The Master Of Suspense

The name Hitchcook means 'suspense' and 'horhor'. He was the master. At a time when people used to go to the cinema to see their favourite film stars, they went to see Hitchcook films because of the director.

Alfred Hitchcook was born in England in 1899. He was educated by Jesuits, then went into the film business in 1920. His first job was to do the lettering and design the backgrounds for silent film titles.

His first important film was made in Britain, in 1927 a tale of murder and suspense. Because of a shortage of extras, he also appeared in it himself.

In every film after that, a brief glimpse of Hitchcook's plump figure was always one of the sly jokes.

He went to Hollywood in 1939 and for the next 35 years made the films on which his reputation rests.

Intellectual critics have written many things about his 'Art'. But Hitchcook himself was very unpretentious. He saw himself simply as a skiled entertainer. He certainly was.

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Conversation Openers

Have you ever noticed that when someone introduces a topic of conversation, they frequently begin with an expression like 'Have you ever noticed..?'

It is not really a question - it is more a way of 'teeing up' what you want to say - like a golfer placing his ball on the little plastic tee in order to make a good shot.

Another useful conversation opener is the phrase : 'It's amazing, isn't it..' If one took these expressions literally, one would be constantly amazed or amused, because another favourite way of breaing the silence is to announce the homour or curiousness of the subject: 'It's funny, I don't think anybody has said anything yet.'

Gossips like to make sure everbody knows who they are talking about : 'You know Mrs Perkins , the butcher's wife,...well I saw her at the chemist's this moring...' and so it goes on.

One good ploy is to pretend that you have just remembered something - a good way of breaking the silence, but also a useful way of interrupting : 'Oh, there's something I was going to tell you...'.

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Sonnet XVII

Sonnet XVII

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day ?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May.

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines.

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,

Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grows'st;

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

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William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and he died in 1616. Not much more is known about his life.

But this has not stopped countless millions of people, in languages that Shakespeare himself newer knew, from thinkng of him as an intimate friend.

His poetry is universal. It transcends both the language in which he wrote, and the time in which he lived. He wrote 34 plays, and they contain some of the finest and most reflective poetry in the world.

In 1609 a London bookseller publiched a collection of 154 sonnets by Shakespeare. Shakespeare wrote no preface or introduction. But the sonnets tell the story of this devoted and affectionate friendship for a young nobleman.

They read like a series of letters. In the early poems Shakespeare urges him to marry and to perpetuate his mortal beauty by having a son. The young man is apparently not convinced; so the poet resolves to immortalize his beauty in verse.

The identity of the young nobleman is one of the greatest mysteries of English literature.

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Arriving in London

When you arrive at London Airport, you are faced with a choice of transport into the centre of town. There is a train, there is a bus, there are taxis (not cheap, unless you are with friends) and there is the usual selection of car-hire firms.

If you arrive during the morning rush-hour it is best to avoid the roads.

But first there are two formalities to deal with Immigration and Customs.

If you are from an ECC country, there is a special immigration desk. There are no forms to fill in, but you will be given a card with the date of entry stamped on it. It is valid for 6 months.

If you are from other country, the immigration officer will want the Landing Card that they gave you on the plane. Visitors to the UK are normally given a visa for 6 months; but they are not allowed to work unless they already have a work permit.

All passengers have to go through Customs. If you have nothing to declare (or if you enjoy the risks of smuggling) take the green door. Otherwise, follow the red signs.

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Opera

Compared with Italy or Germany, Britain is not a very operatic country. But this is changing.

Covent Garden is a superb opera house, on a par with the finest in the world. And there is now more opera in the provinces.

It was a vicious circle: the standard works are in Italian, German and French, and people stayed away because they did not understand the words. In addition, British composers have tended not to write operas for lack of a public.

But now performances at the English National Opera, in London, are always in English translation. The people who run it are gradually breaking the vicious circle by generating a new public. There is also a Welsh National Opera, a Scottish Opera, and a new company in Leeds. They all tour the provinces.

Meanwhile, it is more and more difficult to get tickets for Covent Garden. British and foreign opera-lovers snap them up in order to hear internationally famous singers, in the standard repertoire and in modern works by composers such as Tippet and Britten.

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The Beatles

Suddenly in 1963 schoolboys started brushing their hair forward and letting it grow over their collars.The four names John, Paul, George and Ringo were on eveyone's lips. And biology teachers throught England bought extra supplies of red fibre pens to correct the spelling of the word 'beetle' in their pupils' exercise books.

The Beatles took the world by storm. Every record they ade went to number one in the charts, and wherever the group went they were besieged by thousands of adulating fans. The press called it 'Beatlemania'.

But the road to success was no motorway. Like a boxer who fights hundreds of inglorious fights in obscure gyms before hitting the championship circuit, the Beatles spent three years in sleazy clubs, in Liverpool and in Hamburg, often playing eight hours a night, before the world focussed its spotlight on them.

The apprenticeship produced master craftsmen. Lennon and MacCartney wrote songs which will live for ever. And children who were born long after the group broke up in 1970 still have trouble spelling 'beetle'.

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Equal Opportunities

Why do dustmen earn less than doctors ?

Most doctors would give several good reasons; and not many dustmen would put the question so radically.

But it cannot be denied that doctors have a satisfying job, they work in congenial surroundings and they enjoy considerable social status. Some would argue that this was enough, and that dustmen, who enjoy none of these advantages, should be compensated with a higher salary. But no doubt there are other factors.

Why do women earn less than men ?

Feminists of oth sexes wish that did not. And there is legislation in England to ensure that women and men who do the same job should be equally paid - and that men and women who do equivalent work should also take home the same pay.

But equivalent is a difficult word to define objectively. There are jobs, like nursing and secretarial work, which are traditionally done by women. How do you compare qualities such as efficiency and a sympathetic approach to people, with a typical male quality like physical strength ?

While the legislators have not answered that question,dustmen still earn less than doctors, but they get a lot more than nurses.

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Jaguar

The firm which built the E type and the XK 120 has only been known as Jaguar Cars Ltd. since 1945.

The company started life in 1922 in Blackpool, a seaside town in the north-west of England. Their name was Swallow and they made sidecars.

The sidecar business was successful and the two men who ran it, William Lyons and William Walmesly, began making elegant bodies for Austin and Morris cars.

Everbody liked the Austin and Morris Swallows. Business prospered, and in 1927 they made their first complete car-the SS1 Coupe.

The first SS Jaguars were built in 1935. After the Second World War the name, Jaguar, became synonymous with excellent fast cars.

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Isaac Newton

It was a warm afternoon in late summer. Sitting in the orchard, Isaac Newton watched an apple fall to the ground. He was in a contemplative mood.

"Why should that apple always descend perpendiculary to the ground?", he thought... "Why not sideways or upwards ?"

Like other geniuses, Newton had the power to see beyond a simple phenomenon like the fall of an apple, and to explore its widest implications. He went on to establish laws of gravity, which he used to explain the Universe.

Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Say, 1642. His father was a farmer. He studied mathematics at Cambridge University. But in 1655 England was ravaged by the Great Plague and the University was closed for fear of infection.

Newton spent those eighteen months at home in his village. It was there, between the ages of 22 and 24, that he made the three discoveries which were to influence science and human thought from that day to this: the discovery of the differential Calculus, the nature of white light (why we see a rainbow in a drop of water) and the laws of gravity.

Newton lived to a great age and was a revered mathematican, but he was humble about his achievements. Shortly before his death he wrote: 'to myself I seem to have been only like a boy, playing on the the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.'

White light passing through a triangular prism. Newton investigating light.

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