"There are some things a chappie's mind absolutely refuses to picture, and Aunt Julia singing 'Rumpty-tiddley-umpty-ay' is one of them."

The Man with Two Left Feet (1917)

"He wore the unmistakable look of a man about to be present at a row between women, and only a wet cat in a strange backyard bears itself with less jauntiness than a man faced by such a prospect."

Piccadilly Jim (1918)

"And she's got brains enough for two, which is the exact quantity the girl who marries you will need."

-The Adventures of Sally (1922)

"He was not a man who prattled readily, especially in a foreign tongue. He gave the impression that each word was excavated from his interior by some up-to-date process of mining."
The Clicking Of Cuthbert (1922)

"As a rule, you see, I'm not lugged into Family Rows. On the occasions when Aunt is calling Aunt like mastodons bellowing across premieval swamps and Uncle James's letter about Cousin Mabel's peculiar behaviour is being shot round the family circle ('Please read this carefully and send it on Jane') the clan has a tendency to ignore me. It's one of the advantages I get from being a bachelor - and, according to my nearest and dearest, practically a half-witted bachelor at that."

"It was my Uncle George who discovered that alcohol was a food well in advance of modern medical thought."

"I turned to Aunt Agatha, whose demeanour was now rather like that of one who, picking daisies on the railway, has just caught the down express in the small of the back."

" Jeeves lugged my purple socks out of the drawer as if he were a vegetarian fishing a caterpillar out of his salad."

• The Inimitable Jeeves (1923)

"The Right Hon. was a tubby little chap who looked as if he had been poured into his clothes and had forgotten to say `When!'"

" My Aunt Dahlia has a carrying voice... If all other sources of income failed, she could make a good living calling the cattle home across the Sands of Dee.:

"She fitted into my biggest armchair as if it had been built round her by someone who knew they were wearing armchairs tight about the hips that season."

"Unseen, in the background, Fate was quietly slipping the lead into the boxing-glove."

• Very Good, Jeeves (1930)

"I don't want to seem always to be criticizing your methods of voice production, Jeeves," I said, "but I must inform you that that 'Well, sir' of yours is in many respects fully as unpleasant as your 'Indeed, sir?' Like the latter, it seems to be tinged with a definite scepticism. It suggests a lack of faith in my vision. The impression I retain after hearing you shoot it at me a couple of times is that you consider me to be talking through the back of my neck, and that only a feudal sense of what is fitting restrains you from substituting for it the words 'Says you!'"

Right Ho, Jeeves (1934)

"There is only one cure for grey hair. It was invented by a Frenchman. It is called the guillotine"

• P.G.Wodehouse biography
  

Tony Hancock and Kenneth Williams

Morecambe and Wise - Making Breakfast

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore

Top 10 Entertainment partnerships

Armstrong and Miller

• Roald Dahl was very tall - 6 feet 5 and three-quarter inches tall (1.96 metres).
• As well as being a best selling author he also wrote two successful screenplays - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the James Bond film You Only Live Twice - He became friends with Ian Fleming during the war.
• He married Patricia Neal on 2 July 1953 in New York
• He could speak three languages English, Norwegian and Swahili - learnt whilst working for Shell in Africa in the 1930s
• Dahl excelled at sport and won cups for Football, Rugby and Fives.
• Despite his sporting prowess he wasn't made a school prefect because he was seen as something of a rebel.
• At school, in his last years, he used to go racing around the countryside on a motorbike
• Some of his most popular stories include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Esio Trot, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox, Danny the Champion of the World, George's Marvellous Medicine, and The Witches.
• 20 April 1941, Dahl took part in the "Battle of Athens", alongside the highest-scoring British Commonwealth ace of World War II, Pat Pattle. Dahl was officially credited with 5 'kills' but probably was more.
• There he fell in and out of love with a nurse, Mary Welland.
• His first published work, in the 1 August 1942 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, was "Shot Down Over Libya" - even though he wasn't actually shot down. It was later renamed to "A Piece of Cake"
• He acquired a traditional Romanichal Gypsy wagon in the 1960s in which he wrote "Danny The Champion of the World"
• Roald Dahl died in November 1990 at the age of 74 of a rare blood disease, myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS, or "pre-leukemia")
• He is buried at the parish church of Saint Peter and Paul in Great Missenden.
• He was buried with various items including HB pencils

• Roald Dahl Biography
  

According to Unesco database on number of translations of a particular author, the top 10 Writers are:

1. DISNEY (WALT) PRODUCTIONS -9425
2. CHRISTIE, AGATHA - 6589
3. VERNE, JULES -4223
4. SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM - 3674
5. BLYTON, ENID - 3544
6. LENIN, VLADIMIR IL'IC -3517
7. CARTLAND, BARBARA -3406
8. STEEL, DANIELLE - 2942
9. ANDERSEN, HANS CHRISTIAN - 2877
10. KING, STEPHEN - 2732

An Alternative top 10 Writers

1. William Shakespeare
   
2. J.R.R. Tolkien
   
3. George Orwell
   
4. Charles Dickens
   
5. Leo Tolstoy
   
6. Jane Austen
   
7. Ernest Hemingway
   
8. Homer
   
9. John Steinbeck
   
10. James Joyce

• See also: Top 50 Writers
• Top 100 Writers

"Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first a patron, the last a punisher."
(Common Sense)

"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer." (Common Sense)

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated."
The Crisis No. I (written 19 December 1776, published 23 December 1776)


"The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case." First Principles of Government (1795)

"I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life." (the age of Reason)

"As to the Christian system of faith, it appears to me as a species of Atheism — a sort of religious denial of God. It professes to believe in a man rather than in God. It is a compound made up chiefly of Manism with but little Deism, and is as near to Atheism as twilight is to darkness. It introduces between man and his Maker an opaque body, which it calls a Redeemer, as the moon introduces her opaque self between the earth and the sun, and it produces by this means a religious, or an irreligious, eclipse of light. It has put the whole orbit of reason into shade." (the age of Reason)

• Thomas Paine Biography
• Thomas Paine wikiquote
  

Muhammad Ali The Greatest Video

"I'm not the greatest; I'm the double greatest. Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round."

- Muhammad Ali

• Muhammad Ali Biography
• Muhammad Ali Facts
• Muhammad Ali Quotes

• Mary Seacole was a nurse in the Crimean war who gained a great reputation for helping injured British soldiers.
• During her lifetime, her renown rivalled Florence Nightingale, but, after her death, she was largely overshadowed by her illustrious fellow nurse.
• She was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1805
• Her father was Scottish and an officer in the British army. Her mother was a free Jamaican lady, making her of mixed race.
• On hearing of a call for nurses to travel to the Crimea, she was initially refused. She went on her own initiative and using her own funds.
• Mary Seacole often visited soldiers on the front line to offer food, drinks and medicine. She was known as Mother Seacole amongst the troops.
• Shortly after 7 September 1855, Seacole fulfilled a bet, and became the first woman to enter Sevastopol after it fell
• Florence Nightingale was a contemporary of Mary Seacole. But, Florence did not offer much praise for her work and in some later letters cast doubts over her character.
  
• When she returned to London bankrupt and ill, a charity gala was held for her over four nights attended by more than 80,000 people.
• A campaign to erect a statue of Seacole in London was launched on 24 November 2003, chaired by MP Clive Soley, Baron Soley .

• Biography of Mary Seacole
• Quotes Mary Seacole

1. Christopher Columbus
 (1451 – 20 May 1506) Said to be the first Westerner (apart from Viking exploration) to come to the new World of the American continent. Initiated widespread contact with native Indians.
2. Sir Ernest Shackleton - (1874–1922) Antarctic explorer
 who attempted to cross the Antarctic from one side to the other via the South Pole.
3. Captain James Cook - (1728 – 14 February 1779) The great 18th Century explorer and adventurer who joined the British navy and made great progress in mapping the Pacific Islands and the continent of Australasia.
4. Captain Scott - Antarctic explorer -Great Antarctic explorer who explored the Antarctic extensively. Became the second person to reach the south pole on his tragic last mission in 1912.
5. 
Sir Edmund Hilary. With Sherpa Tensing, Sir Edmund Hilary became the first person to climb Mount Everest.
6. David Livingstone - explored the heart of the African subcontinent. Becoming the first westerner to come across the Victoria Falls
7. Sir Francis Drake, 1542-1596 - Made the first successful circumnavigation of the world by boat. 

8. Sir Walter Raleigh, (1554-1618) 
During his own lifetime, Walter Raleigh (Raleigh) was one of the best-known men in England. He was a courtier, politician, soldier, seaman, explorer, businessman, philosopher, historian and poet.
9. Marco Polo (c. 1254 – January 8, 1324) Made legendary exploration through Acre, into China and to the Mongol court.
10. Alexander the Great - Led his army over Asia into heart of India
    

Victoria Falls was discovered by British explorer, David Livingstone

Until, Livingstone, the falls was called the great waterfall Mosi-oa-Tunya ("the smoke that thunders") waterfall by local Africans.


- author Zest-pk CC license

The Victoria falls is located in southern Africa on the Zambezi River between the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe.

It is claimed to be the largest waterfall in the world with a width of 1,708 metres (5,600 ft)[4] and height of 108 meters (360 ft)

Many people have shown tremendous courage to stand up for their beliefs - even at the cost of their lives.

These are some people who died for their faith or their belief.

Thomas A Beckett - Archbishop of Canterbury who infuriated King Henry II through placing the Church above the King. Beckett was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral on the orders of the King

Thomas More - Leading servent to King Henry VIII - Eventually beheaded for his refusal to accept Henry VIII's rejection of the Catholic Church

Joan of Arc - Burnt at stake for refusing to recant her communion with God.

The Oxford Martyrs - Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, and the Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. Burned at the Stake in Oxford 1555 for refusing to accept Roman Catholic faith of Queen Mary I.

St. Stephen as recorded in the Acts 6:8–8:3,the first Christian Martyr

# James the Great (Son of Zebedee) was beheaded in 44 A.D.
# Philip the Apostle was crucified in 54 A.D.
# Matthew the Evangelist killed with a halberd in 60 A.D.
# James the Just, beaten to death with a club after being crucified and stoned.
# Matthias was stoned and beheaded.
# Saint Andrew, St. Peter's brother, was crucified.
# Saint Mark was dragged in the streets until his death
# Saint Peter, crucified upside-down.

Maximilian Kolbe (Polish Franciscan, died at Auschwitz), 1941

Edith Stein (Carmelite nun, died at Auschwitz), 1942

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, (April 9, 1945) Lutheran Pastor

• Enoch Powell Voted for the Labour Party in 1945 in protest over the Conservative party's policy of appeasement to Hitler's Germany in the late 1930s
• Enoch Powell learnt 12 languages during his lifetime, his last language he learnt was Hebrew.
• Enoch Powell was a staunch critic of American Foreign Policy, criticising war and foreign policy in Vietnam, Iraq, Iran and other the nuclear deterrent.
  
• Powell described the American boycott of the 1980s Moscow Olympics 'pathetic to the point of farce' - over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
• Powell voted against the death penalty and for reform on homosexual law.
• In 1939, Powell returned to England to join the armed forces. He bought a Russian dictionary saying "Russia would hold the key to our survival and victory, as it had in 1812 and 1916"
• In 1941, he helped plan the attack on Rommel's forces in Africa at the Battle of El Alamein.
• At the end of the war Powell had been promoted to brigadier.
• As a youngster, his greatest ambition was to be viceroy of India
• After Indian independence in 1947, Powell changed his mind over the British Empire, he now thought Britain should give up the whole Empire.
• In 1959, Powell gave an emotional defence of Mau Mau Kenyans that some MPs had described as sub human
• Denis Healey, MP later said that speech was "the greatest parliamentary speech I ever heard... it had all the moral passion and rhetorical force of Demosthenes".
• In 1960 Powell was made health minister. He took little if any action over babies deformed by the drug thalidomide,
• Powell is best remembered for his "Rivers of Blood" Speech made in 1968
• "As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see 'the River Tiber foaming with much blood'.
• In 1968, Powell also spelt out a radical free-market economic policy in Morecambe - foreshadowing the Monetarist experiment of the 1980s.
• At the age of 80, he was diagnosed as having Parkinson's disease.
• Powell produced four published collections of poetry: First Poems; Casting Off; Dancer's End; and The Wedding Gift. His Collected Poems appeared in 1990
• Between Oct 1974–1987 Enoch Powell was Ulster Unionist Member of Parliament for South Down, Northern Ireland.
• In 1974 Powell turned down an invitation to stand for the National Front

• Biography of Enoch Powell
• Quotes of Enoch Powell

"This creed of the desert seemed inexpressible in words, and indeed in thought."

- T.E.Lawrence

"All sunshine makes a desert"

- Arab Proverb

In the desert water is worth more than gold

-Arab Proverb

"It is the sandstorms that shape the stone statues of the desert
It is the struggles of life that form a person's character."

-Native American Proverb

"The sun gives life to everything;
but in the desert it is the angel of death.:

- Traditional Bedouin saying

"In the desert of the heart,
Let the healing fountain start;
In the prison of his days,
Teach the free man how to praise.

- W.H.Auden

Lawrence of Arabia is an epic film directed by David Lean about one of histories most fascinating characters - T.E. Lawrence.

Featuring Omar Sharif as Sherif Ali and Peter O'Toole as T.E.Lawrence

The music score was composed by Maurice Jarre, who was given just 6 weeks to compose the two hours of music.

• Biography of T.E.Lawrence
• Facts about T.E.Lawrence
• Quotes Lawrence of Arabia