Category: People
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Gifts for Mankind: The Picaresque Bible from Cervantes.
Published over 400 years ago, Don Quixote – a satire of the romance of chivalry – has been translated into over 140 languages and dialects, making it the most-translated book in the world after the bible. Its writer, Miguel de Cervantes, is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language who gave human…
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The Master of Magic Realism. Gabriel Garcia Márquez.
Gabriel García Márquez was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century and one of the best in the Spanish language, second only to Cervantes. In 1982 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The chart could be a bald,…
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The exhibition, Van Gogh and Britain and the film, At Eternity’s Gate
Vincent Willem Van Gogh was born on 30 March 1853, seven years after the discovery of Neptune, and the anniversary of his birthday was celebrated this year by the opening of a new exhibition at Tate Britain and the launch in Britain of a new film about his life starring Willem Dafoe. Van Gogh was…
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The Eyes of Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf was one of the most important 20th-century modernist writers and, like James Joyce, a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. At age 59, she put an end to this flow of consciousness by drowning herself in a deep stream, the Ouse River. She had had enough of all the suffering her…
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Doris Lessing. Nobel Prize-Winning African Escapee.
Africa is not known for its intellect, but for its underground riches. No wonder Doris Lessing had to escape from Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and go to the UK when her Age Point was moving into the 6th house of work. Writing was her work, but she got no recognition for it in Africa. In…
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Gifts for Mankind: Radioactivity from Madame Curie.
Marie Curie, a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist pioneered research in radioactivity. Her achievements included the development of the theory of radioactivity (a term she coined) and the discovery of two elements: Polonium (named after her beloved fatherland) and Radium. Her discovery of radioactivity would later lead to the treatment of cancer with radiation. She literally gave her life to science: she died…






