippe Ariès argues in his 1962 book Centuries of Childhood that the concept of childhood only emerged in recent times. He explains that children were in the past not considered as different from adults and were not given significantly different treatment. Pre-modern childrens literature, therefore, tended to be of a didactic and moralistic nature, with the purpose of conveying conduct-related, educational, during the 17th century, the concept of childhood began to emerge in Europe. Adults saw children as separate beings, innocent and in need of protection, the English philosopher John Locke developed his theory of the tabula rasa in his 1690 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. A corollary of this doctrine was that the mind of the child was born blank, and he also suggested that picture books be created for children
3.
The Exeter Blitz
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The Exeter Blitz is a childrens historical novel by David Rees, published by Hamilton in 1978. Set in the southwestern England city of Exeter, partly at Exeter Cathedral, it features the heavy May 1942 air raid and its effect on the life of one family, Rees won the annual Carnegie Medal recognising the years best childrens book by a British subject. Elsevier published the first U. S. edition in 1980, the novel opens in Colin Lockwoods school during a history lesson, the night after an air raid. Colin has fallen asleep, provoking sarcasm from the teacher, Mr Kitchen, at home, Colin irritates his mother and older sister Mary, and so decides to go to see his father, who is working at Exeter Cathedral. At the cathedral Colin notes down an inscription carved by one of his ancestors, as Mr Lockwood has to check on the fire-fighting arrangements, Colin climbs to the top of the south tower for the first time, and is impressed by the extensive view of the city. He accidentally leaves his jacket up there, with his homework in the pocket, when Colin gets home, his mother recruits him to hand out sherry and snacks at the fashion show in Nimrods that evening. Colin finds he quite enjoys his duties, and he is surprised when Mr Kitchen and he gets a fit of giggles when he listens to the speaker, Mrs Wimbleball, describing the new collection in glowing terms, and is sent out by his mother. He decides to retrieve his jacket from the tower. At this point the start, and the planes arrive unusually soon afterwards. Colin sees the start and is thrilled and fascinated until he realizes his danger. During a lull in the bombardment, he runs down the steps to an air raid shelter, on the way he narrowly escapes being hit by machine-gun fire. Mr Lockwood and his younger daughter June are at home where they shelter under the stairs, a bomb falls on the house, destroying half of it. When the all-clear sounds they are able to crawl through the rubble to the street, at Nimrods, some people are trapped in the lift when the power station is hit. When a bomb hits the shop, Mrs Lockwood is injured, Mrs Wimbleball is paralyzed, Mary and her boyfriend Lars are at the cinema, and leave immediately for the nearest shelter. Mary, a nurse, badly wants to get to the hospital, later at the hospital, Mary sees her mother brought in unconscious. Colin meets his Cockney schoolmate Terry at the shelter, and although they have been at odds before, as their fish shop has been destroyed, Colin invites Terry back to his house to sleep, not knowing it has also been bombed. Instead, they camp out in the fields, the next day, it is clear that despite devastating damage to the city centre, the cathedral has been largely spared, raising morale. Colin and Terry decide to use some of the frozen fish from the shop to provide free food for their neighbours
4.
Surbiton
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Surbiton is a suburban area of south-west London within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. It is situated next to the River Thames,11.0 miles south west of central London, Surbiton possesses a mixture of Art-Deco courts, more recent residential blocks and grand 19th century townhouses blending into a sea of semi-detached 20th century housing estates. See the article on Thomas Pooley for his rôle in the establishment of the town of Surbiton. See also the article on the Municipal Borough of Surbiton for the period 1855–1965 and this resulted in the line being routed further south, through a cutting in the hill south of Surbiton. Surbiton railway station opened in 1838, and was originally named Kingston-upon-Railway and it was only renamed Surbiton to distinguish it from the new Kingston railway station on the Shepperton branch line, which opened on 1 January 1869. The present station has an art deco façade and it was once home to Surbiton Studios which were owned by Stoll Pictures, before the company shifted its main production to Cricklewood Studios. The Pre-Raphaelite painters John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt came to Surbiton in 1851,26 years before Richard Jefferies, Millais used the Hogsmill River, in Six Acre Meadow, Tolworth, as the background for his painting Ophelia. Holman Hunt used the fields just south of this spot as the background to The Hireling Shepherd, in the mid-1870s the novelist Thomas Hardy lived in a house called St. Davids Villa in Hook Road, Surbiton for a year after his marriage to Emma Gifford. H. G. Wells, in his comic novel The Wheels of Chance, describes the cycle collision of Mr Hoopdriver and a Young Lady in Grey, the young lady approaching along an affluent from the villas of Surbiton. The writer Enid Blyton was governess to a Surbiton family for four years from 1920, at a house called Southernhay, middelton, who broadcast on gardening during the Second World War, lived in Surbiton, where he died suddenly outside his home. The artist who brought Rupert the Bear to life for a whole generation Alfred Bestall sketched out his cartoons from his home in Cranes Park, other names for the town include the Surbs and the Tron in reference to 80s movies The Burbs and Tron. Surbiton station features in the 2009 film version of Harry Potter, filming took place in November 2007. The station also appears in Agatha Christies Poirot, The Adventure of the Clapham Cook, a TV adaptation of the story by Agatha Christie. Surbiton receives a mention in the seventh chapter of the James Bond novel On Her Majestys Secret Service by Ian Fleming. The guitarist and singer-songwriter Eric Clapton purchased one of his first guitars from a shop in Surbiton called Bells, Surbiton is served by a number of regular bus services. London Buses routes 71,281,406,418,465, K1, K2, K3, Surbiton railway station provides rail links with London, Surrey and Hampshire. For education in Surbiton see the main Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames article, until the early 19th century, Surbiton, like Norbiton, lay in the parish of All Saints, Kingston upon Thames. As a result, Surbitons three parish churches all date back to the Victorian era, the two Anglican ones, Saint Marks and Saint Andrews, are located in the town centre
5.
King's College School
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Kings College School, commonly referred to as KCS, Kings or KCS Wimbledon, is an independent school in Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The school was founded in 1829 as the department of Kings College London and occupied part of its premises in Strand. It is a member of the Eton Group of schools, Kings accepts girls into the sixth form. In the sixth form pupils can choose between The International Baccalaureate and A-Levels, a Royal Charter by King George IV founded the School in 1829 as the junior department of the newly established Kings College, London. The School occupied the basement of the College in The Strand, most of its original eighty-five pupils lived in the City within walking distance of the School. During the early Victorian Period, the School grew in numbers, members of the teaching staff included Gabriele Rossetti, who taught Italian. His son, Dante Gabriel, joined the School in 1837, the best known of the early masters was the water-colourist, John Sell Cotman. Nine of his pupils became practising artists and ten architects, by 1843 there were five hundred pupils and the need for larger premises eventually led to the move to Wimbledon in 1897. The school was progressive in its curriculum in areas and appointed its first Science Master in 1855. The first Head Master, John Major, served the school between 1831–1866, ninety-nine of the schools pupils from this period appear in the Dictionary of National Biography. Until the 1880s, the school flourished, in 1882, only Eton College surpassed the total of thirty Oxford and Cambridge Board examination certificates obtained by pupils at KCS. But the schools teaching facilities were becoming inadequate as many competitor schools moved to new sites with modern facilities. In 1897, falling numbers of pupils prompted the move to the present site in Wimbledon. A separate junior school was opened on the campus in 1912. In World War I, many letters were written to the school, during World War II, the schools Great Hall was damaged by bomb shrapnel, and some of the damage can still be seen on the outside of the hall. The only remaining link between KCS and its parent is that one of the KCS Board of Governors is nominated by Kings College London. In the 2015 edition of Tatler Schools Guide, it was commented on that No wonder Oxbridge loves KCS pupils, on 21 November 2014, Kings won the title of Sunday Times Independent Secondary School of the Year. All sixth-formers at Kings currently study either the IB Diploma or the A-Level course, in 201514 pupils obtained the maximum IB score of 45 points, equivalent to 7 A grades at A-Level
6.
Queens' College, Cambridge
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Queens College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. Queens is one of the oldest and largest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou, the college spans both sides of the river Cam, colloquially referred to as the light side and the dark side, with the world-famous Mathematical Bridge connecting the two. Its most famous matriculant is Desiderius Erasmus, who studied at the college during his trips to England between 1506 and 1515, the college has a financial endowment of £54.9 million The current President of the college is the senior economist and Labour Party adviser, Lord Eatwell. Past Presidents of the college include Saint John Fisher, Queens College was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou, and refounded in 1465 by Elizabeth Woodville. In 1446 Andrew Dokett obtained a Charter from King Henry VI to found St Bernards College, a year later the charter was revoked and Dokett obtained a new charter from the king to found St Bernards College on the present site of Old Court and Cloister Court. In 1448 King Henry VI granted Margaret of Anjou the lands of St Bernards College to build a new college to be called Queens College of St Margaret and St Bernard. On 15 April 1448, Sir John Wenlock, Chamberlain to Queen Margaret, by 1460 the library, chapel, gatehouse and the Presidents lodge were completed and the chapel licensed for service. Between that time and the early 1600s many improvements were made and new buildings constructed, including the Walnut Tree Building, since then the college has refurbished most of its old building and steadily expanded. During the English civil war the college sent all its silver to help the King, as a result, the president and the fellows were ejected from their posts. In 1660 the president was restored, in 1777 a fire in the Walnut-Tree Building destroyed the upper floors which had to be rebuilt 1778-82. In February 1795 the College was badly flooded, reportedly waist-deep in the cloisters, in 1823 the spelling of the colleges name officially changed from Queens to Queens. The earliest known record of the college Boat Club dates from 1831, in 1862 the St Bernard Society, the debating club of the college was founded. In 1884 the first football match was played by the college team, in 1980, the college for the first time allowed females to matriculate as members of college, with the first female members of the college graduating in 1983. These arms are those of the first foundress Queen, Margaret of Anjou, the six quarters of these arms represent the six lordships which he claimed. The green border appears to be intended as a difference for Queens College and these arms are of interest because the third quarter uses gold on silver, a combination which is extremely rare in heraldry. The cross potent is a pun on the letters H and I. These are not the arms of the College, but, rather. The silver boars head was the badge of King Richard III of England, richards wife Anne Neville was the third Queen consort to be patroness of the College
