McEwan masterfully combines a laconic narrative style with an unpredictable ending. Its story centers on two friends, the editor of a popular newspaper and the composer composing the Millennium Symphony. True, practically nothing remained of their friendship, only hidden anger and resentment. It is worth reading to find out how the confrontation between old comrades ended.
In this collection we have included the most English novel writer, in which he tries to explain what good old England is. The events take place on the island-attraction of White, where all sorts of stereotypes about the country are collected: the monarchy, Robin Hood, The Beatles, beer... Indeed, why do tourists need modern England if there is a miniature copy that combines all the most interesting things?
A novel about the love of Victorian poets of the 19th century, which is intertwined with the history of modern scientists. A book for the intelligent reader who will enjoy the rich language, classic plots and numerous allusions to cultural and historical phenomena.
Coe had been composing jazz music for a long time, which was reflected in his literary creativity. “What a scam!” akin to improvisation, this is a bold and unexpected novel.
Michael, an average writer, gets the opportunity to tell the story of the rich and very influential Winshaw family. The problem is that these greedy relatives who have taken over all areas public life, poison the lives of other people and do not inspire sympathy.
If you've seen Cloud Atlas, this is an incredible complicated story invented by David Mitchell. But today we recommend that you take up reading another, no less interesting novel.
"Dream No. 9" is often compared to the best works. A young boy, Eiji, comes to Tokyo in search of the father he has never met. In eight weeks in the metropolis, he managed to find love, fall into the clutches of the yakuza, make peace with his alcoholic mother, find friends... You have to figure out for yourself which of this happened in reality and which in a dream.
“Tennis Balls of Heaven” is a modern version of “The Count of Monte Cristo”, supplemented with new details and meanings. Although we know the plot, it is simply impossible to stop reading.
Main character- student Ned Muddstone, for whom everything in life is going better than ever. He is handsome, smart, rich, well-mannered, from a good family. But because of a stupid joke from envious comrades, his whole life changes dramatically. Ned finds himself locked in a mental hospital, where he lives with only one goal - to get out in order to take revenge.
The novel about the life of 30-year-old Bridget Jones is popular all over the world. Thanks in part to the Hollywood adaptation starring Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth. But mostly because of the eccentric and so charming Bridget. She counts calories, tries to quit smoking and drink less, experiences setbacks in her personal life, but is still optimistic about the future and believes in love.
There are books in which you forgive the simplicity of the plot, the banality of the scenes, and stupid coincidences simply because they have soulfulness. "Bridget Jones's Diary" is that rare case.
The story of the boy with the scar is a true cultural phenomenon. The first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was rejected by 12 publishers, and only the small Bloomsbury, at its own risk, decided to publish it. And it was right. "" was a resounding success, and Rowling herself received the love of readers around the world.
Against the backdrop of magic and enchantment, we are talking about familiar and important things - friendship, honesty, courage, readiness to help and resist evil. That's why Rowling's fictional world captivates readers of all ages.
"The Collector" is John Fowles' most frightening and at the same time exciting novel. The main character, Frederick Clegg, loves collecting butterflies, but at some point he decides to add a cute girl, Miranda, to his collection. We learn this story from the words of the kidnapper and from the diary of his victim.
Thomas More (1478 - 1535), from whom famous English writers actually originate, despite his “serious” origins from the family of a famous judge in London, had exceptional cheerfulness from childhood. For 13 years he found himself in the service of the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Morton.
However, not only his wit, but also his thirst for knowledge contributed to the fact that his stern mentor predicted the fate of an “amazing man” for him.
Beginning in 1510, the young lawyer became interested VIII, and this meant the beginning of a political career for Thomas. 11 years later he was so successful at it that he was knighted, with the prefix “sir” added to his name. And for the manifesto “In Defense of the Seven Sacraments,” he was awarded the title Defender of the Faith of England by Pope Leo X.
Researchers still do not know whether to classify his “History of Richard III” as historical or work of art. It is similar to the chronicles of those years, but it also represents the point of view of the author, who gives an assessment of the events of 1483; this version was very popular in the works of writers of the 19th century.
Thomas More had other talents - poet and translator. He is credited, in particular, with the authorship of 280 Latin epigrams, translations from Greek language and poems.
More's most significant creation is Utopia, which remains relevant in England today. Her ideas were used by Russian writers of the 19th century. In the genre of the novel, he laid down a powerful message of socialist thought.
It can be considered a kind of manifesto utopian socialism 19th century. A master of epigrams, he himself spoke of his work as useful and funny. The ideas of abolishing private property and exploitation of labor are also used by modern writers.
Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745) is known to the general public only as the author of the famous Gulliver's Travels. However, this talented satirist of England proved himself to be a courageous publicist, philosopher, poet and public figure, who most of all advocated for solving the problems of his native Irish. Famous writers of the 19th century consider him their confessor.
Swift came from a poor family. His father, his full namesake, died in the rank of a minor judicial official when his wife was pregnant with the future classic of English literature. Therefore, his uncle Godwin took upon himself all the work of raising the baby, and Jonathan practically did not know his own mother.
He studied at Trinity College (Dublin University) with a bachelor's degree, but this study left him with a lifelong skepticism towards science. He was much better at languages - Latin and Greek, as well as French, plus he had excellent makings of a writer who influenced the literature of England in the 19th century.
Even before receiving his master's degree at Oxford (1692), he made his debut in the literary field as a poet.
Two years later, Jonathan became a confessor and was sent to Ireland. The religious fervor of the future critic of morals did not last long, and already in 1696-1699 he returned to English literature with satirical stories, parables and poems, which were developed in Russian literature of the 19th century.
Nevertheless, having lost his patrons in London, he was forced to return to the bosom of the church, without ceasing to create in the field of satire. In 1702, he became a doctor of divinity at the same Trinity College from which he had previously graduated.
One of the two parables he had previously written, “The Tale of the Barrel,” brought him popularity in England. In 1713, he took the position of dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, thus entering big politics. The main theme of his aspirations was the struggle for Irish autonomy, which English writers actively glorified in their works of the 19th century.
It is interesting that the first two volumes of Gulliver were published anonymously in England (1726). The remaining two, however, were not long in coming (1727) and, despite some successes of censorship, which slightly spoiled the book, Travels instantly became incredibly popular. Suffice it to say that within a few months the book was reprinted three times, and then its translations began, which continued into the 19th and 20th centuries.
Samuel Richardson (1689 – 1761) can rightfully be called the founding father of the “sensitive” literature of England, which was continued by writers of the 19th century. With three novels - "Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded", "Clarissa, or the Story of a Young Lady" and "The Story of Sir Charles Grandison" - he formed the foundation of his worldwide fame.
He was not only a wonderful writer, but also a reputable printer and publisher in England. He survived the death of his wife and five sons, married again, and his second wife bore him four daughters. However, Samuel himself was from a large family, in which, in addition to himself, eight more children grew up.
Already in adolescence, Samuel gravitated towards writing. At the age of 13, girls he knew begged him to write answers for them to love letters sent to them. Thus, with simple research into girls’ hearts, he prepared the ground for his “three pillars”, on which their fruits grew in the 19th century.
As a 17-year-old boy, he became a printer, and for seven long years he worked as a laborer for the master, who disliked Richardson so much that he, the only one of his workers, did not give him any concessions. After leaving him, Samuel opened his own printing house, and then married for convenience the daughter of his former employer.
Richardson wrote his first novel at the age of 51, and this creation instantly became a bestseller, and its author a lifetime classic.
Each of Samuel's three novels tells the story of the life of a certain class of England, from the lowest to the highest. Their main advantage is a fundamental analysis of feelings and abundant moral teaching. The most successful critics unanimously call it “Clarissa, or the Story of a Young Lady,” the ideas of which came to court in the 19th century and are also used by modern authors.
Henry Fielding (1707 - 1754) is the founder of the realistic novel in England, the author of The History of Tom Jones, Foundling, and a prolific playwright. Coming from a general's family, a hereditary nobleman, he graduated from Eton, studied for two years in Leiden, but was forced to return to London and earn a living as a playwright.
His first opuses with a clearly satirical slant came under fire from official criticism, and after the release of The Golden Rump from his pen, the authorities adopted the Law on Theater Censorship, which was still relevant in the 19th century.
Fielding had to quit the theater, enter Templely and concentrate on his legal career in order to support his family. Along the way, he became interested in journalism, but was often poor, and only the patronage of the wealthy benefactor Ralph Allen (later the prototype of Olvetri in Tom Jones) helped his children, after Henry’s death, receive a decent education.
However, the attractiveness of satire did not allow him to leave dramaturgy forever, and the success of his “Thumb Boy” in England became a continuation of his career in this field. His first major success was “Shamela”, in this novel he takes the baton from Jonathan Swift and successfully criticizes the melodramatic genre, which was in great favor at that time and most fully developed in the 19th century.
However, neither in this nor in the subsequent Joseph Andrews did Fielding achieve the same level of mastery as in The History of the Life of the Late Jonathan Wild the Great. The theme of fraud begun in this novel continued in The Effeminate Spouse.
The crowning achievement of Fielding's work is undoubtedly his Tom Jones. Here the genre of the picaresque novel is almost completely formed in order to sail further on the waves of English literature, accessible to followers.
And the tilt towards sentimentalism that he made in “Emilia” only testifies to the multifaceted talent of this great English writer.
Walter Scott (1771 – 1832) was the first to use the today fashionable word “freelancer” (in “Ivanhoe”), and he was not a free artist, but a hired medieval warrior. In addition to writing and poetry, history and advocacy, the founder of the historical novel of the 19th century was not alien to collecting antiquities.
He was born the ninth child in a family of intellectuals, where his father was a wealthy lawyer, and his mother was the daughter of a medical professor. However, at the age of one, little Walter suffered from infantile paralysis, and therefore, despite repeated treatment, his right leg lost mobility forever.
The future novelist of the 19th century spent his childhood with his grandfather, a farmer, amazing those around him with his liveliness of mind and unique memory. His years of study were connected with his native Edinburgh; here the boy developed a craving for studying the ballads and tales of Scotland and the works of German poets.
At the age of 21 he became a certified lawyer., and then starts his own legal practice. At this time, he travels a lot around Britain, collecting his favorite English legends and ballads.
The writer meets his first love in the same lawyer family. However, the girl chose a banker over him, which forever broke his heart, pieces of which littered all his subsequent literary opuses.
Unfortunately, childhood illnesses made themselves felt in 1830 with apoplexy. Now he is losing his mobility right hand. Over the next two years, he suffered two more such strokes, and died in 1832 from a heart attack.
Now his Abbotsford estate houses a museum containing all the relics associated with his life's achievements. They began with translations of the ballads of one of his favorite German poets, Burger - “Lenora” and “Wild Hunter”. The next one in his translation was Goethe's drama Goetz von Berlichingham.
It is therefore clear that Scott’s debut in the literature of the 19th century could only be a poetic work - the ballad “Midsummer’s Evening” (1800). Already in 1802, he burst into a two-volume work, which included both Scott’s original ballads and his revised English legends.
And a year later literary world witnessed the birth of the first novel in verse, Marmion. In addition, he owns the throne of the founder historical poem, and his work in 1805-1817 popularized the lyric-epic poem.
So, having already become a famous poet, he graduated from Waverley in 1814 and began a career that brought him worldwide fame, which is the envy of writers all over the planet. Despite his poor health, Walter Scott was phenomenally productive. He published less than two novels a year.
This was the Honoré de Balzac of 19th century English literature! It is interesting that from the very beginning he sought his path in the genre of the historical novel of England. And, judging by the success of Rob Roy, Woodstock, Ivanhoe, Quentin Dorward, The Antiquarian and his other novels that followed Waverley, he completely succeeded!
Nick Hornby is known not only as the author of such popular novels as Hi-Fi and My Boy, but also as a screenwriter. The writer’s cinematic style makes him very popular in adapting books by various authors into film adaptations: “Brooklyn”, “An Education of Sentiments”, “Wild”.
Formerly an ardent football fan, he even took his obsession to autobiographical novel"Football fever."
Culture is often a key theme in Hornby's books; in particular, the writer does not like it when pop culture is underestimated, considering it to be limited. Also, the key themes of the works are often the hero’s relationship with himself and others, overcoming and searching for himself.
Nick Hornby now lives in the Highbury area of North London, close to his favorite football team's stadium, Arsenal.
Doris Lessing (1919 - 2013)
After the second divorce in 1949, she moved with her son to London, where at first she rented an apartment with a couple lung woman behavior.
The topics that worried Lessing, as often happens, changed during her life, and if in 1949-1956 she was primarily occupied social issues and communist themes, then from 1956 to 1969 the works began to be worn psychological character. In later works, the author was close to the postulates of the esoteric movement in Islam - Sufism. In particular, this was expressed in many of her science fiction works from the Canopus series.
In 2007, the writer was awarded Nobel Prize according to literature.
The novel "Bridget Jones's Diary", which was born from the column that Helen wrote in the Independent newspaper, brought the writer worldwide success and the love of millions of women.
The plot of "The Diary" repeats in detail the plot of Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice", right down to the name of the main male character - Mark Darcy.
They say that the writer was inspired to write the book by the 1995 TV series and especially by Colin Firth, since he migrated without any changes to the film adaptation of “The Diary.”
In the UK, Stephen is known as an esthete and a great original, driving around in his own cab. Stephen Fry incomparably combines two abilities: to be the standard of British style and to regularly shock the public. His bold statements about God they lead many into a stupor, which, however, does not in any way affect his popularity. He is openly gay - last year, 57-year-old Fry married a 27-year-old comedian.
Fry does not hide the fact that he used drugs and suffers from bipolar disorder, about which he even made a documentary.
It’s not easy to define all of Fry’s areas of activity; he jokingly calls himself “a British actor, writer, king of dance, prince of swimsuits and blogger.” All of his books invariably become bestsellers, and interviews are analyzed for quotes.
Stephen is considered a rare owner of a unique classic English accent; an entire book has been written about the art of “speaking like Stephen Fry.”
Julian Barnes has been called the "chameleon" of British literature. He is excellent at creating works that are different from each other without losing his individuality: eleven novels, four of which are detective stories, written under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh, a collection of short stories, a collection of essays, a collection of articles and reviews.
The writer was repeatedly accused of francophony, especially after the publication of the book “Flaubert's Parrot,” a kind of mixture of a biography of the writer and a scientific treatise on the role of the author in general. The writer's attraction to everything French is partly explained by the fact that he grew up in the family of a French teacher.
His novel “The History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters” became a real event in literature. Written in the dystopian genre, the novel seeks answers to a number of philosophical questions about the essence of man, his past, present and future.
A favorite of children and adults around the world, the restless Paddington Bear was “born” in 1958, when Michael Bond last moment Before Christmas I realized that I forgot to buy a gift for my wife. Out of hopelessness, the author, who had already written many plays and stories by that time, bought his wife a toy bear in a blue raincoat.
In 2014, a film was made based on his books, where London became one of characters narration. It appears before us as if through the eyes of a little guest from dense Peru: at first rainy and inhospitable, and then sunny and beautiful. In the picture you can recognize Notting Hill, Portobello Road, streets near Maida Vale station, Paddington station and the Natural History Museum.
Interestingly, the writer now lives in London just near Paddington station.
Rowling went from welfare dole to author of the best-selling book series in history in just five years, which became the basis for films that in turn are recognized as the second highest-grossing franchise.
As Rowling herself said, the idea for the book came to her during a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990. .
Neil Gaiman is called one of the main modern storytellers. Hollywood producers are lining up for the film rights to his books.
He also wrote scripts himself more than once. His famous novel Neverwhere was born from just such a script for a mini-series filmed at the BBC in 1996. Although, of course, the opposite is more often the case.
Neil's scary tales are also loved because they blur the lines between intellectual and entertaining literature.
The writer is a winner of prestigious awards; many of Ian’s works have been filmed.
The writer's first works were distinguished by cruelty and great attention to the theme of violence, for which the author was awarded the nickname Ian Macabre. He was also called the black wizard of modern British prose and a world-class expert on all types of violence.
In subsequent work, all these themes remained, but seemed to fade into the background, running like a red thread through the fate of the heroes, without lingering in the frame.
The writer spent his childhood on the run: he was born in Czechoslovakia into an intelligent Jewish family. Due to her nationality, his mother moved to Singapore and then to India. Almost all of the writer’s relatives died during the Second World War, and his mother, having married a British military man for the second time, raised her children as real Englishmen.
Stoppard became famous for the play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” a reimagined tragedy of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” which, under Tom’s pen, turned into a comedy.
The playwright has a lot in common with Russia. He visited here in 1977, working on a report about dissidents who were kept in psychiatric hospitals. “It was cold. Moscow seemed gloomy to me,” the author shares his memories.
The writer also visited Moscow during the production of a play based on his play at the RAMT Theater in 2007. The theme of the 8-hour performance is the development of Russian political thoughts XIX century with its main characters: Herzen, Chaadaev, Turgenev, Belinsky, Bakunin.
We can talk a lot about the role of personality in history, but we are much more interested in the topic of the role of personality in the development of the English language. After all, there is no doubt that a number of people whose names we know for sure have made an invaluable contribution to English with their literary works. Of course, we are talking about the most famous writers in Great Britain.
William Shakespeare often called the greatest British writer and one of the world's brightest playwrights. The writer was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon in England. During his career, Shakespeare created about two hundred works, which were translated into many languages and constantly staged. In addition, Shakespeare himself performed in theaters for a long time. Among the author’s most famous works are the famous tragedies “Romeo and Juliet”, “Hamlet”, “Othello”, “Macbeth”, “King Lear”.
Oscar Wilde- another famous and interesting representative of British literature. He was born in 1856 into an Irish family. Oscar Wilde's talent and sense of humor are recognized throughout the world, as is his most famous novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. The writer always said that aesthetic feelings There is driving force human development, a topic he repeatedly touched upon in his works. Oscar Wilde left a large number of magnificent fairy tales, plays and novels, which are often staged in our time.
Charles Dickens- a British writer who gained popularity during his lifetime and is a recognized classic of world literature. Dickens was born in 1812 in Porsmouth, England, and grew up in big family. From childhood, the writer was forced to earn a living, and his hardships were later reflected in such famous works, like “Oliver Twist”, “Great Expectations”, the heroes of which were poor orphan boys. No less famous works are "Dombey and Son", "A Tale of Two Cities" and " Posthumous notes Pickwick Club", which brought him great fame.
Agatha Christie often called the queen of detective stories. The writer, who was born in 1890, is one of the most frequently published writers. Agatha Christie gave the world about a hundred works, including detective and psychological novels, short stories and plays. Christie's most famous creations are the play "The Mousetrap", the detective novel "Ten Little Indians", "Murder on the Orient Express" and many others.
Another great detective master is considered Arthur Conan Doyle, which gave the world the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and many other colorful characters.
Among modern authors, the one that stands out is British writer JK Rowling, famous for the series of books about the wizard Harry Potter and the magical world. These books not only brought her worldwide fame, but also turned her from a single mother living on welfare into a multimillionaire. After the release of all the Harry Potter books, Rowling published several books for adult readers, including under the pseudonym "Robert Gilbraith."
This list can be continued for a long time, but we have listed the real “giants”. Without them, the English language, which you can study in courses at, would be completely different. That's why it's so important to remember them and know their names.
Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925).
Sir Henry Rider Haggard was born on June 22, 1856 in Bradenham, Norfolk, the son of Squire William Haggard, the eighth of his ten children. At the age of nineteen, Henry Rider Haggard fell deeply and, as it turned out, for the rest of his life in love with the daughter of a squire who lived next door, Lily Jackson. But the father considered his son’s intention to marry premature and considered it best to send him to South Africa as secretary to Henry Bulwer, the English governor of the province of Natal. Thus his only true love was destroyed, as Haggard later wrote. Having abruptly changed the young man’s personal destiny, a trip to South Africa determined his further creative destiny: it was Africa that became for Haggard an inexhaustible source of themes, plots, and human types of his numerous books, and the longing for lost love itself became one of the defining themes of the writer’s works, embodied in unusual images.
Africa also gave Haggard an intoxicating sense of personal freedom: due to his occupation and love of travel, he traveled a lot around Natal and the Transvaal, conquered by the boundless expanses of the African veld, the beauty of the inaccessible mountain peaks - Haggard poetically and romantically recreated these unique landscapes in many of his novels. He was fond of activities typical of an English gentleman in Africa - hunting, horseback riding, etc. However, unlike many of his compatriots, he was also interested in morals local residents, the Zulus, their history, culture, legends - Haggard became acquainted with all this first-hand, soon learning the Zulu language. He adopted the traditional “Englishman in Africa” dislike for the Boers and a patronizing, benevolent, paternalistic attitude towards the Zulus, for whom, Haggard, like the overwhelming majority of his compatriots, believed, the rule of the English was a blessing (however, as one can judge from some of his statements, he was aware of the devastating impact of the English invasion on traditional Zulu customs). Haggard retained this position of “enlightened imperialism” until the end of his life.
In 1878 Haggard became Master and Recorder of the Supreme Court in the Transvaal, resigned in 1879, went to England, married and returned to Natal with his wife at the end of 1880, deciding to become a farmer. However, in South Africa Hagard farmed for only a short time: in September 1881 he finally settled in England. In 1884, Haggard passed the relevant exam and became a practicing lawyer. However, Haggard's legal practice was not attractive - he wanted to write.
Haggard tried his hand at writing historical, psychological and fantastic works with considerable success. Everything he created is marked by rich imagination, extraordinary verisimilitude and the scale of the narrative. Haggard became famous worldwide for his novels about adventures in South Africa, in which the fantastic element plays a significant role; the author's constant fascination lost worlds, the ruins of ancient mysterious civilizations, archaic cults of immortality and the reincarnation of souls made him, in the eyes of many critics, one of the undisputed forerunners of modern fantasy. Haggard's popular hero, the white hunter and adventurer Allan Quartermain, is a central character in many of the books.
For his contemporaries, Haggard was not only a popular prose writer, a writer of fascinating historical adventure novels. He is also a publicist, a singer of rural England, the measured and meaningful farming way of life, so familiar to Haggard from his Norfolk estate of Ditchingham. He was actively involved in farming, strove to improve it, and mourned seeing its decline and gradual displacement by industry.
In the last two decades of his life, Haggard became intensely involved in political life countries. He stood for parliament in the 1895 elections (but lost), and was a member and consultant of an endless number of various government committees and commissions on colonial affairs and agriculture. Haggard's merits were appreciated by the authorities: as a reward for his work for the benefit of the British Empire, he was elevated to knighthood (1912), and in 1919 he received the Order of the British Empire.
Beatrix Potter (1866-1943).
Who doesn’t know today the fairy tale about the forest washerwoman Ukhti-Tukhti, who helped all the animals keep their clothes clean? Its author, Beatrix Potter, is one of the most popular English writers. Her fundamentally didactic fairy tales turned almost into adventure stories, so the action was “twisted”, so funny episodes quickly succeeded each other
In English art there is a concept - “one man’s book”. The tradition of creating original books, the illustrations for which were made by the authors themselves, was very strong in England. Since the time of the great William Blake, English poets have reserved the right to provide books with their own drawings and engravings. The poet became an artist; and the artist is a writer.
Potter was both a writer and an artist. She was born on July 28, 1866 in Bolton Gardens into a wealthy family. Beatrice's parents hired governesses and home teachers for Beatrice; she did not go to school and had no friends. And her loneliness was brightened up by pets, which she was allowed to keep in the classroom. For hours Beatrice looked after them, talked, shared children's secrets, and drew them. The Potter family spent their summers alternately in Scotland, then in Wales and in the famous Lake District, where they could communicate with animals in the wild. Young Beatrice's first childhood impressions were poetic. Potter's biographers rightly believe that these cats and rabbits are prototypes of characters in future children's books.
Arranging games for children in the meadow near her home and dramatizing her own fairy tales, Potter showed extraordinary teaching (and acting!) abilities. She had a rare pedagogical gift. The forest lawn also became a corner for children in her books. fairy world, inhabited by funny hares, kind hedgehogs, cheerful frogs. They were dressed in charming costumes, they had completely human headdresses, canes and even muffs. Comic comparisons of human manners and the habits of animals have always brought joy to readers.
Beatrice carried her first “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” with her own drawings for a long time to publishing houses, everywhere meeting with refusal, and finally published it in 1901 at her own expense. The book was an unexpected success, was republished, and until 1910, the young artist-writer regularly composed, illustrated and published an average of two books a year, which immediately became the “bestsellers” of the time. Everyone liked her funny animals - bunnies, mice, hedgehogs, goslings and other small animals that funny copied people, but retained their animal habits.
In 1903-1904, Potter's books The Tailor of Gloucester, Bunny Rabbit, and The Tale of Two Bad Little Mice appeared, which established the author's reputation as an artist with her own unique style. The future artist's father was a photographer, and young Beatrice was also interested in photographing plants. It was during one of these walks that the idea for the first fairy tale was born. Hence probably the photographic, almost “documentary” accuracy in the depiction of nature. The artist takes from photography the subtle gradation of tones and soft light-and-shadow transitions.
The irresistible charm of the Potter characters lies in the humanization of animals. Jemima the duck in a headscarf, Ukhti-Tukhti in an apron, baby rabbits in children's suits - all these are examples of comical combinations of nature and civilization.
The special charm of Potter's heroes, their touching weakness, defenselessness against the forces of nature captivates readers.
Beatrix Potter's drawings live not only on book pages. Children's dishes in the Potter style have become widely known. Let's add here decorative appliqué and embroidery on children's aprons. We can speak with complete confidence about the existence of a special Potter world.
In 1905, after the death of her husband, the publisher of her books, Beatrice bought Hill Top Farm in the Lake District and tried to live there as long as possible. Her drawings depict the landscapes surrounding the farm.
In 1913, Beatrice married again and devoted herself entirely to agricultural concerns: the farm, sheep breeding, so there was no time left for creativity. But she has an important life goal: To keep the beautiful Lake District intact. For this purpose, Potter, sparing no expense, bought areas around the farm, mountain and lake areas. When she died in 1943, Beatrice bequeathed 4,000 acres of land and 15 farms to the state with the condition that they be turned into a nature reserve. It still exists today.
Alan Milne (1882-1956).
Alan Alexander Milne- prose writer, poet and playwright, classic of twentieth-century literature, author of the famous "Winnie the Pooh" was born on January 18, 1882.
English writer, Scottish by birth, Alan Alexander Milne spent his childhood in London. He studied at a small private school, owned by his father, John Milne. One of his teachers in 1889-1890 was Herbert Wells. Then he entered Westminster School, and then Trinity College, Cambridge, where from 1900 to 1903 he studied mathematics. As a student, he wrote notes for the student newspaper Grant. He usually wrote with his brother Kenneth, and they signed the notes with the name AKM. Milne's work was noticed, and the British humor magazine Punch began to collaborate with him; Milne subsequently became an assistant editor there.
In 1913 Milne married Dorothy Daphne de Selincourt, goddaughter of magazine editor Owen Seaman (said to be Eeyore's psychological prototype), and his only son Christopher Robin was born in 1920. By that time, Milne had managed to visit the war and write several funny plays, one of which, “Mr. Pym Passed By” (1920), was a success.
When his son was three years old, Milne began to write poems about him and for him, devoid of sentimentality and accurately reproducing children's egocentrism, fantasies and stubbornness. The enormous success of the book of poetry, illustrated by Ernest Shepard, prompted Milne to write the fairy tales Prince Rabbit (1924), The Princess Who Couldn't Laugh and The Green Door (both 1925), and in 1926 Winnie the Pooh was written. All the characters in the book (Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga and Roo) except Rabbit and Owl were found in the nursery (now the toys that served as prototypes are kept in the Teddy Bear Museum in the UK), and the topography of the Forest resembles the area around Cotchford, where the family Milna spent the weekend.
In 1926, the first version of Little Bear with Sawdust in his Head (in English - Bear-with-very-small-brains) - "Winnie the Pooh" - appeared. The second part of the stories, “Now There Are Six of Us,” appeared in 1927, and the final part of the book, “The House on Pooh Edge,” appeared in 1928. Milne never read own stories about Winnie the Pooh to his son, Christopher Robin, preferring to raise him on the works of the writer Wodehouse, beloved by Alan himself, and Christopher first read poems and stories about the Pooh bear only 60 years after their first appearance.
Before the publication of the books about Winnie the Pooh, Milne was already a fairly famous playwright, but the success of Winnie the Pooh has acquired such proportions that Milne's other works are now practically unknown. Worldwide sales of Pooh Bear books translated into 25 languages, 1924 to 1956. exceeded 7 million, and by 1996 about 20 million copies were sold, and only by the publishing house Muffin (this figure does not include publishing houses in the USA, Canada and other English speaking countries). A 1996 poll conducted by English radio showed that the book about Winnie the Pooh took 17th place in the list of the most striking and significant works published in the twentieth century. That same year, Milne's beloved teddy bear was sold at Bonham's London auction to an unknown buyer for £4,600. In 1952, Milne became seriously ill and spent the next four years, until his death, at his estate in Cotchford, Sussex.
In 1966 Walt Disney released the first animated film based on Milne's book "Winnie the Pooh".
In 1969-1972 in the USSR, the Soyuzmultfilm film studio released three cartoons directed by Fyodor Khitruk, “Winnie the Pooh,” “Winnie the Pooh Comes to Visit,” and “Winnie the Pooh and the Day of Worries,” which won the love of children’s audiences Soviet Union. Modern children watch these cartoons with pleasure.
John Tolkien (1892-1973).
The future writer was born on January 3, 1892 in the city of Bloemfotain (South Africa). The son of an English merchant who settled in South Africa, Tolkien returned to England at a conscious age, after the death of his father. Soon he lost his mother too. Before her death, she converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism, so a Catholic priest became John’s educator and guardian. Religion had a significant influence on the writer’s work.
In 1916, after graduating from Oxford University, Tolkien married Edith Brett, whom he loved from the age of 14 and with whom he did not part until her death in 1972. Edith became the prototype for one of Tolkien’s favorite images - the elven beauty Luthien.
Since 1914, the writer was busy implementing an ambitious plan - creating a “mythology for England” that would combine his favorite ancient tales about heroes and elves and Christian values. The result of these works was the “Book of Forgotten Tales” and the mythological corpus “The Silmarillion” that grew from it towards the end of the writer’s life.
In 1937, the magical story “The Hobbit, or There and Back Again” was published. In it, for the first time in the fictional world (Middle-earth), funny creatures appear, reminiscent of the inhabitants of rural “good old England”.
The hero of the tale, the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, becomes a kind of intermediary between the reader and the gloomy, majestic world of ancient legends. Persistent requests from publishers prompted Tolkien to continue the story. This is how the fairy-tale-epic trilogy “The Lord of the Rings” appeared (the novels “The Fellowship of the Ring”, “The Two Towers”, both 1954, and “The Return of the King”, 1955, revised edition 1966). In fact, it was a continuation of not only and not so much “The Hobbit,” but also “The Silmarillion,” which was not published during the writer’s lifetime, as well as the unfinished novel about Atlantis, “The Lost Road.”
The main idea of The Lord of the Rings is the need for a consistent and constant fight against evil. It cannot be overcome without following Christian moral values. At the same time, only “chance” - the Providence of God - will help you win the victory. However, the writer does not at all impose his religious beliefs on the reader. The action in the novels takes place in a mythical pre-Christian world, and God is not mentioned even once in the entire trilogy (unlike The Silmarillion).
Tolkien devoted the remaining years of his life to finalizing The Silmarillion, which, however, never saw the light of day during the author’s lifetime (1974). Having embodied ancient legends through modern literature, Tolkien became one of the creators of a new literary genre— fantasy.
Clive Lewis (1898-1963).
Some people only found out who Clive Lewis was when Narnia was released. And for some, Clive Staples has been an idol since childhood, when they read the Narnian Chronicles or the stories of Screwtape. In any case, the writer Staples Lewis opened up for many magical land. And going to Narnia with his books, almost no one thought about the fact that Clive Staples Lewis actually wrote about God and religion. Clive Staples Lewis indeed has a religious theme in almost all his works, but it is unobtrusive and dressed in a wonderful fairy tale, on which more than one generation of children grew up.
Clive Staples was born on November 29, 1898 in Ireland. When he was little, his life could truly be called happy and carefree. He had a great brother and mom. Mother taught little Clive different languages, without even forgetting about Latin and, moreover, raised him so that he would grow up to be a real person, with normal views and understanding of life. But then grief happened and his mother died when Lewis was not even ten years old. For the boy this was a terrible blow.
After that, his father, who was never distinguished by his tenderness and cheerful character, sent the boy to a closed school. This was another blow for him. He hated school and education until he came to Professor Kirkpatrick. It is worth noting that this professor was an atheist, while Lewis was always religious. And yet, Clive simply adored his teacher. He treated him like an idol, a standard. The professor also loved his student and tried to pass on all his knowledge to him. In addition, the professor was truly a very smart person. He taught the guy dialectics and other sciences, passing on to him all his knowledge and skills.
In 1917, Lewis was able to enter Oxford, but then he went to the front and fought in French territory. During the hostilities, the writer was wounded and hospitalized. There I discovered Chesterton, whom I began to admire, but at that time I could not understand and love his views and concepts. After the war and the hospital, Lewis returned back to Oxford, where he remained until 1954. Clive was very much loved by the students. The fact is that he lectured on English literature so interestingly that many came to him again and again in order to attend his classes again and again. At the same time, Clive wrote various articles, and then took up books. The first major work was a book published in 1936. It was called "Allegory of Love".
What can be said about Lewis as a believer? In fact, the story of his faith is not so simple. Perhaps this is why he never tried to force his faith on anyone.
Rather, he wanted to present it so that whoever wanted to see it could see it. As a child, Clive was a kind, gentle and religious person, but after the death of his mother, his faith was shaken. Then he met a professor who, although an atheist, was a much smarter and kinder person than many believers. And then came the university years. And, as Lewis himself said, it was non-believers, atheists just like him, who made him believe again. At Oxford, Clive made friends who were as smart, well-read and interesting as himself. In addition, these guys reminded him of the concepts of conscience and humanity, because, having arrived at Oxford, the writer had practically forgotten about these concepts, remembering only that one should not be too cruel and steal. But new friends were able to change his views, and he regained his faith and remembered who he was and what he wanted from life.
Clive Lewis wrote many interesting treatises, stories, sermons, fairy tales, and novellas. These are “Letters of Screwtape”, and “The Chronicles of Narnia”, and the space trilogy, as well as the novel “Until We Found Faces”, which Clive wrote at a time when his beloved wife was very seriously ill. Lewis created his stories without trying to teach people how to believe in God. He was just trying to show where there is good and where there is evil, that everything is punishable, and even after a very long winter, summer comes, as it did in the second book of The Chronicles of Narnia.
Lewis wrote about God, about his companions, telling people about beautiful worlds. In fact, as a child, it is difficult to distinguish between symbolism and metaphor. But it is very interesting to read about the world that was created by the golden-maned lion Aslan, where you can fight and rule as a child, where animals talk, and various mythical creatures. By the way, some church ministers had an extremely negative attitude towards Lewis. The point was that he mixed paganism and religion. In his books, naiads and dryads were, in fact, the same children of God as animals and birds. Therefore, the church considered his books unacceptable when viewed from the perspective of faith. But only some church ministers thought so. Many people have a positive attitude towards Lewis’s books and give them to their children, because, in fact, despite the mythology and religious symbolism, first of all, Lewis always promoted goodness and justice. But his goodness is not perfect. He knows that there is evil, which will always be evil. And, therefore, this evil must be destroyed. But this should not be done out of hatred and revenge, but only for the sake of justice.
Clive Staples did not live a very long, although not very short, life. He wrote many works of which he can be proud. In 1955, the writer moved to Cambridge. There he became the head of the department. In 1962, Lewis was accepted into the British Academy. But then his health deteriorates sharply, he resigns. And on November 22, 1963, Clive Staples died.
Enid Blyton (1897-1968).
Enid Mary Blyton is a famous British writer, creator of wonderful adventure works of children's and youth literature. She became one of the most successful teenage writers of the twentieth century.
Blyton was born on 11 August 1897 at 354 Lordship Lane, West Dulwich, London. She was the eldest daughter of Thomas Carey Blyton (1870–1920), a cutlery merchant, and his wife Teresa Mary, née Harrison (1874–1950). ). There were two younger sons, Hanley (born 1899) and Carey (born 1902), who were born after the family moved to the nearby suburb of Beckenham. From 1907 to 1915, Blyton attended St. Christopher's School in Beckenham, where she excelled academically. She enjoyed both academic work and physical activity equally, although she did not like mathematics.
She was noted for several series of books intended for various age groups, with recurring main characters. These books were a huge success in many parts of the world, selling over 400 million copies. By one estimate, Blyton is the fifth most popular author worldwide: according to the Translatability Index; By 2007, UNESCO had made more than 3,400 translations of her books; in this respect she is inferior to Lenin, but superior to Shakespeare.
One of the writer's most famous characters is Noddy, who appears in stories for young children just learning to read. However, its main strength was its novels, in which children found themselves on exciting adventures and unraveled intriguing mysteries with little or no adult help. The following series are especially popular in this genre: “ The Fab Five"(consists of 21 novels, 1942-1963; the main characters are four teenagers and a dog), "Five Young Detectives and a Faithful Dog" (or "Five Finders and a Dog", according to other translations; consists of 15 novels, 1943-1961, in which five children bypass the local police in investigating complicated incidents), as well as “The Secret Seven” (15 novels, 1949-1963, seven children solve various mysteries).
Enid Blyton's books contain children's adventure stories as well as fantasy elements, sometimes involving magic. Her books were and still remain extremely popular in Great Britain and in many other countries of the world, including Russia. The writer's works have been translated into more than 90 languages, including Chinese, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Malay, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian, Spanish and Turkish.
Pamela Travers (1899-1996).
Travers Pamela Liliana - famous English writer, poet and publicist, author of a series of children's books about Mary Poppins; Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Born August 9, 1899 in Maryborough, Australia, Queensland. Travers's parents were bank manager Robert Goff and Margaret Agnes, before marriage Morehead. Her father died when she was seven years old.
She began writing since childhood - she wrote stories and plays for school plays, and entertained her brothers and sisters with magical stories. Her poems were published when she was not even twenty years old - she wrote for the Australian magazine "Bulletin".
In her youth she traveled around Australia and New Zealand, then went to England in 1923. At first she tried herself on stage (Pamela is her stage name), playing exclusively in Shakespeare’s plays, but then her passion for literature won out, and she devoted herself entirely to literature, publishing her works under the pseudonym “P. L. Travers" (the first two initials were used to hide the woman's name - a common practice among English-language writers).
In 1925, in Ireland, Travers met the mystical poet George William Russell, who had a great influence on her - both as a person and as a writer. He was then editor of the magazine and accepted several of her poems for publication. Through Russell, Travers met William Butler Yeats and other Irish poets, who instilled in her an interest and knowledge of world mythology. Yeats was not only an outstanding poet, but also a renowned occultist. This direction becomes decisive for Pamela Travers right up to last days her life.
In 1934, the publication of Mary Poppins was the first literary success Travers. The writer admitted that she did not remember how the idea for this fairy tale came about. In response to persistent questions from journalists, she usually cited the words of Clive Lewis, who believed that there is “only one Creator” in the world, and the task of the writer is only to “assemble already existing elements into a single whole,” and by remaking reality, they change themselves.
Disney's Mary Poppins was released in 1964 ( main role- Mary Poppins - played by actress Julie Andrews). The film was nominated for an Oscar in 13 nominations and won five awards. In the Soviet Union, the film “Mary Poppins, Goodbye!” was released in 1983.
In her life, the writer was distinguished by the fact that she tried not to advertise the facts of her personal life, including her Australian origin. “If you are interested in the facts of my biography,” Travers once said, “the story of my life is contained in Mary Poppins and my other books.”
Although she never married, shortly before her 40th birthday, Travers adopted an Irish boy named Camillus, separating him from his twin brother, as she refused to take two children (the boys were not reunited until several years later).
In 1977, Travers was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Her talent as a writer was recognized everywhere, and as further confirmation - a simple fact: in 1965-71 she lectured on writing at colleges in the UK and the USA. Her house was filled with books, books were everywhere, on countless shelves along the walls, on tables, on the floor. The author once joked: “If I were to lose a roof over my head, I could build myself a house out of books.” In general, she was an active and active woman, traveled a lot, and even in old age, from 1976 until her death in 1996, she worked as an editor mythological magazine"Parabola". Among her later works- travel essays and collections of essays “What the Bee Knows: Reflections on Myth, Symbol and Plot.”
Pamela Travers died in 1996, but the writer believed in the infinity of life: “Where the core is strong, there is no beginning or end, there is no word goodbye...”. This is probably correct: storytellers do not die...
Mary Norton (1903-1992).
Mary Pearson was born on December 10 in London, the only girl among five children. Soon the family moved to Bedfordshire, to the same house that was described in “The Miners.” After graduating from school and briefly working as a secretary, she became an actress.
After two years of theatrical life in 1927, Mary Pearson married Edward Norton and left with her husband for Portugal. There she had two sons and two daughters, and it was there that she began to write.
After the outbreak of war, Mary's husband joined the navy, and she returned to England with her children in 1943. In 1943, her first children's book was published: “The Magic Knob, or How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons,” then the next one, “The Bonfire and the Broom.” A few years later, both tales were reworked and combined into one, "The Broomstick and the Broom", the film rights to which were sold to Disney for a very small sum.
The most famous fairy tale Norton - "The Miners" was published in 1952 and received the Carnegie Medal, the main award for English children's writers. “Mining Workers” has been filmed many times.
Films and television productions based on Mary Norton's books are attracting new generations of readers.
Mary Norton died in Devon, England in 1992.
Donald Bisset (1910-1995).
Donald Bisset is an English children's writer, artist, film actor and theater director. Born 30 August 1910 in Brentford, Middlesex, England.
Studied at clerks' school. During World War II he served as an artillery lieutenant.
Bisset began writing fairy tales commissioned by London television. Soon he began to read them in children's programs. And since he was a professional actor, he read his fairy tales simply excellent. He accompanied his reading by showing funny and expressive drawings. The broadcast lasted about eight minutes, and accordingly the volume of the tale did not exceed two or three pages.
In 1954 he published the first book of his short tales, published in the “Read It Yourself” series. The book was called “I’ll Tell You When You Want.” It was followed by “I’ll tell you another time,” “I’ll tell you someday.” This series was followed by collections united by the same characters - “Yak”, “Conversations with a Tiger”, “The Adventures of Miranda the Duck”, “A Horse Named Smokey”, “The Journey of Uncle Tick-Tock”, “A Trip to the Jungle” . All books were illustrated with drawings by Bisset himself.
As an actor, Bisset played roles in 57 films and television series, which, unfortunately, remained unknown outside of England. Bisset played his first role in the film Carousel in 1949. He also distinguished himself as an inventive theater director. He himself staged his fairy tales on the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theater in Stratford-upon-Avon and even played a dozen small roles in them. Last time In films, he played the role of Mr. Grimm in the English television series “The Bill” in 1991. On television he directed and hosted a program for children, “The Adventures of Yak” (1971-1975).
Bisset wrote about himself this way: : “...Scotsman. I live in London... Gray hair, blue eyes, height 5.9 feet. I have been working in the theater since 1933. He began telling fairy tales for children in 1953 on television. ...By philosophy I am a materialist. By temperament - an optimist. My greatest wish is to publish one of my children's books with my own color illustrations... My favorite children's books: “The Wind in the Willows”, “Winnie the Pooh”, “Alice in Wonderland”. And also folk tales about giants and witches. I don’t really like the fairy tales of Hans Andersen and the Brothers Grimm.”
When Donald Bisset was asked why he became a writer, he replied: “Because the grass is green and the trees are growing. Because I hear the thunder roaring and the rain pounding. Because I love children and animals. I take my hat off to ladybug. I like to pet cats and ride horses... And also write fairy tales, play in the theater, draw... When you love both, then you are rich. He who loves nothing cannot be happy.”
He invented and settled in Africa an animal that is never bored: one half of it consists of the Most Charming Cat, and the other half of the Resourceful Crocodile. The name of the beast is Crococat. Donald Bisset's favorite friend is the tiger cub Rrrrr, with whom Donald Bisset loves to travel along the river of time until the end of the Rainbow, and is so able to move his brains that his thoughts rustle. The main enemies of Donald Bisset and Tiger Cub Rrrrr are the Mischief-makers with the names You Can’t, Don’t Dare and Shame on You.
Bisset visited Moscow twice, spoke on television, and visited a kindergarten, where he even composed the fairy tale “I do what I want” with the children.
Despite the fact that Bisset has more than one and a half hundred fairy tales, in the English-speaking world he is practically consigned to oblivion. Bisset is still being republished in Russia, and his tales are widely known. In the eighties, a series of seven cartoons was filmed in the USSR under common name“The Tales of Donald Bisset” - “The Girl and the Dragon”, “The Forgotten Birthday”, “Crococat”, “Raspberry Jam”, “Snowfall from the Refrigerator”, “The Music Lesson”, “The Mischief-maker”.
Gerald Durrell (1925-1995) - English naturalist, writer, founder of the Jersey Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Trust, which now bear his name.
He was the fourth and most youngest child in the family of British civil engineer Lawrence Samuel Durrell and his wife Louise Florence Durrell (née Dixie). According to relatives, at the age of two, Gerald fell ill with “zoomania,” and his mother recalled that one of his first words was “zoo” (zoo).
In 1928, after the death of their father, the family moved to England, and seven years later, on the advice of Gerald’s older brother, Lawrence, to the Greek island of Corfu.
Among Gerald Durrell's first home teachers there were few real educators. The only exception was the naturalist Theodore Stephanides (1896–1983). It was from him that Gerald received his first systematic knowledge of zoology. Stephanides appears more than once on the pages of Gerald Durrell's most famous book, the novel My Family and Other Animals. The books “Birds, Beasts and Relatives” (1969) and “The Amateur Naturalist” (1982) are dedicated to him.
In 1939 (after the outbreak of World War II), Gerald and his family returned to England and got a job in the London Aquarium store.
But the real start of Darrell's research career was his work at Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire. Gerald got a job here immediately after the war as a “student caretaker,” or “animal boy,” as he called himself. It was here that he received his first professional training and began collecting a “dossier” containing information about rare and endangered species of animals (and this was 20 years before the appearance of the International Red Book).
After the end of the war, 20-year-old Darrell decides to return to his historical homeland - Jamshedpur.
In 1947, Gerald Durrell, having reached adulthood (21 years old), received part of his father's inheritance. With this money, he organized three expeditions - two to British Cameroon (1947-1949) and one to British Guiana (1950). These expeditions do not bring profit, and in the early 50s Gerald finds himself without a livelihood and work.
Not a single zoo in Australia, the USA or Canada could offer him a position. At this time, Lawrence Durrell, Gerald's older brother, advises him to take up his pen, especially since “the English love books about animals.”
Gerald's first story, “The Hunt for the Hairy Frog,” was an unexpected success; the author was even invited to personally read this work on the radio. His first book, The Overloaded Ark (1953), was about a trip to Cameroon and received rave reviews from readers and critics alike.
The author was noticed by major publishers, and the royalties for “The Overloaded Ark” and Gerald Durrell’s second book, “Three Tickets to Adventure” (1954), allowed him to organize an expedition to South America in 1954. However, at that time there was a military coup in Paraguay, and almost the entire collection of animals had to be left there. Darrell described his impressions of this trip in his next book, “Under the Canopy of the Drunken Forest” (1955). At the same time, at the invitation of his brother, Lawrence, Gerald vacationed in Corfu.
Familiar places evoked a lot of childhood memories - this is how the famous “Greek” trilogy appeared: “My Family and Other Animals” (1956), “Birds, Animals and Relatives” (1969) and “The Garden of the Gods” (1978). The first book of the trilogy was a wild success. My Family and Other Animals was reprinted 30 times in the UK alone, and 20 times in the US.
In total, Gerald Durrell wrote about 40 books (almost all of them were translated into dozens of languages) and made 35 films. The debut four-part television film “To Bafut with the Hounds,” released in 1958, was very popular in England.
Thirty years later, Darrell managed to film in the Soviet Union, with active participation and assistance from the Soviet side. The result was the thirteen-episode film “Darrell in Russia” (also shown on Channel 1 of USSR television in 1986-1988) and the book “Darrell in Russia” (not officially translated into Russian).
In the USSR, Darrell's books were published repeatedly and in large editions. These books are still being republished.
In 1959, Darrell created a zoo on the island of Jersey, and in 1963, the Jersey Wildlife Conservation Fund was organized on the basis of the zoo.
Darrell's main idea was to breed rare and endangered species of animals in a zoo with the aim of further resettling them in their natural habitats. This idea has now become a generally accepted scientific concept. If it were not for the Jersey Foundation, many species of animals would only be preserved as stuffed animals in museums. Thanks to the Foundation, the pink dove, Mauritian kestrel, monkeys: golden lion marmoset and marmoset, Australian corroboree frog, radiated tortoise from Madagascar and many other species were saved from complete extinction.
Alan Garner (b. 1934) is a British fantasy writer whose work is based on Old English legends. Writers was born on October 17, 1934.
Early childhood Alan Garner spent at Alderley Edge, in Cheshire, England. His ancestors lived there for more than three hundred years. This influenced his work. Most of the works, including “The Magic Stone of Brisingamen,” are written based on the legends of those places.
The writer's childhood occurred during the Second World War, during which the boy suffered three serious illnesses (diphtheria, meningitis, pneumonia), lying almost motionless on his bed and allowing his imagination to travel beyond the white ceiling and the window taped in case of bombing. Alan was an only child, and although his entire family survived the war, the forced years of loneliness did not pass without leaving a mark on the formation of the writer’s personality and worldview.
At the insistence of the village teacher, Garner was sent to Manchester Grammar School, and later the library at this school was named after him. After graduating from college, Garner entered Oxford University, studying Celtic mythology. Without completing his studies, he enlisted in the Royal Artillery, where he served for two years.
The most famous are his books “The Magic Stone of Brisingamen” (1960), as well as the sequel, “The Moon on the Eve of Gomrath” (1963), and the story “Elidor” (1965). After their publication, Garner was talked about as a “very special” children's writer in England. However, the definition of “children’s” is not entirely correct. Garner himself claims that he does not write specifically for children; Although the heroes of his books are always children, he addresses readers of different ages.
Now the writer lives in his native Alderley Edge in eastern Cheshire in an old house that has been there since the 16th century. The almost realistic “Stone Book” (1976-1978), composed “of four short stories, four prose poems” about generations of the Garner family, is dedicated to the history of this region.
Jacqueline Wilson (born 1945).
Jacqueline Atkin was born on December 17, 1945, in the center of Somerset, the city of Bath. Her father was a government official and her mother an antique dealer. Wilson spent most of her childhood in Kingston upon Thames, where she attended Latchmere Primary School. At the age of nine, the girl wrote her first story, 22 pages long. At school, she was remembered as a dreamy child who was at odds with the exact sciences, and was even given the nickname “Dream Jackie,” which Jacqueline later used in her autobiography.
After leaving school at age 16, Wilson took a secretarial course, but soon changed jobs, landing a job at the girls' magazine Jackie. Because of this, she had to move to Scotland, but it was there that she met and fell in love with her future husband, William Millar Wilson. They got married in 1965, and two years later they had a daughter, Emma, who later also became a writer.
In 1991, the book that brought her fame, “The Diary of Tracy Beaker,” was published, although Jacqueline has written about 40 books for children since the 60s. The diary formed the basis of the popular British television series on the BBC channel, “The Tracy Beaker Story,” which successfully ran from 2002 to 2006.
In 2011 in national center children's books "Seven Stories" opened an exhibition in Newcastle dedicated to the life and creative path English writer.
JK Rowling (born 1965).
JK Kathleen Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 in the English city of Bristol. A few years later, the family moved to Winterburn, where the Potters lived next door to the Rowlings, and Joan played with their children in the yard.
When Rowling was 9 years old, the family moved to the small town of Tatshill near a large forest. Rowling's parents were Londoners and always dreamed of living in nature.
After school, in which Joan's favorite subject was English and her least favorite subject was physical education, Rowling entered the University of Exeter and received a degree in French.
After university, Rowling worked at the Amnesty International office in London as a secretary. She says the best thing about the job was that she could use the company computer to type out her stories when no one was looking. It was while working for Amnesty International, while traveling by train from Manchester to London in the summer of 1990, that Rowling came up with the idea for a book about a boy who is a wizard but doesn't know it. By the time the train arrived at Charing Cross Station in London, many of the chapters of the first book had already been invented.
In 1992, Rowling went to Portugal to work as an English teacher. She returned back with her little daughter and a suitcase full of notes about Harry Potter. Rowling settled in Edinburgh and devoted herself entirely to writing the book. When the book was completed, Rowling, after several unsuccessful attempts to interest publishers, entrusted the task of selling the book to literary agent Christopher Lytle. And I got a job teaching French.
In 1997, an agent told her that Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published by Bloomsbury. The book became a success almost immediately. It sold out superbly and won several literary prizes. The rights to publish it in America were already purchased for 105,000 dollars, 101 thousand more than the English ones.
It was from this moment that JK Rowling's rapid ascent up the ladder of fame began. Books and films about Harry Potter brought Joan a huge fortune; today it is estimated at one billion one hundred million dollars. The writer herself is a Knight of the Legion of Honor, as well as a recipient of the Hugo Award and many other equally significant awards.
Rowling is now actively involved in charitable activities, supporting the Single Parents Foundation and the Multiple Sclerosis Research Foundation, from which her mother died.
