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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Robert Donat, Martin Lewis, Lindsay Bury, Geoff Lloyd, William John Young, Kathleen Ollerenshaw, Charlie Comyn-Platt, Bob Barber, Samuel Langford, Andrew Steele, Mark Maxwell, Kate Walsh, Cecelia Wolstenholme, James Arnold, Audrey Jones, Beatrice Wolstenholme, Samuel Corlett, Edward Holt. Excerpt:Andrew Steele (born 19 September 1984 in Didsbury , Manchester is a British 400 metres and 4x400 m relay runner in athletics (track and field) . He was educated at St. Bede's College , Manchester , UK . He is the son of Dr. Chris Steele MBE , the resident health expert on ITV 's This Morning . His brother, Matthew Steele is a professional musician and keyboard player for the band The Brand New Heavies . He has represented his country at most major competitions since entering the senior age group in 2005. He has also improved his personal best time and world-ranking year on year. At the London 2012 Olympic games Andrew will be 27 years old. En-route to this seminal event lie the 2009 and 2011 World championships, the 2010 European championships and the 2010 Commonwealth games. Andrew s best time of 44.94 seconds, set at the Beijing Olympic games, places him within touching distance of the British record of 44.36. In 2008 Andrew competed in his first Olympic games Beijing 2008. He ran a personal best time in reaching the semi-final in the individual 400m event and as part of the Great Britain team, finished 4th in the final of the 4x400m relay - 0.6 seconds away from a medal. Andrew spends a few months each spring training at the Australian Institute of Sport, in Canberra, Australia. A brief summary of the major events in which Andrew has competed Andrew, like his brother, is also a talented musician. He plays drums, piano and guitar as working at a Manchester studio as a record produce... ... Read more

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Letters in facsimile tipped in ... Read more

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Chapters: John Thaw, Davy Jones, Robert Donat, Vivien Merchant, Bernard Hill, David Warner, Holliday Grainger, Marsha Thomason, Chris Addison, Caroline Aherne, Bruce Jones, Lyndsey Marshal, David Threlfall, Louise Cliffe, Burt Kwouk, Pat Phoenix, C. Hayden Coffin, Paula Wilcox, Barbara Kellerman, Peter Noone, Kevin Kennedy, Jane Hazlegrove, Tina O'brien, Linus Roache, Violet Carson, James Murray, George Zucco, Gwyneth Powell, Sam Kelly, Alex Etel, Afshan Azad, Kenneth Macdonald, Sally Rogers, Caroline Catz, Kenneth Colley, Jack Smethurst, Simon Gregson, Matthew Mcnulty, Sidney Ainsworth, David Schofield, Michael le Vell, Brenda Bruce, Caroline Milmoe, Louise Harrison, Raoul Bhaneja, Brenda de Banzie, Lee Boardman, Donald Hewlett, Avis Bunnage, Hilary Tindall, Ciaran Griffiths, Don Knight, Tamzin Malleson, Steve Dixon, Lorraine Ashbourne, Alan Igbon, Travis Yates, Olivia Hamnett, Scott Taylor, Richard Albrecht, Philip Martin Brown, Malcolm Tierney, Nick Sidi, Samantha Siddall, Eamon Boland, Ralph Lynn, David Michaels, Samantha Mccarthy, Lorraine Cheshire, Sandra Gough, Adam Kendrick. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 236. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: David Warner (born 29 July 1941) is an English actor, who is known for playing sinister or villainous characters. Warner was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England, the son of Doreen (née Hattersley) and Herbert Simon Warner, who was a nursing home proprietor. He was born out of wedlock and frequently taken to be brought up by each of his parents, eventually settling with his Russian Jewish father and his stepmother. He was educated at Feldon School, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire and trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), London. Warner made his professional stage debut at the Royal Court Theatre in Januar...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=174456 ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Robert Donat (18 March 1905 - 9 June 1958) was an English film and stage actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr. Chips for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor. Donat was born Friedrich Robert Donat in Withington, Manchester, England, to Ernst Emil Donat and his wife Rose Alice (née Green) who were married at Withington, St Paul, in 1895. He was of English, Polish, German and French descent and was educated at Manchester's Central High School for Boys. Donat had a brother, John Donat, who was trapper in Canada and later moved to Shelton, Connecticut. His children were Jean, Jay, and Peter. He was the owner of Lake George Camp for Girls in Gull Bay, New York, which catered to old New York families. ... Read more

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Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Christiaan Barnard, Martin Van Buren, Ron Goodwin, Robert Donat, Arthur Fremantle, Johnny Paycheck, Kamehameha Iv, Daniel Featley, Teresa Teng, Ernest Nathan Morial, Charlotte Coleman, George Pirie, David Dacko, Pauline Frederick, Martita Hunt, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Tim Cole, James Gleason, Neil Hamilton, Gilbert Harding, Kagaku Murakami, Neil Francis Hawkins, Ahmad Nadeem Qasimi, Krissy Taylor, Antonio Tomasulo, Ned Young, Hayashi Fubo, Richard Green, Saneeya Hussain, Andrew Harwood, Arthur Damude, Soraya Serajeddini, Hugo Haas, Abdallah Al-Ghalib, Bernard Marszałek. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Martin Van Buren (pronounced or ; December 5, 1782 July 24, 1862) was the eighth President of the United States from 1837 to 1841. Before his presidency, he served as the eighth Vice President (18331837) and the 10th Secretary of State under Andrew Jackson. He was a key organizer of the Democratic Party, a dominant figure in the Second Party System, and the first president who was not of British (i.e. English, Welsh, Scottish, or Irish) descenthis ancestry was Dutch. He was the first president to be born an American citizen (his predecessors were born British subjects before the American Revolution), and is also the only president not to have spoken English as a first language, having grown up speaking Dutch. Moreover, he was the first president from New York. Van Buren was the third president to serve only one term, after John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams. He also was one of the central figures in developing modern political organizations. As Andrew Jackson's Secretary of State and then Vice President, he was a key figure in building the organizational structure for Jacksonian democracy, particularly in New York State. However, as a president, h...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=19763 ... Read more

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A dramatization in verse of the murder of Thomas Becket at Canterbury. “The theatre as well as the church is enriched by this poetic play of grave beauty and momentous decision” (New York Times). “Within its limits the play is a masterpiece.... Mr. Eliot has written no better poem than this and none which seems simpler” (Mark Van Doren, The Nation).
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Customer Reviews (18)

Poetic dramatization of Beckett's Martyrdom
This short play is wonderfully absorbing. Written for the Canterbury festival T.S Eliot did a superb job of creating dramatic tension from a familiar historical event. Written in 2 acts with an interlude the play can be enjoyed in a single sitting and is filled with memorable language. Not much else to say.

Maybe not T.S, Eliot at his best?
A more famous version and maybe better is Becket.
A verse play that fails by me...
I think what I miss by comparison is Henry II in this play.
The point in terms of history is that the power of the church
in English history will decline from here.
Henry II may have been in the wrong, but he never really
gave the command for his friend's death as history seems to have it("Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?").
The Medieval Church was at times as powerful as kings.
An Archbishop was second only to the Pope in that power
over the churches: he was literally a prince of God on earth.
So the crime of killing such an one was not a light one.
Was Thomas Becket a martyr?

Thought Provoking
The classic play on the death of Beckett.Eliot does an exceptional job of building up the hero - only to leave you really wondering at the end.It is a great lesson that all actions have a justification in the eyes of the actor - and little is black and white.

Murder in the Cathedral
In addition to writing poetry, Eliot wrote several plays.I've never seen one o the produced on stage, and I understand they're probably better read than seen.I think Murder in the Cathedral, which recounts the murder of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, is his finest drama.
Basically, the story deals with Thomas' spiritual transformation from a courtier to the king, who once enjoyed all the dividends of earthly success, to a churchman willing to die for the Faith.Having returned from exile in 1170 determined to obey the Pope rather than the King, Thomas struggles first with four tempters who seek to dissuade him.Pleasure and temporal power he easily resists.He's discerned what Eliot seeks to clarify in this play:only God truly shapes history, only God has rightful power.
But an unexpected fourth tempter challenged Thomas more deeply.He urges Thomas to become a martyr, to become a celebrated saint, and thus to control human events from the tomb.To this graver temptation, however, Thomas says no:

"Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain:
Temptation shall not come in this kind again.
The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
. . . . . . . . . .
Servant of God has chance of greater sin
And sorrow, than the man who serves a king.
For those who serve the greater cause may make the cause serve them,
Still doing right:and striving with political men
May make that cause political, not by what they do
But by what they are."

With that discernment (forever needed by those of us who so easily misread our motives because our actions seem good), the archbishop resolves to follow God's way, the way of self-surrender and death.That death comes when three knights arrive, determined to implement the expressed desire of their king, and kill Thomas in the cathedral.Their dialogue illustrates the radical difference between the ways of the Church and those of the world.Thus, when his subordinate priests seek to lock the church doors and save his life, Thomas says:"Unbar the door! / You think me reckless, desperate and mad./ You argue by results, as this world does, / To settle if an act be good or bad."But the way of the Church is the way of Christ, the way of suffering and death.So he declares:

"I am here.
No traitor to the King.I am a priest,
A Christian, saved by the blood of Christ,
Ready to suffer with my blood.
This is the sign of the Church always,
The sign of blood.Blood for blood.
His blood given to buy my life,
My blood given to pay for His death,
My death for His death."

Death comes, the death of a martyr and saint.It's the stuff of which the Church is made . . . the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.Murder in the Cathedral reminds us of that enduring truth.

Best Read Aloud
"Many persons have the wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose." ~Helen Keller

I first heard of Archbishop Thomas Becket of Canterbury last month while reading The Pillars of the Earth. I decided to do a little research on him and noticed that there was a book about him on my classic to-read list. Perfect, I thought now I can learn more about the martydom of Becket and mark off one of the classic plays on my list at the same time.

The book is a play and a poem. At first, I found it difficult to get into. I found it easier to focus by reading aloud and imagining that I was watching it acted out in a play. It was pretty easy to read and understand once you got into it, although I would hate to try reading this without any prior knowledge of Becket's life. The only sections that I found annoying were the parts voiced by the chorus. They seemed to be repetitious and rambled on; however, I could still appreciate the poetic prose.

Here are a couple parts that I enjoyed:

- I really liked when the priests tried to convince Becket to run away and hide and he responded, "Peace! Be quiet! Remember where you are, and what is happening; no life here is sought for but mine, and I am not in danger: only near to death."
- I also liked the end when the knights turn to the crowd representing England after murdering Becket. They each give a reason for murdering him. I appreciate how the book is about the martyrdom of Becket, yet Eliot wanted people to understand both sides of the story. I didn't previously feel like I understood completely why King Henry II wanted him dead but these supplications by the knights helped make sense of things.

This book is not for everyone (not everyone enjoys poetry); however, it is short and informative and is worth reading. T.S. Eliot wrote the entire play in verse and it needs to be read aloud to be fully appreciated. I am glad the book was short because I am not sure how much poetry I can handle at once (and I don't know if I want to find out); however, I would like to see the play performed some day. ... Read more

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AUDIOTAPE ABRIDGED DRAMATIZATION OF THE CLASSIC MEDIEVAL SHORT STORY BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON--APPROX. 26 MIN. TIME. FEATURING ROBERT DONAT AND RENEE ASCHERSON. ... Read more

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Der Erwerb des Buches enthält gleichzeitig die kostenlose Mitgliedschaft im Buchklub des Verlags zum Ausprobieren - dort können Sie von über einer Million Bücher ohne weitere Kosten auswählen. Das Buch besteht aus Wikipedia-Artikeln: Bernhard Günther, Theodor Groppe, Carl Leo Donat Heußlein von Eußenheim, Robert Kramreiter, Elmar Brok, Arthur Krupp, Walter Jacob, Karl Gustav Fellerer, Karl Kling, Josef Pieper, Josef Hofmann, Sepp Rieder, Thomas Chorherr, Theodor Pröpper, Heinz Friedrich Benner, Otto B. Roegele, Joachim Egon Fürst zu Fürstenberg, Josephus Joannes Maria van der Ven, Richard Muckermann, Franz Pfeffer, August Adenauer, Renate Brauner, Franz von Jagemann, Karl Heinz Hock,. Online finden Sie die kostenlose Aktualisierung der Bücher. Nicht dargestellt. Auszug: Bernhard Günther (* 4. November 1906 in Koblenz; † 31. Oktober 1981 in Köln) war ein deutscher Politiker der CDU. Nach der Volksschule absolvierte Bernhard Günther an seinem Heimatort eine vierjährige Lehre als Elektroinstallateur und legte 1924 legte eine Gesellenprüfung ab. In dieser Zeit wurde er Mitglied im katholischen Gesellenverein. Anschließend ging er mit seinem Bruder und weiteren Freunden auf Wanderschaft in Deutschland und Italien. Der Rückweg führte ihn nach Köln, wo er im Herbst 1925 sesshaft wurde. Anfänglich nahm er im Josefhaus des Katholischen Gesellenvereins Domizil, später im Kolpinghaus. 1926 wurde er als Elektroinstallateur bei den Gas- Elektrizitäts- und Wasserwerken der Stadt Köln angestellt. Der gläubige Katholik wurde Mitglied der Elektro-Fachabteilung der Kolpingsfamilie und später deren Vorsitzender. Unter Oberbürgermeister Konrad Adenauer wurde er Mitglied des Schutzvorstandes des Kolpinghauses Köln Zentral. Gleichzeitig begann B. Günther aktiv in der Zentrumspartei mitzuwirken, in der er unter anderem in deren Jugendorganisation „Windthorstbund" aktiv wurde. Bernhard Günther wurde auch Mitglied der Christliche Gewerkschaften. Nach ...http://booksllc.net/?l=de&id=281466 ... Read more