London
London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans; the City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of the London Assembly. London is considered to be one of the world's most important global cities and has been termed the world's most powerful, most desirable, most influential, most visited, most expensive, sustainable, most investment friendly, most popular for work, the most vegetarian friendly city in the world. London exerts a considerable impact upon the arts, education, fashion, healthcare, professional services and development, tourism and transportation.
London ranks 26 out of 300 major cities for economic performance. It is one of the largest financial centres and has either the fifth or sixth largest metropolitan area GDP, it is the most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the busiest city airport system as measured by passenger traffic. It is the leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. London's universities form the largest concentration of higher education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted three modern Summer Olympic Games. London has a diverse range of people and cultures, more than 300 languages are spoken in the region, its estimated mid-2016 municipal population was 8,787,892, the most populous of any city in the European Union and accounting for 13.4% of the UK population. London's urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census.
The population within the London commuter belt is the most populous in the EU with 14,040,163 inhabitants in 2016. London was the world's most populous city from c. 1831 to 1925. London contains four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London. Other landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square and The Shard. London has numerous museums, galleries and sporting events; these include the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, British Library and West End theatres. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world. "London" is an ancient name, attested in the first century AD in the Latinised form Londinium. Over the years, the name has attracted many mythicising explanations; the earliest attested appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written around 1136. This had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had taken over the city and named it Kaerlud.
Modern scientific analyses of the name must account for the origins of the different forms found in early sources Latin, Old English, Welsh, with reference to the known developments over time of sounds in those different languages. It is agreed; this was adapted into Latin as Londinium and borrowed into Old English, the ancestor-language of English. The toponymy of the Common Brythonic form is much debated. A prominent explanation was Richard Coates's 1998 argument that the name derived from pre-Celtic Old European *lowonida, meaning "river too wide to ford". Coates suggested that this was a name given to the part of the River Thames which flows through London. However, most work has accepted a Celtic origin for the name, recent studies have favoured an explanation along the lines of a Celtic derivative of a proto-Indo-European root *lendh-, combined with the Celtic suffix *-injo- or *-onjo-. Peter Schrijver has suggested, on these grounds, that the name meant'place that floods'; until 1889, the name "London" applied to the City of London, but since it has referred to the County of London and Greater London.
"London" is sometimes written informally as "LDN". In 1993, the remains of a Bronze Age bridge were found on the south foreshore, upstream of Vauxhall Bridge; this bridge either reached a now lost island in it. Two of those timbers were radiocarbon dated to between 1750 BC and 1285 BC. In 2010 the foundations of a large timber structure, dated to between 4800 BC and 4500 BC, were found on the Thames's south foreshore, downstream of Vauxhall Bridge; the function of the mesolithic structure is not known. Both structures are on the south bank. Although there is evidence of scattered Brythonic settlements in the area, the first major settlement was founded by the Romans about four years after the invasion
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England. The county town is the city of Winchester, its two largest cities and Portsmouth, are administered separately as unitary authorities. First settled about 14,000 years ago, Hampshire's history dates to Roman Britain, when its chief town was Winchester; when the Romans left Britain, the area was infiltrated by tribes from Scandinavia and mainland Europe, principally in the river valleys. The county was recorded in the 11th century Domesday Book, divided into 44 hundreds. From the 12th century, the ports grew in importance, fuelled by trade with the continent and cloth manufacture in the county, the fishing industry, a shipbuilding industry was established. By the 16th century, the population of Southampton had outstripped that of Winchester. By the mid-19th century, with the county's population at 219,210 in more than 86,000 dwellings, agriculture was the principal industry and 10 per cent of the county was still forest. Hampshire played a crucial military role in both World Wars.
The Isle of Wight left the county to form its own in 1974. The county's geography is varied, with upland to 286 metres and south-flowing rivers. There are areas of downland and marsh, two national parks: the New Forest, part of the South Downs, which together cover 45 per cent of Hampshire. Hampshire is one of the most affluent counties in the country, with an unemployment rate lower than the national average, its economy derived from major companies, maritime and tourism. Tourist attractions include the national parks and the Southampton Boat Show; the county is known as the home of writers Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, the childhood home of Florence Nightingale and the birthplace of engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Hampshire takes its name from the settlement, now the city of Southampton. Southampton was known in Old English as Hamtun meaning "village-town", so its surrounding area or scīr became known as Hamtunscīr; the old name was recorded in the Domesday book as Hantescire, from this spelling, the modern abbreviation "Hants" derives.
From 1889 until 1959, the administrative county was named the County of Southampton and has been known as Southamptonshire. Hampshire was the departure point of some of those who left England to settle on the east coast of North America during the 17th century, giving its name in particular to the state of New Hampshire; the towns of Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Portsmouth, Virginia take their names from Portsmouth in Hampshire. The region is believed to have been continuously occupied since the end of the last Ice Age about 12,000 BCE. At this time, Britain was still attached to the European continent and was predominantly covered with deciduous woodland; the first inhabitants were Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. The majority of the population would have been concentrated around the river valleys. Over several thousand years, the climate became progressively warmer, sea levels rose. Notable sites from this period include Bouldnor Cliff. Agriculture had arrived in southern Britain by 4000 BCE, with it a neolithic culture.
Some deforestation took place at that time, although during the Bronze Age, beginning in 2200 BCE, this became more widespread and systematic. Hampshire has few monuments to show from these early periods, although nearby Stonehenge was built in several phases at some time between 3100 and 2200 BCE. In the late Bronze Age, fortified hilltop settlements known as hillforts began to appear in large numbers in many parts of Britain including Hampshire, these became more and more important in the early and middle Iron Age. By this period, the people of Britain predominantly spoke a Celtic language, their culture shared much in common with the Celts described by classical writers. Hillforts declined in importance in the second half of the second century BCE, with many being abandoned. Around this period, the first recorded invasion of Britain took place, as southern Britain was conquered by warrior-elites from Belgic tribes of northeastern Gaul - whether these two events are linked to the decline of hillforts is unknown.
By the Roman conquest, the oppidum at Venta Belgarum, modern-day Winchester, was the de facto regional administrative centre. Julius Caesar invaded southeastern England in 55 and again in 54 BCE, but he never reached Hampshire. Notable sites from this period include Hengistbury Head, a major port; the Romans invaded Britain again in 43 CE, Hampshire was incorporated into the Roman province of Britannia quickly. It is believed their political leaders allowed themselves to be incorporated peacefully. Venta became the capital of the administrative polity of the Belgae, which included most of Hampshire and Wiltshire and reached as far as Bath. Whether the people of Hampshire played any role in Boudicca's rebellion of 60-61 CE is not recorded, but evidence of burning is seen in Winchester dated to around this period. For most of the next three centuries, southern Britain enjoyed relative peace; the part of th
The Apprentice (UK TV series)
The Apprentice is a British business-styled reality game show, created by Mark Burnett, distributed by Fremantle and broadcast by the BBC. Based upon the American original of the same name and billed as the "job interview from hell", the programme focuses on a group of aspiring businesspeople competing against each other in a series of business related challenges, in order to win a prize offered by British business magnate Alan Sugar. Produced by a number of companies over the course of the show's history, including Talkback Thames and United Artists Media Group, each series consists of around twelve episodes, were aired either around early/late Spring, before series began their broadcasts around Autumn; the show was aired on BBC Two, before the programme's success led the BBC to move the show to BBC One from the start of the third series in 2007. Since its second series, the show is accompanied by a companion discussion show entitled The Apprentice: You're Fired! that runs alongside a series' broadcast.
In addition, the programme has spawned two celebrity versions for Comic Relief and Sport Relief, a number of special 60-minute episodes, concentrating on the candidates that were fired in the current series being broadcast or those who made it to its penultimate/final stage. While the programme has been compared to another BBC series, Dragons' Den, its success has led to the creation of Apprentice-related merchandising including a magazine and official books, while leading other production companies to produces shows that follow a similar format, including Tycoon, Beat the Boss, Election. At present, the show has run for a total of 169 episodes. On 14 November 2018, Lord Sugar confirmed that a fifteenth series was under production, to be aired in 2019. Following the success of the first series of the American original of The Apprentice on NBC, which drew in considerable viewing figures, rumours began to surface that there was a possibility the programme could receive a UK version. In March 2004, FremantleMedia confirmed that these rumours were true, revealing that it was in negotiations to sell the rights to the UK franchise with two broadcasters - BBC and Channel 4.
On 1 April 2004, the BBC outbid its rival to secure the rights to The Apprentice franchise. With the rights secured, the broadcaster's next focus was on finding a business personality to front their new programme. At the time, the broadcaster's initial choices included Philip Green, Felix Dennis, Michael O'Leary, but when approached to front the programme, each respectfully declined the offer given to them; the BBC approached Alan Sugar as their next choice, on 19 May 2004, they announced that he had been chosen to head the programme's first series. When the UK version proved successful, Sugar opted to return for subsequent series as a direct result; when the show began, the prize offered to the candidates taking part was a job with a six-figure salary, at one of his companies - Amstrad, Amsprop or Amshold. After the sixth series, Sugar raised concerns over the format of the programme and refused to continue working on The Apprentice until serious changes were made. Discussions between him and the production team led to the format being revised changing the prize being offered towards a business investment of £250,000 for the winner to use towards their business plan, in exchange for Sugar owning 50% of the new business.
The show's initial stage, not filmed, focuses on open auditions and interviews held across the country. A second round will be held in London for a small percentage of applicants, who divide into groups and are asked to do various exercises to test their business skills and to gauge how they work as a team. Following this, between 20 and 30 applicants are chosen and given an assessment by a psychologist, receiving further checks by the production team and providing them with references, before the final line-up is selected from this group and filming can begin. Candidates who make it into the show are split into two teams by gender, in which they pick a team name at the start of the process; the number of candidates who appear in a series has varied over the show's history, though always consists of a balanced number of men and women, with the exception of the fifth series in which a candidate was forced to drop out before filming began, leaving little time for a replacement to be found. For the first two series, fourteen candidates were selected to take part, before this figure was increased to sixteen between the third and ninth series to allow for multiple firings to occur at Lord Sugar's discretion.
To mark the tenth series of the show, the production team allowed twenty candidates to take part, the highest number of participants across any variation of The Apprentice. Between the eleventh to the thirteenth series, the production team selected eighteen candidates to take part in the show, before deciding to return to sixteen candidates prior to the start of the fourteenth series. Throughout the process, the candidates are given around 10 business-themed tasks, which are designed to test their skills in notable areas - salesmanship, requisitioning, leadership and organisation - with each episode covering a single task. Both teams are briefed by Lord Sugar over what the task involves, which includes the rules they must adhere to, the condition for winning the task, with the most common being making the most profit, achieving high sales fi
Devon
Devon known as Devonshire, its common and official name, is a county of England, reaching from the Bristol Channel in the north to the English Channel in the south. It is part of South West England, bounded by Cornwall to the west, Somerset to the north east, Dorset to the east; the city of Exeter is the county town. The county includes the districts of East Devon, Mid Devon, North Devon, South Hams, Teignbridge and West Devon. Plymouth and Torbay are each geographically part of Devon, but are administered as unitary authorities. Combined as a ceremonial county, Devon's area is 6,707 km2 and its population is about 1.1 million. Devon derives its name from Dumnonia. During the British Iron Age, Roman Britain, the early Middle Ages, this was the homeland of the Dumnonii Brittonic Celts; the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain resulted in the partial assimilation of Dumnonia into the Kingdom of Wessex during the eighth and ninth centuries. The western boundary with Cornwall was set at the River Tamar by King Æthelstan in 936.
Devon was constituted as a shire of the Kingdom of England. The north and south coasts of Devon each have both cliffs and sandy shores, the county's bays contain seaside resorts, fishing towns, ports; the inland terrain is rural and hilly, has a lower population density than many other parts of England. Dartmoor is the largest open space in southern England, at 954 km2. To the north of Dartmoor are the Culm Measures and Exmoor. In the valleys and lowlands of south and east Devon the soil is more fertile, drained by rivers including the Exe, the Culm, the Teign, the Dart, the Otter; as well as agriculture, much of the economy of Devon is based on tourism. The comparatively mild climate and landscape make Devon a destination for recreation and leisure in England, with visitors attracted to the Dartmoor and Exmoor national parks; the name Devon derives from the name of the Britons who inhabited the southwestern peninsula of Britain at the time of the Roman conquest of Britain known as the Dumnonii, thought to mean "deep valley dwellers" from proto Celtic *dubnos'deep'.
In the Brittonic, Devon is known as Welsh: Dyfnaint, Breton: Devnent and Cornish: Dewnens, each meaning "deep valleys." Among the most common Devon placenames is -combe which derives from Brittonic cwm meaning'valley' prefixed by the name of the possessor. William Camden, in his 1607 edition of Britannia, described Devon as being one part of an older, wider country that once included Cornwall: THAT region which, according to the Geographers, is the first of all Britaine, growing straiter still and narrower, shooteth out farthest into the West, was in antient time inhabited by those Britans whom Solinus called Dumnonii, Ptolomee Damnonii For their habitation all over this Countrey is somewhat low and in valleys, which manner of dwelling is called in the British tongue Dan-munith, in which sense the Province next adjoyning in like respect is at this day named by the Britans Duffneit, to say, Low valleys, but the Country of this nation is at this day divided into two parts, knowen by names of Cornwall and Denshire, The term "Devon" is used for everyday purposes e.g. "Devon County Council" but "Devonshire" continues to be used in the names of the "Devonshire and Dorset Regiment" and "The Devonshire Association".
One erroneous theory is that the "shire" suffix is due to a mistake in the making of the original letters patent for the Duke of Devonshire, resident in Derbyshire. However, there are references to "Defenascire" in Anglo-Saxon texts from before 1000 AD, which translates to modern English as "Devonshire"; the term Devonshire may have originated around the 8th century, when it changed from Dumnonia to Defenascir. Kents Cavern in Torquay had produced. Dartmoor is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer peoples from about 6000 BC; the Romans held the area under military occupation for around 350 years. The area began to experience Saxon incursions from the east around 600 AD, firstly as small bands of settlers along the coasts of Lyme Bay and southern estuaries and as more organised bands pushing in from the east. Devon became a frontier between Brittonic and Anglo-Saxon Wessex, it was absorbed into Wessex by the mid 9th century. A genetic study carried out by the University of Oxford & University College London discovered separate genetic groups in Cornwall and Devon, not only were there differences on either side of the Tamar, with a division exactly along the modern county boundary dating back to the 6th Century but between Devon and the rest of Southern England, similarities with the modern northern France, including Brittany.
This suggests the Anglo-Saxon migration into Devon was limited rather than a mass movement of people. The border with Cornwall was set by King Æthelstan on the east bank of the River Tamar in 936 AD. Danish raids occurred sporadically along many coastal parts of Devon between around 800AD and just before the time of the Norman conquest, including the silver mint at Hlidaforda Lydford in 997 and Taintona in 1001. Devon has featured in most of th
Lymington
Lymington is a port town on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It faces Isle of Wight, to which there is a car ferry service operated by Wightlink, it is within the civil parish of Pennington. The town has a large tourist industry, based on proximity to its harbour, it is a major yachting centre with three marinas. According to the 2011 census, Lymington had a population of 9,385; the earliest settlement in the Lymington area was around the Iron Age hill fort known today as Buckland Rings. The hill and ditches of the fort survive, archaeological excavation of part of the walls was carried out in 1935; the fort has been dated to around the 6th century BC. There is another supposed Iron Age site at nearby Ampress Hole. However, evidence of settlement there is sparse before Domesday book. Lymington itself began as an Anglo-Saxon village; the Jutes arrived in the area from the Isle of Wight in the 6th century and founded a settlement called Limentun.
The Old English word tun means a farm or hamlet whilst limen is derived from the Ancient British word *lemanos meaning an elm tree. The town is recorded in Domesday as "Lentune". About 1200, the lord of the manor, William de Redvers created the borough of New Lymington around the present quay and High Street, while Old Lymington comprised the rest of the parish, he gave the town the right to hold a market. The town became a parliamentary borough in 1585, returning two MPs until 1832, when its electoral base was expanded, its representation was reduced to one member under the Second Reform Act of 1867, it was subsumed into the New Forest Division under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885. Lymington was famous for salt-making from the Middle Ages up to the 19th century. There was an continuous belt of salt workings along the coast toward Hurst Spit. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Lymington possessed a military depot that included a number of foreign troops – artillery but several militia regiments.
At the time of the Napoleonic Wars, the King's German Legion-Artillery was based near Portchester Castle and sent sick soldiers to Lymington or Eling Hospital. As well as Germans and Dutch, there were French regiments, they were raised to take part in the ill-fated Quiberon Invasion of France, from. From the early 19th century, Lymington had a thriving shipbuilding industry associated with Thomas Inman, builder of the schooner Alarm, which famously raced the American yacht America in 1851. Much of the town centre is Victorian and Georgian, with narrow cobbled streets in the area of the quay. Lymington promotes stories about its smuggling. There are unproven stories of smugglers' tunnels running from the old inns and under the High Street to the town quay. Lymington was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. In 1932 the borough was extended to include Milton, the parishes of Milford on Sea and Pennington, parts of Lymington Rural District, so extending it along the coast to the edge of Christchurch.
The borough of Lymington was abolished on 1 April 1974 under the terms of the Local Government Act 1972, becoming an unparished area in the district of New Forest, with Charter Trustees. The area was subsequently divided into the four parishes of New Milton and Pennington, Milford-on-Sea and Hordle. Due to changes in planning legislation, many older areas of the town have been redeveloped. Houses have been replaced with blocks of flats and retirement homes. In a Channel 5 programme, Lymington received the accolade of "best town on the coast" in the UK for living, for scenery, transport links and low crime levels. Lymington New Forest Hospital opened in 2007; this has a Minor Injuries Unit but no Emergency facility. The nearest are at Southampton General Hospital, 16 miles away, the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, 14.5 miles away. The main Anglican parish church is the St Thomas in the high street; the northern neighbourhoods of the town are Buckland and Lower Buckland, the latter adjoining the Lymington River.
However, due to confusion with Buckland, Portsmouth in Hampshire, many people refer to themselves and their businesses here as Lymington. The poet Caroline Anne Bowles was died at Buckland Cottage. Pennington is a village near to Lymington, but is separated from the town by several schools with playing fields. Upper Pennington is a northern residential offshoot of Pennington, more rural in character entirely surrounded by heath and farmland. Lymington yacht basin and mudflats make up the former docks area known as Waterford. Woodside consists of a small southern triangle of residential roads, gardens and a cricket ground, which includes a manor house, church community hall, All Saints, Lymington; the church was built in 1909 by W. H. Romaine-Walker, architect of Danesfield House, Moreton Hall and the Tate Gallery extension, a student of the High Victorian architect George Edmund Street. Normandy is a coastal hamlet by a small dock and estuary, it includes the buildings Little Normandy and Normandy Farm.
The last backs onto an early 19th-century listed building. The high street has seen rapid change over the last few years, with an increasing presence of chain stores and coffee-shop franchises. There is a local market, one of the New Forest producers' markets, held at the Masonic hall once a month
Arras
Arras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France. The historic centre of the Artois region, with a Baroque town square, Arras is located in Northern France at the confluence of the Scarpe river and the Crinchon River; the Arras plain lies on a large chalk plateau bordered on the north by the Marqueffles fault, on the southwest by the Artois and Ternois hills, on the south by the slopes of Beaufort-Blavincourt. On the east it is connected to the Scarpe valley. Established during the Iron Age by the Gauls, the town of Arras was first known as Nemetocenna, believed to have originated from the Celtic word nemeton, meaning'sacred space'. Saint Vedast was the first Catholic bishop in the year 499 and attempted to eliminate paganism among the Franks. By 843, Arras was seat of the County of Artois which became part of the Royal domain in 1191; the first mention of the name Arras appeared in the 12th century. Some hypothesize it is a contraction of Atrebates, a Belgic tribe of Gaul and Britain that used to inhabit the area.
The name Atrebates could have successively evolved to become Atrades, Atradis and Arras. Others believe it comes from the Celtic word Ar, meaning'running water', as the Scarpe river flows through Arras. Louis XIII reconquered Arras in 1640. Arras is Pas-de-Calais' third most populous town after Boulogne-sur-Mer; the town counted 43,693 residents in 2012, with the Arras metropolitan area having a population of 124,200. Arras is located 182 kilometers north of Paris and can be reached in 2 hours by car and in 50 minutes by TGV, it is the historic center of the former Artois province. Its local speech is characterized as a patois; the city of Arras is well known for its architecture and history. It was once part of the Spanish Netherlands, a portion of the Low Countries controlled by Spain from 1556 to 1714; each year Arras attracts thousands of visitors, who explore the city's architecture and historic buildings. Some famous attractions include the splendid Town Hall and its Belfry, the "Boves", the Squares, the Art District, the Abbey District, the Vauban Citadel, the Nemetacum site.
The Canadian National Vimy Memorial is just outside the town. Unlike many French words, the final s in the name Arras should be pronounced. Archaeologists found evidence of prehistoric human settlements in the Scarpe basin; the archaeological sites of Mont-Saint-Vaast in Arras and Biache-Saint-Vaast were Stone Age settlements of the Mousterian culture. They were evidenced by the finds of stone tools; these tools show signs of the Levallois technique, a name given by archaeologists to a distinctive type of stone knapping, developed by forerunners to modern humans during the Paleolithic period 170,000 years ago. Little was found to document the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in the Arras area. Arras was founded on the boat of Baudimont by the Belgic tribe of the Atrebates, who named it Nemetocenna in reference to a nemeton that existed there, it was renamed Nemetacum/Atrebatum by the Romans, under whom it became an important garrison town. In the Scarpe valley archaeologists' excavations and data recovery revealed Late Iron Age settlements.
These buildings, believed to be farms, were found near the municipalities of Arras, Hamblain-les-Prés and Saint-Pol. In the 4th century, Nemetacum was renowned for its arts and crafts as well as textiles trade throughout the whole empire. Between 406 and 407, the city was destroyed by Germanic invaders. In 428, the Salian Franks led by Clodion le Chevelu took control of the region including the current Somme department. Roman General Aetius chose to negotiate for peace and concluded a treaty with Clodion that gave the Franks the status of «foederati» fighting for Rome; the town's people were converted to Christianity in the late 4th century by Saint Innocent, killed in 410 during a barbarian attack on the town. In 499, after the conversion of Clovis I to Catholicism, a diocese was created in Arras, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arras, given to Saint Vaast, who remains the diocesan patron saint. Saint Vaast established an episcopal see and a monastic community, it was suppressed in 580 to found the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cambrai, from which it would reemerge five centuries later.
In 667 Saint Aubert, bishop of Cambrai, decided to found the Abbey of Saint Vaast, which developed during the Carolingian period into an immensely wealthy Benedictine abbey. The modern town of Arras spread around the abbey as a grain market. During the 9th century, both town and abbey suffered from the attacks of the Vikings, who settled to the west in Normandy; the abbey revived its strength in the 11th century and played an important role in the development of medieval painting synthesizing the artistic styles of Carolingian and English art. In 1025, a Catholic council was held at Arras against certain Manichaean heretics who rejected the sacraments of the Church. In 1093, the bishopric of Arras was refounded on territory split from the Diocese of Cambrai. In 1097 two councils, presided over by Lambert d'Arras, dealt with questions concerning monasteries and persons consecrated to God. In this time, Arra
Keith Floyd
Keith Floyd was an English celebrity cook, television personality and bon viveur who hosted cooking shows for the BBC and published many books combining cookery and travel. On television, his eccentric style of presentation – drinking wine as he cooked and talking to his crew – endeared him to millions of viewers worldwide. Floyd was born near Reading, Berkshire, on 28 December 1943 to working class parents Sydney and Winnifred Floyd, he was brought up in a council house in the small town of Wiveliscombe in Somerset. His family made financial sacrifices to enable him to be educated at Wellington School, Somerset. Floyd became a cub reporter on the Bristol Evening Post, he joking, claimed he decided to join the British Army in 1963 after watching the film Zulu, although the film was not released until 1964. He attained the rank of Second Lieutenant in the Royal Tank Regiment serving on Centurion tanks, where he pestered the mess cook to produce gourmet dinners. After three years, finding that he and the Army were "mutually incompatible", Floyd found employment in several catering-related jobs including barman and vegetable peeler.
By 1971 Floyd had acquired three restaurants in Bristol, Floyd's Bistro in Princess Victoria Street in Clifton, Floyd's Restaurant in Alma Vale Road and Keith Floyd's Restaurant in Chandos Road, Redland. All three restaurants had financial problems. Floyd sold the restaurants and the rights to the name "Floyd's Restaurant" and moved to the south of France, where again he opened a restaurant in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in the Vaucluse. After this again ended in financial problems, he moved back to Britain. With the help of loans from friends, he opened another restaurant in Chandos Road; the restaurant in Chandos Road was frequented by others connected with television. Floyd's first cookery book, Floyd's Food, published before he became a TV celebrity, had an introduction written by Leonard Rossiter, star of British TV sitcoms Rising Damp and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. Floyd's first foray into the world of show business was as a radio chef on Radio West, an independent commercial radio station in Bristol.
TV producer David Pritchard offered him a slot on BBC West regional magazine show RPM, presented by Andy Batten Foster. That led, in 1984, to his being offered his first BBC TV series Floyd on Fish, which started his rapid rise to national popularity. Floyd never described himself as a chef, he became well known for cooking with a glass of wine in one hand in unusual locations such as a fishing boat in rough seas. He was regarded as a pioneer of taking cooking programmes out of the studio; the chef went on to present his shows from around the world, cooking on location in his unique chaotic style. He ran the Maltsters Arms in Tuckenhay, Devon in the late 1980s; when he was not running the kitchen, chefs included Jean Christophe Novelli. He was more seen at the bar than in the kitchen; the failure of the Maltsters led to his bankruptcy. Despite TV success, Floyd continued to have personal conflicts, he was declared bankrupt in 1996. The Daily Mirror claims that this happened after he guaranteed an order for £36,000 of drinks.
He lived in County Cork, Ireland for a time in the mid-1990s. In April 2008 he travelled to Singapore and Thailand in pursuit of new business ventures in Southeast Asia; until his death he was involved in his restaurant Floyd’s Brasserie, located at the Burasari Resort on the popular Thai island of Phuket. This was his first Asian restaurant and Phuket’s first celebrity chef restaurant, drawing a large following of Floyd fans who remembered his many TV series and cookbooks. Floyd travelled to cook local dishes and entertain people around the world, his cooking shows were marked by a tendency to consume wine during the preparation of the food. A documentary Keith Meets Keith, featuring actor and comedian Keith Allen interviewing Floyd, was broadcast on Channel 4 on 14 September 2009 and watched by nearly one million people. In the programme, Floyd admitted that away from the cameras, he drank too much out of loneliness, it emerged that Floyd had collapsed and died a few hours before the broadcast.
He was the subject of This. Floyd can be seen in a number of episodes of the children's television series Balamory, as a chef in Suzie Sweet's "Suzie's Cooking" song. In 2006, he appeared on the ITV show Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, demonstrating to the boys how to bake a cake for their Ant vs Dec challenge of cake decorating, resulting in Dec winning the challenge. Floyd had a bistro bar named after him in Thailand on the island of Koh Samui, Floyd's Beach Bistro Restaurant. All four of Floyd's marriages ended in divorce. Floyd spent many years in France. In 1974 he moved to Vaucluse department, in the south-east of France, with Paddy Walker and her three young children. Together, they formed a company called'Walker Floyd', where they bought wines in Vaucluse and drove them back to Bristol to be sold to the city's bars and restaurants, they would buy interesting, picked out, pieces of bric-a-brac to be driven back to Vaucluse for sale in the various markets. Paddy and Keith ran a restaurant together in L'Isle-sur-la-sorgue in the Vaucluse.
In his autobiography, Floyd notes Paddy's influence on him, he says: "My approach to food, my style if you like, had developed as a result of my life in France with Paddy." In 1979, after five
