英國風 The Island Race

Struggling pupils don't catch up, data shows

2012-01-26T14:24:00.000-08:00

Struggling pupils don't catch up, data shows

By Hannah Richardson and Katherine Sellgren BBC News

This year's tables feature far more data than in previous years

School league tables

Just one in 15 (6.5%) pupils starting secondary school in England "behind" for their age goes on to get five good GCSEs including English and maths, official data shows.

The government data published as part of secondary school league tables suggests the majority of schools are failing struggling pupils.

Nationally 58.2% of pupils reach the five good GCSEs benchmark.

Minister Nick Gibb said schools which let pupils down would be tackled.

The Department for Education data covers England's more than 5,000 secondary schools with more than 200 pieces of information being published for each one - almost four times as much as last year.

Much of the information is broken down by pupil type, with scores offered for low, medium and high-attaining pupils, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds as well as non-disadvantaged.

As expected, those from disadvantaged backgrounds (classed as those on free school meals or in local authority care) do less well.

England league tables

Compare schools in your area

Only a third (34%) of these children achieve the government's benchmark of five GCSEs - or equivalent qualifications - graded A* to C, including English and maths.

In 909 schools, not one low-attaining pupil (those who did not reach Level 4 at the end of primary school) reached this threshold.

At the other end of the spectrum, 95% of pupils who started school "ahead" for their age (achieving Level 5 at the end of primary school) got five good GCSEs, including English and maths.

And of those who started school at the expected level for their age, (Level 4 at the end of primary school) some 45.6% failed to progress to five good GCSEs.

Overall, 58.2% of pupils in England's state schools got five good GCSEs including English and maths (including equivalent qualifications).

'One chance'

When these qualifications, such as BTecs and NVQs, are excluded, 52.4% of pupils gained five good GCSEs.

The performance data also shows what proportion of pupils get the English Baccalaureate.

This new measure, introduced in 2010, is the proportion of pupils achieving A*-C passes in English, maths, two science subjects, a modern or ancient language, and either history or geography.

Nationally across all pupils, just 15.4% got the wrap-around qualification, but most pupils would have made their GCSE choices before Education Secretary Michael Gove announced he was introducing this certificate of achievement.

Pupils with low prior attainment also performed poorly in the English Bacc, with just 0.3% gaining the wrap-around qualification.

Sevenoaks School, a private school in Kent, tops the English Bacc tables, with 99% of pupils meeting this benchmark.

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Brian Lightman: "Government needs to spend less time blaming schools"

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said: "Today's figures reveal a shocking waste of talent in many schools across the country. All too often, pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds aren't given the same opportunities as their peers.

"But there are great examples of schools achieving the best for their disadvantaged pupils. If they can get it right, then so can all schools."

The government says its data shows there are 107 secondary schools below the floor standard of 35% of pupils getting five good GCSEs, including English and maths.

Top performers

Mr Gibb added: "Children only have one chance at education. These tables show which schools are letting children down. We will not hesitate to tackle underperformance in any school, including academies.

"Heads should be striving to make improvements year on year, and we will not let schools coast with mediocre performance."

Shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg said that while many pupils, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds are not achieving their potential, the government is promoting pet projects over real need.

"The government needs to focus on the 3Rs as well," he added.

HEADLINE SCORES

National average for five good GCSEs: 58.2% of pupils
National average for English Baccalaureate: 15.4%
Best GCSE performance: Lawrence Sheriff Grammar School, Rugby
Worst GCSE performance: St Aldhelm's Academy, Poole
Best A-level performance: Colchester Royal Grammar School, Essex
Best performing local authority: Sutton, London
Worst performing local authority: Knowsley, Merseyside

NUT general secretary Christine Blower said the social inequalities with which children start school, widen as they progress through their education.

"Instead of focusing on changing school structures and on the pointless naming and shaming of schools, the Government should be ensuring that all schools have the resources and support they need for all pupils to reach their full potential."

In total, 158 schools see 100% of pupils getting five GCSEs A*-C or equivalent, including maths and English.

When the average point score per pupil is used to rank these top performers schools, Lawrence Sheriff Grammar School in Rugby comes top.

Head teacher Dr Peter Kent said much of the school's success was down to Key Stage 4 being spread over three years rather than the traditional two.

"This gives departments a chance to deliver a very personalised curriculum and we all respond well to something that's been tailored to our individual needs," he said.

The poorest performing school was St Aldhelm's Academy in Poole, Dorset, where just 3% of pupils got five GCSEs A*-C or equivalent, including maths and English.

Principal Cheryl Heron, who took over in September 2010, said the results were "disappointing but not unexpected". It would take time to change and transform pupils' learning experiences, she added.

'Focus'

At sixth form level, the Colchester Royal Grammar School in Essex comes out as the best performer, with an average point score per pupil of over 1,477 - this is the equivalent of over four A*s and one A grade at A-level.

The best performing county was Sutton in London, where 74.7% of pupils got the government benchmark of five GCSEs, including maths and English. The worst was Knowsley, Merseyside, where 40.8% of pupils reached this level. A Knowsley spokesman said its schools were improving year after year.

Your comments (778)

R.B.S. Slashes Bonus for Chief Executive

2012-01-26T13:43:00.000-08:00

R.B.S. Slashes Bonus for Chief Executive
Royal Bank of Scotland announced on Thursday that it would pay its chief executive, Stephen Hester, an all-stock bonus of £963,000, or $1.5 million, less than half what he received last year. The bank, which is 82 percent owned by British taxpayers, had come under pressure from the country's prime minister, David Cameron, to rein in bonuses for top executives.

Canterbury

2012-01-22T05:28:00.000-08:00

Canterbury
(kăn'tər-bĕr'ē, -brē, -tə-)

A borough of southeast England on the Stour River east-southeast of London. Canterbury Cathedral (11th-16th century) is the seat of the archbishop and primate of the Anglican Communion. Built on the site of an abbey founded by Saint Augustine c. 600, it was the scene of the murder of Thomas à Becket (1170). Population: 43,500.

Canterbury
Canterbury lies on the Great Stour river

Canterbury

Canterbury shown within Kent
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/canterbury#ixzz1kC42ahXE

pri・mate

━━ n. 首席司教, 大主教; 【動】霊長類の動物.
Primate of All England　Canterburyの大主教.
Primate of England　Yorkの大主教.

Archbishop of Canterbury - Information from Answers.com
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the
Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion,
and ...

This is London from dawn till night

2012-01-22T00:04:00.001-08:00

This is London from dawn till night ( 1953photo books of the world)

此舊書找不到出版年代原來是1953

A SHROPSHIRE LAD: LXII (Alfred Edward Housman )

This is London from dawn till night.
114 photos. by Cas Oorthuys. Text by Neville Braybrooke.

Published 1953 by B. Cassirer; distributed by Faber & Faber, London in Oxford .
Written in English.

Creativity Culture & Education

2012-01-21T16:57:00.000-08:00

Scholarly articles for creativity culture and education england
Enterprise culture and education - Gibb - Cited by 308 Creativity in education - Craft - Cited by 75 The limits to creativity in education: Dilemmas for the … - Craft - Cited by 88

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二○一一年底，世界教育研究學會在台灣中山大學舉辦的年會論壇中，特別以創造力和想像力為主題，揭櫫未來學習最重要的兩個核心。論壇也特別邀請英國創意、文化與教育中心（ＣＣＥ，Creativity Culture and Education）的執行長保羅．寇拉（Paul Collard），來分享英國正在進行的學習革命。

英國政府投入兩千九百萬英鎊的預算（約台幣十四億元），支持由ＣＣＥ主導的創造力教育計畫。目前為止，全英國已經有八千個該中心和學校合作的創造力教育計畫，涵蓋了近一百萬個英國青少年。

ＣＣＥ也和澳洲和韓國政府合作，提供創造力教育的經驗和顧問。

在台灣，創造力教育常常被當做是資優教育的一個重點；但在英國，卻是補救教學的新主流。

《親子天下》特別專訪寇拉，不僅是談「創造力」，而是重新檢視學習的內涵，與學校教育的優先順序。

保羅‧寇拉（Paul Collard）小檔案

現職：英國創意、文化與教育中心執行長

經歷：擅長透過文化和創意活動推動社會和經濟的變革。有25年在藝術領域相關工作經驗。曾任英國當代藝術中心總經理。

* * *

這一代的孩子和父母輩不同。他們的未來，沒有太多已經準備好的工作等著他們畢業後來應徵。他們必須在離開學校後，自己創造工作。更諷刺的是，很多父母和師長現在積極幫孩子準備的工作能力，可能等到他們二十五歲時，工作已經消失了。

這樣的轉變，讓教育系統變得很困難。因為工作根本還沒有被發明。老師和父母無從預測，更不知該如何幫孩子準備。

也因此我們應該重新思考教育的核心，也是最重要的目的，就是發展孩子創造的能力。讓他們未來有能力發明新工作，因為未來的世界不需要「找工作」的人，但需要「創造工作」的人。

ＣＣＥ一直努力的方向就是希望，不管在校內或是校外的學習過程中，可以釋放孩子的創意，讓他們感受到成功的經驗。我們在各式各樣的計畫中看到，要激發孩子的學習動機，有幾個非常重要的關鍵：讓孩子感受到知識和生活的關聯性、讓他們得以主導、參與學習的過程（engaged）、發現學習的樂趣、進而建立自信。

看看ＯＥＣＤ（經濟合作與發展組織）的國際學生評量計畫（ＰＩＳＡ）分析。學校花了很多的心力教科學，希望培育很多科學家。但是，從ＰＩＳＡ的研究中看到，很多科學成績很好的國家，學生對於科學知識的興趣卻很低。又日本和韓國的學生，科學能力排名不錯，但自信卻是倒數。

韓國和日本的學生覺得自己很笨，因為若不是這麼笨，就不必上這麼多課、補這麼多習。ＰＩＳＡ也做了科學評量成績和青少年自殺率的關聯分析，同樣看到日本、韓國和芬蘭這三個科學評量優等生，卻都是青少年高自殺率的國家。

看到這裡，做為父母的我們，是否應該思考：我們希望培養科學家，但是到頭來，卻是強迫孩子學習「過去」的知識。不但無法為未來做準備，而且還讓孩子不快樂、剝奪了他們的自信。

我相信，創造力的學習是一種真正的學習。舉例來說，當我們教科學的時候，常常是先跟孩子說明公式和原理是什麼。然後，做幾個實驗來證明這個公式和原理的正確性。想當然耳，孩子會覺得這樣的學習非常無聊。

但是，創意教學或是創造力的學習，則是反過來。先讓孩子做實驗，讓他們在實驗的過程中，「發現」、「歸納」出原則和原理，然後再讓他們印證標準答案。也就是說創造力教育的核心就是「讓學生主導」。

把「學」的責任交給孩子

要釋放創造力，關鍵就是父母和老師要把責任轉嫁給子女，不要把「教」的責任攬在身上；而應該把「學」的責任放給孩子。創造出一個空間，在這空間裡，孩子有自由學習和犯錯的機會。這樣孩子才可能釋放創造力。

ＣＣＥ的成立是為了解決孩子學習上的問題，但我們不是透過傳統的方式——把學校教過的，再教一遍的「補救教學」。我們採取的方式，是透過藝術的活動，把傳統學習轉化成以學生為主體的學習。

例如，去年有一個在小學的補救教學計畫。這個小學位在經濟弱勢的地區，很多家庭都是隔代教養，學生普遍的學習動機低落。我們說服學校老師把預備興建教室的計畫，整個交給學生主導。小學生的思考很天馬行空、很抽象。一開始，他們希望新的教室是一座海灘或是城堡……後來的共識是決定買一台小飛機改造成教室。分配下去，不同年級的學生有不同的責任，高年級要負責跟當地政府申請，讓飛機教室符合法規，他們要填寫很多的表格和撰寫公文。要買飛機時，大家上網搜尋，最後在eBay買了一台小飛機。

飛機買來以後，需要重新裝潢，飛機的裝潢非常專業，小朋友也在網路上找到一位專業設計師。他們寫信給設計師，說明自己是一群小學生，正在設計新的學校教室。後來這位設計師願意免費幫他們設計。這間小飛機教室，最後成為地理教室，因為可以隨時「飛到」他們上課的地點，下課時再飛回家。

這個新教室計畫的起點，是識字計畫，目的是要改善學生低落的識字能力。

父母需要觀念革命

過程中，學生必須填很多的計畫表格。但是他們一點也不以為苦。而且你會發現，平常學校的學習，孩子回家根本不會告訴父母。但是當學習變有趣的時候，他們回家就會滔滔不絕。

這個計畫的第二個重要目的，是讓孩子有夢想的勇氣。我們看到許多創業家，他們的成功不在於有很棒的點子，而在於有信心把狂野想法付之實踐的勇氣。這些孩子在過程中，肯定了自己有能力實踐想法，他們永遠不會忘記這樣的經驗。

我們的做法不是增加學校的授課時數，或是改變課程，重點在於改變教法。譬如，有一所中學的學生，科學成績非常糟糕。我們協助學生把學習的課題，編寫成一個劇本。學生在過程中，討論基因問題的種種道德和價值選擇的不同觀點。他們發現這不僅是科學問題，更是道德和法律交織的複雜議題。課程中，各種角度反覆思辯，這群放牛班學生，有了機會理解科學和生活的關聯，更啟發了好奇心。後來學生學力測驗，在全國有非常優異的表現，證明了一旦孩子吸收知識，就可以學得更快。

許多亞洲國家的父母都是在考試制度中長大。但是，若我們誠實面對自己，問自己，求學過程中哪些課堂學習讓你印象深刻，甚至對現在的自己有很大的幫助？大概很少。而且成年後，回頭去看，很多學習根本只是浪費時間。

這一代父母和子女的鴻溝會愈來愈大。其實，我們需要針對父母推動一個很大的觀念革命運動。讓父母和教師理解，我們幫孩子準備的可能是一個即將結束的時代。我們必須重新思考，學習的意義和內涵。

The Workers’ Educational Association (WEA)

2012-01-20T07:55:00.000-08:00

Workers' Educational Association (WEA). Founded in 1903 by Albert Mansbridge (1876-1952), a cashier at the Cooperative Permanent Building Society, whose own formal education had ended at the age of 14. Mansbridge considered that the University Extension movement, established in 1878, had been largely taken over by the middle classes. To remedy this, Mansbridge launched an Association to Promote the Higher Education of Working Men, changing its name to the Workers' Educational Association two years later. By the outbreak of the First World War the movement had proved a success, with every university providing tutors. But infiltration by the middle class persisted.

***
Wikipedia

The Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) seeks to provide access to education and lifelong learning for adults from all backgrounds, and in particular those who have previously missed out on education. The International Federation of Workers Education Associations (IFWEA) has consultative status to UNESCO. Archbishop William Temple was a strong proponent of workers’ education.

Albert Mansbridge established An Association to promote the Higher Education of Working Men in 1903 (renamed 'Workers Educational Association' in 1905).

Contents

WEA UK

The WEA is divided into nine regions in England (each matching a Government Office region), a Scottish Association and over 500 local branches. It creates and delivers about 14,000 courses each year in response to local need across England and Scotland, often in partnership with community groups and local charities. These courses provide learning opportunities for around 85,000 people per year, taught by over 2,500 professional tutors (most of whom work for the WEA part-time). These figures make the WEA the largest voluntary sector provider of adult education in Britain.

The WEA is a national charity and is supported by the Government through funding from the Skills Funding Agency in England, and in Scotland by the Scottish Executive and Local Authorities. It also receives fees from learners on many of its courses and is often successful in funding bids from government, lottery and other sources for educational projects in local communities around the country.

There are also Workers' Educational Associations in Northern Ireland and in North and South Wales. Since 1992/3, these have been entirely separate organisations from the WEA National Association, which now operates only in England and Scotland.

WEA London Region

It runs a wide range of local courses all over London, from Basic Skills to Beethoven; from Community Interpreting to Contemporary Literature; from Digital Media to Dance; from E-learning and Egyptology to English as a Second Language, and from Health and Safety to Helping in Schools.

These courses all share its common values:

Creating equality and opportunity, and challenging discrimination
Believing in people, communities and their potential to change through education
Putting the learner at the centre of everything we do

See some of its work at Galleryonline or try an online course for free at its Learning Online Moodle site.

London Region Website

WEA Northern Ireland

The Workers’ Educational Association NI provides adult education in community and workplace settings. Its title is somewhat misleading as it provides education for all types of people and in particular tries to reach out to those who missed out on learning first time round. It works mainly with those over 18.

Some background ...

It was set up in Belfast in 1910 and part of a wider network of WEAs, the first of which started in England in 1903.
Today it operates across Northern Ireland and in the Border Counties in the Republic. It has around 6,500 learners in any given year.

Its courses are organized mainly in venues such as community halls, arts centres and training rooms in workplaces. In fact it can pretty much set up a course wherever and whenever a community group, voluntary organization, union or employer needs it.

The WEANI’s Vision is a prosperous, creative and cohesive society where everyone is a learner. Its Mission is to make learning irresistible.

Its values are:

When it comes to learning no-one should be left behind
People learn best and create most when they are open to difference
Working collaboratively is second nature to the WEA
Everyone receives a quality of service
Actively listening to learners is core to its business
Innovation and risk taking are essential

The WEANI's Vision, Mission and Values have shaped its Strategic Plan ‘Irresistible Learning’ which sets out its objectives up to 2013.

visit www.wea-ni.com for more info.

Coleg Harlech WEA (North Wales)

Workers' Educational Association (North Wales) was established in 1925 as the North Wales District of the Workers' Educational Association. On 1 April 1993 it became a separate charity in response to the new funding arrangements for further education in Wales, under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 and on 1 August 2001 it merged with Coleg Harlech - a campus-based institution which shares the WEA's 'second chance' ethos - to form Coleg Harlech Workers' Educational Association (North Wales). The WEA in Wales is supported by DELLS (formerly ELWa), the funding arm of the Welsh Assembly Government.

WEA Australia

The WEA was established in New South Wales in 1913. Early work was patterned on the WEA in the UK. However, given the different demographic arrangements in Australia, and in the absence of other adult education providers, the WEA in Australia became a general adult education agency. In the 1980s a range of other training providers started offering adult education and the WEA’s role has changed. The WEA has many clubs and societies including the WEA Film Study Group.

References

UK

Lawrence Goldman, past President of the former Thames and Solent District WEA, has written:

Dons and Workers: Oxford and Adult Education Since 1850 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995)
'Intellectuals and the English Working Class 1870-1945: The Case of Adult Education', History of Education 29:4 (1999), 281-300
'Education as Politics: University Adult Education in England since 1870', Oxford Review of Education 25:1-2 (1999), 89-101

Australia

Darryl Dymock (2001). A Special and Distinctive Role in Adult Education. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-567-7.

External links

Australia

WEA Sydney
Workers' Educational Association of South Australia Incorporated (WEA South Australia) Adult Education for Lifelong Learning
WEA Hunter Adult Education and Training, Newcastle, NSW
WEA Illawarra

UK

International

To Sir, With Regret/Occupy London to Appeal Ruling Against Campsite

2012-01-19T13:50:00.001-08:00

To Sir, With Regret
The British government may strip Frederick A. Goodwin of his knighthood because of his role as chief executive in the failure of the Royal Bank of Scotland, which had to be bailed out by the government.

Occupy London to Appeal Ruling Against Campsite
The move comes after a court sided with city authorities, who had called on the protestors to leave the colorful campsite that encircles the entrance to St. Paul's Cathedral, located in the heart of London's financial district.

Out of the crisis - lessons from British car manufacturing

2012-01-19T05:11:00.001-08:00

Out of the crisis - lessons from British car manufacturing
The Birmingham Post
... were taught by two American statisticians who went there to assist in post-war development of industry Dr. W. Edwards Deming and Dr. Joseph Juran. ...

Out of the crisis - lessons from British car manufacturing

By Dr Steven McCabe on Jan 18, 12 09:53 AM in Automotive

Today's unemployment figures give us all cause for concern and there is certainly little to be currently optimistic about. For those of us who have been around for a while and can remember the 1970s we know that even in the bleakest of times there is always hope of change. The trouble is, there is a great deal to fear. Our economy is 'flat-lining' and the historically low period of phenomenally low interest rates has simply kept things from getting worse. We can only hope that events in Greece do not lead to another spectacular crisis of finance which will impact on all of us and, of course, make recovery even harder.

So, what can realistically be done to create the success our economy desperately needs to achieve an export-led recovery? Surprisingly we can look for inspiration to a sector once written off as displaying all of the characteristics that seemed to epitomise everything that was wrong with British industry. Once again we are back to the 1970s when car manufacturing, or the frequent lack of, regularly made the news headlines.

British car manufacturing has a rich tradition. When I was a child in the 1970s every household in Birmingham knew or was related to someone who worked at factories making components or in the huge assembly plants such as at the Austin plant in Longbridge where my dad worked in the foundry. For many of my class mates working in the car industry was a reasonable, if somewhat unexciting, prospect. Sadly, though, it was not a sector that inspired pride. Indeed, for a great many it generated feelings of contempt at what many saw as the worst of industrial relations. For others it was like witnessing the protracted illness of a once-loved relative. Longbridge was symbolic of just how bad things had become; lack of investment made the factory look archaic and the ability of management and workers to see eye-to-eye was, at best, difficult because of shop stewards whose objective seemed to be anarchy. Longbridge seemed to be a factory that was literally 'out of control'.

As history was to demonstrate, despite the valiant efforts of workers and some management (but certainly not the "Phoenix Four"), it was not possible to ensure that mass car production could continue at Longbridge. Nonetheless, there was a recognition that if you wish to remain successful as a car producer you need to learn what the Japanese had shown was possible; that you can make cars which customers perceive to have 'quality' and will perform to extremely high standards.

Everyone who has studied Japanese production learned that they place great importance on constant innovation and development, obsession with quality control and, crucially, the value of putting people at the heart of the production system. Every student who learns the history of how Japanese car producers achieved pre-eminence will discover the irony that these principles were taught by two American statisticians who went there to assist in post-war development of industry Dr. W. Edwards Deming and Dr. Joseph Juran. The title of this blog is in homage to Deming whose seminal book Out of the Crisis, published in 1982, stressed the need for America industry to learn what he had taught the Japanese thirty five years earlier.

The fact that domestic car sales are declining is no surprise. The current climate makes us fearful of what the immediate future holds. However, other economies are doing much better. The 'BRIC' economies are well known (Brazil, Russia, India and China). More recently there is the emergence of what are referred to as the 'CIVETS' (Columbia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa). These provide opportunities for those manufacturers able to produce goods, such as cars, which are seen to be high value and data shows that this is the case for large volume producers and the luxury marques such as Bentley and Jaguar.

It is notable that all top five car producers in Britain have ownership outside of this country; BMW (who produce the Mini in Cowley), Land Rover, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Significantly the owners of these companies, as well as the other smaller luxury produces, explicitly recognise that whilst they cannot compete in terms of unit costs, if the product is perceived to be superior by being designed and assembled by highly skilled and committed workers, it is perfectly possible to not just survive the current problems but to prosper.

So what is needed? As an academic based at Birmingham City University I make no apology for stressing the importance of education at every level. The children we are teaching today need the skills and confidence in their ability to be part of quest for innovation and creativity which will be essential in the future. We need our business and political leaders to continuously hammer home the message that our manufacturers can be the best in the world. But manufacturers must be supported in every way possible. If we can spend umpteen billions on a new railway line then we can surely invest in research and development and provide financial incentives to encourage the brightest and best to be part of the manufacturing revolution. This is what will get us out of recession; whatever happens elsewhere.

The Whirling Sound of Planet Dickens

2012-01-15T22:51:00.001-08:00

Editorial | Sunday Observer

The Whirling Sound of Planet Dickens

By VERLYN KLINKENBORG

Published: January 14, 2012

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In death, Charles Dickens still keeps his greatest secret to himself — the essence of his energy. None of the physical relics he left behind betray it. The manuscripts of his novels — like “Our Mutual Friend” at the Morgan Library — look no more fevered or hectic than the manuscripts left behind by other novelists.

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Charles Dickens, from a negative by Herbert Watkins.

Times Topic: Charles Dickens

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Two memorable characters from Charles Dickens, Micawber and the young Copperfield.

The handwritten words on the page, round and legible in blue ink, are the marks of a mind that has already settled itself to composition.

Dickens, who was born 200 years ago, wrote a long shelf of novels, 14 in all, not counting “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” which lay half-finished at his death. They sit plump and bursting with life, spilling over with the chaos of existence itself. It’s easy to imagine writers working the way Dickens’s prolific contemporary, Anthony Trollope, did — steadily, routinely, knocking off his 2,000 words a day until, by the end of his life, he had written 47 novels. But this is not how Dickens wrote.

Find the tumultuous heart of your favorite Dickens novel, the place where 19th-century London seems to be seething, smoking, overcrowded, in a state of vulgar contradiction. Then imagine Dickens working in the midst of it — a small, brisk figure rushing past you on a dark and dirty street. He is lost in a kind of mental ventriloquism, calling up his emotions and studying them. Every night he walked a dozen miles, without which, he said, “I should just explode and perish.”

Under the pseudonym Boz, he wrote, “There is nothing we enjoy more than a little amateur vagrancy,” walking through London as though “the whole were an unknown region to our wandering mind.” Yet there was nothing remotely solitary about Dickens. One person who saw him in the highest spirits at a family party wrote that he “happily sang two or three songs, one the patter song, ‘The Dog’s Meat Man,’ and gave several successful imitations of the most distinguished actors of the day.”

It’s a wonder Dickens didn’t explode and perish long before his death in 1870, at age 58. Quite apart from the act of composing his novels, he was a whirlwind, living a life that is nearly unmatched in its vigor. He had one entire career as a magazine editor, another as an actor and manager of theatrical productions, still another as a philanthropist and social reformer. The record of his private engagements alone — dinners, outings, peregrinations with his entourage of family and friends — is exhausting to read. The novels stand out against the backdrop of hundreds of other compositions, all of them written against tight deadlines.

Dickens’s energy, which he made no effort to husband until he was nearly dead, was inexplicable. Call it metabolic if you like. Perhaps it was a reaction to the uncertainties of his childhood and the shame of his days as a child laborer, when he knew that as a precocious young entertainer he was already a spectacle well worth observing.

He was driven by gargantuan emotions, and the ferocious will needed to keep them in check, to release them in the creation of characters he loved more than some of his children. He could drive himself to anguished tears while writing the death of Little Nell, in “The Old Curiosity Shop.” And yet he could also coldly disown anyone who sided with his wife, Catherine, when they separated, including his namesake son.

Even Dickens didn’t understand his energy. He grasped that there was a wildness in him, and so did nearly everyone who knew him. When Dostoevsky met Dickens in 1862 — a meeting that is hard to imagine — Dickens explained that there were two people inside him, “one who feels as he ought to feel and one who feels the opposite.”

Out of these two people he constructed his universe of characters, good and evil. Dostoevsky’s comment is laconic and ambiguous. “Only two people?” he asked. Dickens’s public readings, which began in 1858, drew tens of thousands of people in England and America. They came not only to see the author himself but also the people who inhabited him — Scrooge and Pickwick, Micawber and Mrs. Gamp.

Those characters, and dozens more, still live with all their old vitality. And though we feel the unevenness of Dickens’s novels more plainly than when they were appearing in monthly parts, it’s easier now to see that the unevenness in most of them is symptomatic of his overpowering energy.

The man himself was uneven and could not be beaten into consistency any more than he could beat every one of his novels into perfection. The fact is that Charles Dickens was as Dickensian as the most outrageous of his characters, and he was happy to think so, too. Soon after the publication of “A Christmas Carol” in 1843, he wrote of himself to a close friend: “two and thirty years ago, the planet Dick appeared on the horizon. To the great admiration, wonder and delight of all who live, and the unspeakable happiness of mankind.” Planet Dickens feels as real as it does to us because he stalked the world around him.

And when he finally settled at his desk, he was still driving himself through a world of his own invention, peopled by characters waiting, as he said, to come “ready made to the point of the pen.”

Ronald William Fordham Searle

2012-01-15T22:50:00.001-08:00

Ronald William Fordham Searle

John Tillotson,

2012-01-14T15:01:00.000-08:00

毛姆《觀點》(The Points of View by W. Somerset Maugham 1958) 夏菁譯，上海：上海譯文，2011

詩人(案：哥德)的三部小說

聖者

散文與神學家蒂樂生

短篇小說

三位 (案：法國)日記體作家

譯後記

讀者從我對目錄的兩處案語，可知作者的文字範圍包括英、法、德文。當時書有也有些拉丁文。

這本書翻譯上有些”疏忽” ，譬如說《散文與神學家蒂樂生》( pp. 83-123) ，傳主姓名的原文是 John Tillotson, 1630-1694。此君的講道文章以簡潔出名，一向是英國18世紀以前的文章範本。現在類似《牛津英國文學伴讀》只用數十字介紹他，而毛姆大發思古之幽情，介紹這英國文化史上常被忽略的人物之生平 (現在人對當初英國國教與天主教的衝突，可能已沒什麼興趣，不過這是16-17世紀英國人的第一要事)，相當有趣。

Quotes:

"Though all afflictions are evils in themselves, yet they are good for us, because they discover to us our disease and tend to our cure."

"The art of using deceit and cunning grow continually weaker and less effective to the user."

"The crafty person is always in danger; and when they think they walk in the dark, all their pretenses are transparent."

"To be able to bear provocation is an argument of great reason, and to forgive it of a great mind."

"Men expect that religion should cost them no pains, that happiness should drop into their laps without any design and endeavor on their part, and that, after they have done what they please while they live, God should snatch them up to heaven when they die. But though the commandments of God be not grievous, yet it is fit to let men know that they are not thus easy."

"Ignorance and inconsideration are the two great causes of the ruin of mankind."

John Tillotson (October 1630 – 22 November 1694) was an Archbishop of Canterbury (1691–1694).

The Strand Magazine

2012-01-14T15:00:00.001-08:00

董橋2000年前的書《跟中國的夢賽跑》等The Strand Magazine

Bound volume of The Strand Magazine for January–June 1894 featuring George Charles Haité's famous cover design
Frequency	Monthly
First issue	January 1891
Final issue — Number	March 1950 711
Company	George Newnes Ltd
Country	UK
Language	English

The Strand Magazine was a monthly magazine composed of fictional

Nail your colours to the mast

2012-01-13T01:54:00.001-08:00

Nail your colours to the mast

Meaning

To defiantly display one's opinions and beliefs. Also, to show one's intention to hold on to those beliefs until the end.

Origin

In 17th century nautical battles colours (flags) were struck (lowered) as a mark of submission. It was also the custom in naval warfare to direct one's cannon fire at the opponent's ship's mast, thus disabling it. If all of a ship's masts were broken the captain usually had no alternative but to surrender. If the captain decided to fight on this was marked by hoisting the colours on the remnants of the ship's rigging, i.e. by 'nailing his colours to the mast'.

It is correct to use the English spelling, rather the the US 'nail one's colors to the mast', as the phrase originated in England. It is generally agreed that the expression was coined in reference to the exploits of the crew of the Venerable, at the Battle of Camperdown, a naval engagement that was fought between English and Dutch ships as part of the French Revolutionary Wars, in 1797.

The English fleet was led by the Venerable, the flagship of Admiral Adam Duncan. The battle didn't initially go well for the English. The mainmast of Duncan's vessel was struck and the admiral's blue squadronal standard was brought down. This could have been interpreted by the rest of the fleet as meaning that Duncan had surrendered. Step forward, horny-handed son of the sea and subsequent national hero, Jack Crawford. Crawford climbed what was left of the mast with the standard and nailed it back where it was visible to the rest of the fleet. This act proved crucial in the battle and Duncan's forces were eventually victorious. Some historians believe that the victory at Camperdown proved to be the end of the dominance of the Dutch at sea and the beginning of the period in which 'Britannia ruled the waves'. Crawford returned home to Sunderland to a hero's welcome.

The stalwart reputation of English seamen soon became part of the national consciousness. An address to the House of Commons by the playwright Richard Sheridan was reported in The Edinburgh Advertiser in January 1801:

"I have no hesitation in saying that the Maritime Law is the charter of our existence, the banner under which we all should rally; it is the flag which, imitating the example of our gallant seamen, we should nail to the mast of the nation, and go down with the vessel rather than strike it!"

The first use of the precise expression 'nail your colours to the mast' that I have found is from the English newspaper The Hereford Journal, August 1807. This reported a naval engagement between British and American ships in which the US captain surrendered without a fight, much to the disgust of his military superiors:

"You [Commodore James Barron] ought to have nailed your colours to the mast, and have fought whilst a timber remained on your ship."

Whether or not Jack Crawford was the first to 'nail his colours to the mast' we can't be completely sure, but it does look highly likely. The phrase wasn't known before his exploit and was widely used soon afterwards. Despite his heroic status, Crawford died a pauper and a drunkard and was buried in an unmarked grave. The local community raised a fund to erect a gravestone and later a commemorative statue. If you do have any doubts about Jack's role in linguistic history, it might be wise not to mention it in Sunderland.

Cameron throws Scots independence gauntlet/referendum mandate

2012-01-10T20:50:00.000-08:00

Alex Salmond insists on independence referendum mandate

Comments (487)

First Minister Alex Salmond met his ministers to discuss plans for a referendum consultation

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond has said his government has a mandate to hold a referendum on independence in the autumn of 2014.

The UK government says Holyrood cannot legally go ahead without its authority.

But Mr Salmond said UK PM David Cameron had "no mandate" to set the rules and suggested he was doing so because he was "frightened" he would lose.

The BBC's Nick Robinson says it could mean an historic Supreme Court struggle between Westminster and Holyrood.

Mr Salmond said the 2014 date would allow people to make a "considered" decision on the country's future within the UK.

'Not right'

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was "not fair" to suggest he was worried he would lose if the referendum had only two options - to stay in the UK or leave it - which is the UK government's preference.

He denied wanting a "get out clause" and said there was a "lot of opinion in Scotland" supporting a third option - increased financial powers for the Scottish government, short of full independence, known as "devo max".

“Start Quote

I thought his intervention was almost Thatcher-esque in its nature”

Alex Salmond Scottish First Minister

"I just don't think it's right and proper at this stage, before people have had a consultation on the referendum question or questions for the UK government to start ruling that out."

"Why should we be excluding what is a legitimate point of view across Scotland?"

"Perhaps the Westminster politicians are trying to set the ground rules, the timing, who votes, the questions because they are frightened they will lose it?"

In a row that could become a constitutional crisis, Mr Salmond has accused the UK government of adopting a belligerent attitude.

'Sooner not later'

He said Mr Cameron's intervention had been "almost Thatcher-esque": "The idea [was] that 'London knows best' and was really operating in our best interests but wanted to set the ground rules for our referendum, despite the fact he's got no mandate whatsoever for doing so."

SNP position	Unionist position
Wants the referendum in the autumn of 2014	Wants the referendum "sooner rather than later"
Backs a "yes/no" ballot but is open minded on including a second "devo max" question	Wants a one question "yes/no" ballot
Wants 16 and 17-year-olds to be able to vote in the referendum	Backs the status quo with 18 and over able to vote
Wants a special commission to conduct the referendum	Wants the Electoral Commission to oversee the vote

Mark Devenport: Poll posing issues for Northern Ireland

"The SNP won an overwhelming majority on the promise that we would offer the people a referendum on their own future, is it not entirely reasonable that that referendum ... is made in Scotland and decided by the Scottish people?"

Scottish Secretary Michael Moore says he hopes to work with the SNP government to resolve the dispute.

He told MPs on Tuesday that there would be a consultation on how to hold a referendum.

He has not stated when the coalition government would prefer a referendum to be held, but said he would like it to be "sooner rather than later".

The government's "clear view" was that the power to hold a referendum was "reserved" to Westminster under devolution laws passed in 1998 and that the Scottish government could not authorise a referendum on its own.

Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont said Mr Salmond's announcing the preferred date was a "panicked response from a panicked first minister".

Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said the "key issues" were what the referendum question would be and who would oversee the vote.

Under the Scottish government's timetable, a referendum bill would be introduced at Holyrood in January 2013, it would be expected to be passed by the autumn and gain Royal Assent later in 2013.

Big differences also remain between the Scottish and UK governments on the timing of the referendum, who would run it and on whether 16 and 17-year-olds could vote.

英国政府敦促苏格兰举行独立公投英
首相卡梅伦坚持“要么走，要么留”，

但苏格兰首席大臣寄望于第三种选择

Cameron throws Scots independence gauntlet

By Kiran Stacey,Andrew Bolger in London, in Edinburgh

David Cameron, British prime minister, has challenged Scotland’s first minister to hold a referendum on independence, paving the way for a vote that could trigger the collapse of the United Kingdom.

Mr Cameron will today offer Alex Salmond the power to hold a legally binding vote on whether Scotland should remain part of the 305-year-old union with England.

The prime minister said he wanted to offer two options: Scotland remaining in the union, or leaving it. At the weekend he said: “Let’s clear up the legal situation and then have a debate about how we bring this to a conclusion. My view is that sooner rather than later would be better.”

However, nationalists argue that limiting the choice to two options make a vote in favour of independence unlikely.

With many in Scotland lukewarm to the idea, Mr Salmond wants more time to make his case and wants to offer voters a third option: becoming fiscally independent while remaining part of the UK.

The decision to offer a vote reflects the London government’s concern about what some see as an unstoppable drift towards Scottish independence.

Tony Blair, former prime minister, hoped to have halted the case for independence when he devolved a significant amount of power to a parliament in Edinburgh after he took power in 1997.

Yet since then the Scottish National party has grown in strength and the government in London has now appointed George Osborne, chancellor and a leading strategist, to head up a committee to look at the issue.

The government said Mr Osborne’s appointment showed how seriously it was taking the issue of Scottish independence.

The chancellor told his cabinet colleagues yesterday that he wanted a quick and decisive referendum that would provide a clear Yes or No answer.

The King's Speech/Sir John Milsom Rees

2012-01-10T16:43:00.000-08:00

Amazon Properties房地產開發公司總經理查爾斯﹒古爾吉(Charles Gourgey)說，這棟住宅原是英國皇家歌劇院喉科醫師約翰﹒裡斯爵士(Sir John Milsom Rees)的住所和咨詢室。裡斯爵士曾為英國國王喬治六世的父親喬治五世進行過診治。喬治六世是電影《國王的演講》(The King’s Speech)中的主人公。
房產圖片：1.2億元的倫敦歷史宅邸

這棟五居住宅位於倫敦市中心，附帶一套設備齊全的三居公寓，曾是英國國王喬治五世的喉科醫師的住宅，現經過現代化改造，要價折合人民幣約1.2億元。

該房產要價1,250萬英鎊（折合人民幣約1.22億元），由倫敦Druce房地產公司代理出售。
Druce
Amazon Properties房地產開發公司總經理查爾斯﹒古爾吉(Charles Gourgey)說，這棟住宅原是英國皇家歌劇院喉科醫師約翰﹒裡斯爵士(Sir John Milsom Rees)的住所和咨詢室。裡斯爵士曾為英國國王喬治六世的父親喬治五世進行過診治。喬治六世是電影《國王的演講》(The King’s Speech)中的主人公。
Druce
古爾吉先生說：“我們都虔誠地珍視遺產。因為我們相信歷史會為一處房產增彩，而非妨害房產。但這處住宅同時具備了一個現代開發項目的所有優勢，擁有各種最新配件。”
Druce
他說，這棟建築曾被混合使用，由幾間醫療室和幾套公寓組成。“我們對它進行了翻修，將它恢復成一棟豪華住宅。”
Druce
這棟喬治五世時期的建築共四層。L形的主接待室位於第二層，地下室則有一個三居室的員工公寓，一個影音室和健身房。
Druce
這棟住宅中有五間臥室，其中四間帶步入式衣櫃、配套衛生間和更衣區。
Druce
主臥的配套衛生間中有一個圓形大浴缸。
Druce
該房產位於英國倫敦市中心的上溫坡街(Upper Wimpole St.)18號，毗鄰馬裡博恩大街(Marylebone High Street)和攝政公園。
Druce
該房產要價1,250萬英鎊（折合人民幣約1.22億元），由倫敦Druce房地產公司代理出售。
Druce
Amazon Properties房地產開發公司總經理查爾斯﹒古爾吉(Charles Gourgey)說，這棟住宅原是英國皇家歌劇院喉科醫師約翰﹒裡斯爵士(Sir John Milsom Rees)的住所和咨詢室。裡斯爵士曾為英國國王喬治六世的父親喬治五世進行過診治。喬治六世是電影《國王的演講》(The King’s Speech)中的主人公。
Druce

><><

1/8

1936年12月邱吉爾才是海軍部長

On Dec. 26, 1941, Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress.

12月12日是大事日

《王者之聲：宣戰時刻》（The King's Speech，片名中speech既解作演講，也解作說話能力，是雙關語）是2010年由湯姆·霍伯執導的英國傳記片。男主角柯林·佛斯獲得了包括第68屆金球獎最佳劇情片男主角、第83屆奧斯卡金像獎最佳男主角在內的許多表演獎。影片還在第83屆奧斯卡金像獎中獲得12項提名，並勇奪最佳影片、最佳原創劇本、最佳導演及最佳男主角四項大獎‎。

本片講述的是現任英國女王伊莉莎白二世的父親，喬治六世國王治療口吃的故事，根據英國歷史真實故事改編而成。

身為約克公爵的喬治，是英國王位第二繼承人，父親是國王喬治五世，兄長是王儲威爾斯親王愛德華。喬治從小有嚴重的口吃，為了應付演說而時有無力感，遂連同妻子尋找語言治療師來治療自己，最終找到了澳大利亞籍的萊恩尼爾·羅格（Lionel Logue），但卻又以齟齬與羅格決裂。

喬治五世去世後，王儲愛德華即位，但仍過著風花雪月的人生，不理睬因納粹德國崛起而岌岌可危的朝政，且堅持要與一個離過兩次婚的華麗思女士結婚，與離婚女子結婚，違背了英國國教與王室的繼承規定，首相鮑得溫於是令愛德華做出選擇，不願放棄美人的愛德華，選擇禪讓王位與喬治，退隱山林，稱「溫莎公爵」。

喬治本無心問鼎寶座，卻因兄長不負責任的退位，不得不加冕登基，是為喬治六世。喬治六世此時再次想到羅格，為了能順利發表各種演說，喬治六世辛苦經歷了一系列的語言訓練，不但與羅格成為好友，口吃也大為好轉。最後結局，是喬治六世向當時二次大戰中的英國人的一次著名戰時演說，其發表順利，聲調鏗鏘有力，鼓舞了全國軍民。

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King%27s_Speech

The King's Speech
Cinematic release poster
Directed by	Tom Hooper
Produced by	Iain Canning Emile Sherman Gareth Unwin
Screenplay by	David Seidler
Starring	Colin Firth Geoffrey Rush Helena Bonham Carter
Music by	Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography	Danny Cohen, BSC
Editing by	Tariq Anwar
Studio	UK Film Council See-Saw Films Bedlam Productions
Distributed by	The Weinstein Company
Release date(s)	6 September 2010 (Telluride Film Festival) 7 January 2011 (United Kingdom)
Running time	118 minutes^[1]
Country	United Kingdom^[2]
Language	English
Budget	£8 million ($15 million)^[3]
Box office	£250 million ($414,211,549)^[4]

The King's Speech is a 2010 British historical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler. Colin Firth plays King George VI who, to cope with a stammer, sees Lionel Logue, an Australian speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush. The men become friends as they work together, and after his brother abdicates the throne, the new King relies on Logue to help him make a radio broadcast on Britain's declaration of war on Germany in 1939.

Seidler read about George VI's life after overcoming a stuttering condition he endured during his youth. He started writing about the men's relationship as early as the 1980s, but postponed work, at the Queen Mother's wishes, until her death in 2002. He later rewrote his screenplay for the stage to focus on the essential relationship between the two protagonists. Nine weeks before filming began, Logue's notebooks were discovered and quotations from them were incorporated into the script.

Principal photography took place in London and around Britain from November 2009 to January 2010. The opening scenes were filmed in Elland Road, Leeds (for the since-demolished Wembley Stadium), Buckingham Palace interiors in Lancaster House, and Ely Cathedral stood in for Westminster Abbey. The cinematography differs from other historical dramas; hard light was used to give the story a greater resonance and wider than normal lenses were used to recreate the King's feelings of constriction. A third technique Hooper employed was the off-centre framing of characters: in his first consultation with Logue, George VI is captured hunched on the side of a couch at the edge of the frame.

Released in the United Kingdom on 7 January 2011, The King's Speech was a major box office and critical success. Censors initially gave it adult ratings due to profanity, though these were later revised downwards after criticism by the makers and distributors in the UK and some instances of swearing were muted in the US. On a budget of GB£8 million, it earned over US$400 million internationally (£250 million).^[5] It was widely praised by film critics for its visual style, art direction, and acting. Other commentators discussed the film's representation of historical detail, especially the reversal of Winston Churchill's opposition to abdication. The film received many awards and nominations, particularly for Colin Firth's performance; his Golden Globe Award for Best Actor was the sole win at that ceremony from seven nominations. The King's Speech won seven British Academy Film Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Firth), Best Supporting Actor (Rush), and Best Supporting Actress (Bonham Carter). The film also won four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (Hooper), Best Actor (Firth), and Best Original Screenplay (Seidler).

The film opens with Prince Albert, Duke of York (played by Colin Firth), the second son of King George V, stammering through his closing speech at the 1925 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium, with his wife, Elizabeth, Duchess of York (Helena Bonham Carter), by his side. The Duke despairs after several unsuccessful treatments, until his wife persuades him to see Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an Australian speech therapist in London. During their first session, Logue requests that they address each other by their Christian names—a breach of royal etiquette—and proceeds to call the prince "Bertie". To persuade him to follow his treatment, Logue bets Prince Albert a shilling that he can read perfectly at that very moment, and gives him Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy to read aloud, which he does while listening to loud music on headphones. Logue records Bertie's reading on a gramophone record; convinced he has stammered throughout, Bertie leaves in a huff, declaring his condition "hopeless." Logue offers him the recording as a keepsake.

After King George V (Michael Gambon) makes his 1934 Christmas address, he explains to his son how important broadcasting is to the modern monarchy. He declares that "David" (Edward, Prince of Wales, played by Guy Pearce), Prince Albert's older brother, will bring ruin to the family and the country as king. King George demands that Albert train himself, starting with a reading of his father's speech. After an agonising attempt to do so, Prince Albert plays Logue's recording and hears himself making an unbroken recitation of Shakespeare. He returns to Logue, and they work together on muscle relaxation and breath control, while Logue gently probes the psychological roots of his stuttering. The Duke soon reveals some of the pressures of his childhood: his strict father, the repression of his natural left-handedness, a painful treatment for knock-knees, a nanny who favoured his elder brother, and the early death of his younger brother, Prince John. As the treatment progresses, the two men become friends and confidants.

Firth and Bonham Carter as the Duke and Duchess of York

In January 1936, George V dies, and David accedes to the throne as King Edward VIII, still wanting to marry Mrs Wallis Simpson (Eve Best), a socialite American divorcée. At Christmas in Balmoral Castle, Prince Albert points out that Edward cannot marry a divorced woman and retain the throne; Edward accuses his brother of a medieval-style plot to usurp him, cites his speech lessons as an attempt to ready himself, and resurrects his childhood taunt of "B-B-B-Bertie".

At his next session, the Duke has not forgotten the incident. He is frustrated that his speech has improved while talking to most people—except his own brother. Logue, observing that when he curses he does not stutter, has him swear out loud. After doing so, Albert briefs him on the extent of David's folly with Mrs Simpson, and Logue insists that Albert could be king. Outraged, he accuses Logue of treason and, in his anger, mocks Logue's failed acting career and humble origins, causing a rift in their friendship. When King Edward VIII does abdicate to marry, Prince Albert becomes King George VI. The new King realises that he needs Logue's help; he and the Queen visit the Logues' home to apologise. When the King insists that Logue be seated in the King's box during his coronation in Westminster Abbey, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Derek Jacobi) questions Logue's qualifications. This prompts another confrontation between George VI and Logue, who explains he began by treating shell-shocked soldiers during the war. When the King remains unsure of himself, Logue sits in King Edward's Chair and dismisses the Stone of Scone as a trifle. George VI remonstrates Logue for his disrespect, surprising himself with his own sudden eloquence.

Upon the September 1939 declaration of war with Nazi Germany, George VI summons Logue to Buckingham Palace to assist him in preparing for his upcoming radio address to Britain and the Empire. As millions of people listen to their radios, the King delivers his speech as if to Logue, who guides him silently throughout. Afterwards, the King steps onto the balcony of the palace with his family, where thousands of Londoners have gathered to listen, cheer, and applaud.

A title card explains that Logue was always present at King George VI's speeches during World War II. It notes that in 1944 Logue was made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, in recognition of personal service to the Monarch. Also noted is the continuation of their friendship for the remainder of their lives.

Scandal of NHS 'production line' as readmissions soar

2012-01-10T00:55:00.000-08:00

Dave’s promise

David Cameron, our Prime Minister, said in his New Year message:

“I am determined to do the bold things it will take to sort out public services, too. Too often our schools aren't up to scratch, our hospitals aren't always clean enough and our police don't catch criminals. Brilliant and committed people work in public services - but somehow the system stops them doing their job. So we'll change it.”

Nice words Dave, but do you know what to do? Do you know what you’ve done?

***

NHS 'production line'

Perhaps, Dave, you should consider the health service. Recent news reports tell us that lots of people discharged from hospital are readmitted, within a month, as emergencies; and the numbers are increasing. Oblivious to their role in creating this shocking state of affairs, your ministers blame the hospitals for treating patients “like parts on a production line”.

But who built the system Dave? Who mandated ‘payment by results’, commissioning, protocols and targets? Do you know, Dave, how these things create the churn of patients?

Read the news report here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8983505/Scandal-of-NHS-production-line.html

Scandal of NHS 'production line' as readmissions soar

The number of NHS patients who have to undergo emergency readmission to hospital within a month of being discharged has increased by more than three quarters in the last decade, the Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The Department of Health has released detailed information on the number of emergency readmissions in every area across Britain Photo: GETTY

By Robert Winnett, Political Editor

9:54PM GMT 29 Dec 2011

Hospitals have been accused by ministers of treating patients “like parts on a production line” after official figures suggested that hundreds of thousands of people every year are being sent home before they are well enough.

More than 660,000 people were brought back to hospital last year within 28 days of leaving, statistics show, sparking allegations that patients are being “hurried through the system” so the NHS can meet waiting-list targets.

The official figures show that some NHS trusts have seen their emergency readmission rate rise more than threefold over the past decade – while some hospitals have seen only a modest increase.

Last night, Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, said that the “hugely distressing” trend must stop.

“Patients have a right to expect that when they go in for treatment that they are looked after properly and that the treatment they are given helps them to recover,” he said.

“Having to be readmitted and treated all over again is hugely distressing. These figures show how Labour’s obsession with waiting time targets meant that patients were treated like parts on a production line to be hurried through the system rather than like people who need to be properly cared for.”

The Department of Health has released detailed information on the number of emergency readmissions in every area across Britain.

The figures show that 620,054 patients had to be readmitted in 2009-10 – compared to just 348,996 a decade before, a 78 per cent increase. Over the past five years, there has been a 31 per cent rise and a five per cent increase on the previous 12 months.

The data also highlights the widespread regional variations. The rate of readmission in the Kensington & Chelsea PCT area has risen by 287 per cent over the past decade to 1,582 people.

However, North Lincolnshire PCT has only experienced a 3.37 per cent rise over the same period.

Hospitals within the Hampshire PCT area readmitted 13,239 people last year. The nearby area covered by the Isle of Wight PCT only had to readmit 1,098 people.

The figures, do not include patients suffering from cancer or mental health problems or maternity patients.

Most of the areas with the highest increases in readmission numbers are in London and the south east, where pressure is greatest on the NHS. The Department of Health has analysed the social make-up of each area and concludes that the so-called “thriving London periphery” – the relatively wealthy commuter hinterland around the capital has suffered the biggest recent deterioration.

Some of the rise in readmissions may be due to the increase in population in these areas or changes in the way that the data is collected.

About 10 million people are admitted to hospital wards each year. Critics claim that government targets, such as the demand that patients be admitted to hospital for treatment within 18 weeks of seeing their GP, mean hospital managers are pressured into releasing patients early to make beds available.

Earlier this month, The Daily Telegraph disclosed that the Government is moving from a system of targets for hospitals based on waiting and treatment times – to a system of so-called “outcomes” which measures the success of treatment.

In a criticism of previous targets which he blames for the increase in emergency readmissions, Mr Lansley said: “Instead of focusing on the results which actually matter for patients, they focused on narrow processes to the detriment of patient care. That is why we have taken action to address these increases in emergency readmissions.

“One of the new goals we are setting the NHS is reducing emergency readmissions. In order to help achieve this we have created a re-ablement fund of £300 million and we have taken action to stop hospitals being paid when they readmit a patient after discharging them too early. These steps will turn Labour’s poor performance around.”

Under the Government scheme, hospitals will effectively be responsible for people’s care in the weeks after they return home and will be financially penalised for discharging patients too soon.

Ministers have also increased funding for so-called “tele-health” where people can “manage” their long-term conditions independently at home but are remotely monitored by doctors.

The official figures have been released as NHS managers claimed that one in four people being treated in hospital should be at home – which could lead to even more readmissions if the programme is not properly monitored.

Mike Farrar, the head of the NHS Federation, said: “Hospitals play a vital role, but we do rely on them for some services that could be provided elsewhere. We should be concentrating on reducing hospital stays where this is right for patients, shifting resources into community services, raising standards of general practice, and promoting early intervention and self care.”

However, concerns are growing that GPs will be unable to cope with the demands of more people being treated at home. Earlier this week, it emerged that some GP practices now had up to 9,000 people registered.

Yesterday, Jacqui Davis, head of the NHS Consultants’ Association, said: “Why would you want to have people isolated in their homes? This is not going to save money and it is unfortunately the wrong message.

“GP’s are swamped, social services are having their budgets cut. While it may be more appropriate for more people to be treated within the community we simply can’t do it without making much better arrangements than we’ve got at the moment.”

Save the City英國改善金融業的打壓手段.....

2012-01-09T18:51:00.000-08:00

過猶不及！英國打壓手段改善金融業

2012-01 Web only 作者：經濟學人

佔領行動攻擊金融界，但對金融界懷有敵意的不只左派，連理應和金融同一陣線的人也是如此，例如英國首相卡麥隆就承諾要扼止倫敦那失去節制的金融產業。從許多方面來看，倫敦都是全球最大的金融中心，改善規範當然有其必要，但打壓倫敦對誰都沒有好處。

金融會讓存款流入最有用的地方，也是非常關鍵的產業，而英國在這方面的表現非常好。從英國的貿易數字就能看出倫敦的競爭優勢，2011年前三季，金融服務和保險的淨出口額為GDP的2.6%，若加上法律、會計等相關服務則會超過3%；這個數字連美國都完全比不上，而在國內經濟衰退之際，出口對英國來說也非常重要。

不過，新房貸大減，金融產業雇員減少，富有世界經濟不佳，資產市場了無生氣，就算能有明智的政治人物，未來幾年倫敦的表現應該還是會下滑。亞洲仍舊有機會，中國和印度的金融市場發展不足，倫敦則是這方面的專家。

許多歐盟的規範提案會傷害倫敦，英國可以靠否認權阻擋部分提案，其他則得交由多數決，但卡麥隆與歐盟夥伴陷入僵局，卻給了競爭對手打壓倫敦的理由。

英國政府本身的稅賦和移民政府也造成許多傷害；稅率極高可能會促使下一代金融界老闆移往他方，嚴格的移民政策則影響人才流入，進而傷害倫敦的前景。如果經濟能反映國家固有的競爭優勢，表現也最好。英國應該保有相對大的金融部門，如果政治人物繼續傷害金融業，總有一天，英國人會突然發現自己失去了一項極為成功的產業。（黃維德譯）

©The Economist Newspaper Limited 2012

經濟學人英文原文

Save the City

Global finance

By The Economist
From The Economist
Published: January 09, 2012

Britain is the home of the world's capital of capital but no longer prizes it. That is a mistake.

ATTACKS on bankers by protesters from Occupy Wall Street, Occupy London and Occupy any city where a financier might have the temerity to turn a quick buck have spiced up the dreary economic news of the past year. Yet hostility is not confined to the left. Even the bankers' supposed allies are putting the boot in—and nowhere more so than in Britain. The prime minister, David Cameron, has promised to "end excess" in the City of London. His ministers boast about their efforts to "rebalance" the economy away from dodgy finance to honest manufacturing. Sir Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, has made a habit of lambasting the Square Mile's short-term "profits next week" culture. In continental Europe the City is viewed with a mixture of loathing (on the ground that it single-handedly caused the euro crisis) and covetousness (on the ground that all those clever French and Italian financiers should ply their trade in Paris and Rome instead).

The European leaders' attacks, at least, should have an upside: their hypocrisy and self-interest should serve to remind Britons what is at risk. London is by many measures the world's biggest financial centre, and weakening it is in nobody's interest—least of all Britain's. Better regulation of banks is certainly needed, especially to protect British taxpayers. And so far the City-bashing has been mainly rhetorical. But running down one of the world's most successful (and mobile) commercial clusters is folly—and it is surely not the legacy Mr Cameron would wish to leave his successors.

Strangely, California doesn't talk down Silicon Valley

Finance—the funnelling of savings to their best use—is a vital industry. Britain is very good at it, leading the world in various financial markets, including foreign exchange and over-the-counter derivatives. The City's comparative advantage is clear from Britain's trade balance. The export surplus in financial services and insurance was 2.6% of GDP in the first three quarters of 2011. Add in the exports of related services, such as law, accountancy and consulting, and the trade surplus rises above 3% of GDP. An industrial cluster that can generate foreign earnings on such a scale is enviable. No other country, not even America, comes close to matching Britain's trade balance in finance. And with its domestic economy floundering, Britain needs all the exporting power it can muster.

Yet the City is in danger (see article) from two sorts of threats—ones that you can do nothing much about, and ones that you can. Even with wiser politicians, the City would be likely to shrink over the next few years. New mortgages are being approved at half their pre-crisis rate, which means less business for retail banks. The number of employees working in finance across Britain is 7% below its level three years ago. The rich world's economic funk and mostly lifeless asset markets mean the outlook for trading and the deals that bring in fat fees is the worst for years—perhaps decades. Tighter regulation also means thinner profits. And there is bound to be some drift in dealmaking towards the emerging world, whose governments are trying to develop their own financial centres.

Still, Asia also presents an opportunity. China and India have underdeveloped financial markets; Britain has the expertise. If London could become a global centre for dollar trading, why not for yuan dealings, too? Continental Europe's underdeveloped personal-finance market should be another target.

But the City can compete successfully with other financial centres only if Britain has the right policies on regulation, tax and immigration. On regulation, there is an understandable fear that an outsized financial-services industry means an outsized risk for taxpayers. The proposals from Britain's Vickers Commission go a long way to deal with this, dividing a tightly regulated domestic banking system (the bit that puts taxpayers at risk) from a more freewheeling international market for global capital. By contrast, the thrust of many of the proposals coming out of Brussels looks harmful. Some, such as the financial-transactions tax, can be blocked by a British veto. The rest are subject to majority vote, and Mr Cameron's stand-off with his European partners last month—supposedly to protect the City, but really to avoid having to sell a more integrated Europe to Tory Eurosceptics—has now given London's rivals the excuse to hamstring the City.

The British government's own policies on tax and immigration are also doing a lot of damage. The 50% tax rate, introduced by the previous Labour government in 2010, brings in little money and has made London the most taxed out of ten financial centres for high net-worth individuals. The present generation of financial bosses, who live in and like London, may tolerate it for a while, but younger ones are feeling the pull of Switzerland, Hong Kong or Dubai. As for immigration policy, the best way to win Asian business is to lure the young Asian financiers to London. Tight limits on talented immigrants damage the City's prospects—and indeed the prospects of every bit of British business.

Let stockbrokers make cars—and other mad dreams

The politicians and regulators have all sorts of excuses. Abolishing the 50% tax rate is now politically dangerous. Immigrants are unpopular. And, they maintain, the risks of attacking the City are small, for it has formidable advantages that are hard to replicate quickly. London's long business day bridges the close of Asia's markets with the opening of New York's, making it a convenient location for global asset managers and traders. Trading attracts liquidity and skills in a virtuous circle. But even the strongest incumbent is vulnerable to competition. Each decision to locate a new trading desk somewhere else compounds over time to a loss of the critical mass that has sustained the City as a leading financial centre.

Economies work best when they reflect a country's innate competitive advantages. Britain should, therefore, host a relatively big financial sector, and policymakers should celebrate it, rather than deride it. If they continue their policy of malign neglect, Britain will one day wake up to discover that it has lost one of the world's most successful business clusters, and the best hope the next generation has of earning a decent living.

from the print edition | Leaders

©The Economist Newspaper Limited 2012

平民的先知：卡萊爾與英國維多利亞社會 (方志強)

2012-01-09T18:17:00.000-08:00

平民的先知：卡萊爾與英國維多利亞社會

作者：方志強
出版社：國立臺灣大學出版中心
出版日期：2011年12月01日

　英國的維多利亞時代，通常是指西元1837年至1901年，英國維多利亞女王在位的時期，這是英國從農業社會轉變為工業社會的轉型時期。就在這個年代，勃朗特（Charlotte Bronte）出版了她的《簡愛》（Jane Eyre）（1847），狄更斯完成《雙城記》（A Tale of Two Cities）（1859），柯南．道爾創作出了福爾摩斯（Sherlock Holmes），彌爾寫下了《論自由》（On Liberty）。

　　卡萊爾（Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881）是此一時期敏銳的觀察者，對當時英國的社會輿論有無與倫比的影響力，是維多利亞時代重要的作家、歷史學家與知識分子。同時代的女性小說家艾略特（George Eliot）曾說過，「在我們這一代中，幾乎沒有一顆優越或活躍的心靈不曾被卡萊爾的著作改變過，如果沒有卡萊爾，過去十年或十二年中所寫成的英文書，每一本都將不一樣。」

　　早年的卡萊爾宣稱「歷史是無數傳記的精華」，強調無名大眾在歷史上的重要性，但到了晚年則主張「世界史是偉人的傳記」，轉而重視偉人在歷史上的影響力。古奇（G. P. Gooch）在其《十九世紀的歷史與史家》（History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century）（1913）書中已注意到卡萊爾兩種不同的歷史思想，他認為「當卡萊爾從事歷史寫作時，所寫的是偉人的傳記，而非無數的與無名的大眾的歷史；而他在中晚年所致力的那種歷史寫作，正是他在1830年所批評的。」將卡萊爾的一生劃分為前後兩期並加以比較，是十九世紀與二十世紀研究卡萊爾所常用的模式。

　　本書一反過去「兩個卡萊爾」的區分，以及對其「英雄史觀」的凸顯，而指出：「卡萊爾的平民思想為其早年、甚至是晚年的歷史思想與社會評論的中心」；除了「智識與道德」角度外，更以「疾病」角度，探討克服精神疾病、完成自我救贖的卡萊爾，以及他所置身的「有病的與失序的時代」。本書主張：疾病不只呈現患者生理與心理的現象，並反映出患者當時的文化現象，當時英格蘭所盛行的神經疾病顯然具有「階級性」，流行於中、上階級和商業化、城市化的「生活方式」，被視為是「文化的疾病」；卡萊爾深切體認到「平民的」、「鄉間的」、「勞動的」、「健康的」「蘇格蘭性格」的重要，而貶斥「英格蘭性格」，並且以其蘇格蘭的「鄉野之眼」與「平民觀念」自豪。

　　◎ 本書以卡萊爾的一生與其思想轉折，作為透視英國維多利亞社會的稜鏡，是了解卡萊爾與現代英國形成的重要著作。

　　◎ 附有卡萊爾生平與英國維多利亞社會大事紀，以及卡萊爾著作年表。

　　◎ 附有中英與英中人名索引，便於翻查。

作者簡介

方志強

　　英國Sussex大學歷史學博士，現任國立中正大學歷史學系教授兼系主任。研究領域為史學史、英國史與世界史。著有：〈時代與卡萊爾〉、〈卡萊爾的蘇格蘭背景〉、〈西洋史學史的定義及其內涵的演變------兼論歷史與史學的定義〉、“Carlyle’s Sorrow and Conversion-Myth and Fact”、〈「進步」的理念：內涵與定義〉、〈「進步」的理念------二十世紀的挑戰〉、〈「歷史事實」------「事實」與「解釋」的互動〉、〈時代中的史家------巴特費爾德與英國歷史的解釋〉、〈論卡萊爾雷絲路事件的年代------迷思與事實〉、〈煉獄與新生------卡萊爾的病（1814-1823）與雷絲路事件〉等論文。

Goldsmith, Oliver. The Deserted Village

2012-01-09T18:15:00.000-08:00

這首Oliver Goldsmith - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia名詩Goldsmith, Oliver. The Deserted Village值得詳注
譬如說
209: Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,
必須了解英國的民俗和曆法
term:

A point in time at which something ends; termination: an apprenticeship nearing its term.
The end of a normal gestation period: carried the fetus to term.
A deadline, as for making a payment.

tide:
A time or season. Often used in combination: eventide; Christmastide; Shrovetide.

London to Birmingham/HS2: Phase one of high-speed rail line set for go-ahead

2012-01-09T03:32:00.000-08:00

英國政府準備批准一項頗引爭議的工程，也就是在倫敦與伯明罕之間，興健一條高鐵。預計這條斥資170億英鎊的高鐵將在2016到2026年之間興建，到時候可讓往返這兩座城市的交通只需49分鐘，之後再繼續向北延伸到曼徹斯特及里茲，完成一條Y字型的高鐵。預計總花費在320億英鎊。 ...

HS2: Phase one of high-speed rail line set for go-ahead

The 100-mile first-phase of HS2 would be built between 2016 and 2026

Continue reading the main story
Related Stories

Analysis: HS2 battle
The economic benefit debate
Our high speed future

A controversial new high-speed rail line between London and Birmingham is expected to be given the go-ahead by the government later.

Transport Secretary Justine Greening is set to back the 100-mile (160 km) link, which would be built by 2026 and is the first phase of High Speed Two (HS2).

The government says it is the only way to cope with overcrowding but critics argue it will cut through some of England's most picturesque countryside.

The first phase will cost £17bn.

The entire cost of the project - including a second phase Y-shaped section extending to Manchester and Leeds, and possibly further north, by 2033 - is expected to be £32bn.

Supporters say the fleet of 220mph trains will cut the journey time from London to Birmingham to 49 minutes and take pressure of the busiest lines.

The government also argues the project will generate £44bn of benefits to the economy over 60 years.
Legal action
But the project - introduced by Labour in 2010 and continued by the coalition government - has proved highly controversial.

Continue reading the main story
Analysis

Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News

Big infrastructure projects often carry potential for both environmental benefit and harm; and HS2 is no exception.

The big potential positive is reduced greenhouse gas emissions, as people switch from flying and driving to letting the train take the strain.

But the government's own projections show there's no guarantee this will happen. HS2 might not reduce flights at all.

In any case, the trains will only be a green transport option if the electricity they use comes from low-carbon source - which hands on continuing government support for renewables and nuclear.

The project could damage important local habitats.

County wildlife trusts estimate than more than 150 nature sites could be affected, including 10 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).

The government argues that the toll will be far lower.

Analysis: High-speed rail battle
Cost and benefit debate

Residents in the Chilterns, including some Conservative MPs, have opposed the project, and many protest groups have formed to oppose the scheme.

They say the planned route crosses an area of outstanding natural beauty and it will damage the environment. They also claim it will fail to bring the economic benefits promised by the government, and the money would be better spent on improving existing lines.

Opponents up and down the route are considering legal action, which could substantially delay the project.

However, the latest review by Network Rail, released last week, found that two main alternatives favoured by opponents could not "generate the capacity" needed.

Transport secretary Ms Greening is expected to announce more measures to mitigate the worst affects of the line.

BBC transport correspondent Richard Westcott says the government's decision is unlikely to be the end of the journey.

MPs will vote on a bill just before the next election, he says, and it will be at least 14 years before anyone will be catching a new high speed train.

Shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle said the decision was "an important milestone in the delivery of the HSR link first proposed by Labour in government".

Ms Eagle said analysis of alternatives had shown HS2 was the best way to address worsening capacity issues on main rail lines while cutting journey times.

"HS2 will now be taken forward on a cross-party basis to give it the certainty a major project of this kind needs," she added.
'Empty promise'

Ms Eagle said unless the coalition government sought parliamentary approval for the entire line then any commitment to build the whole route would be seen as an "empty promise".

Michael Roberts, chief executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies, said: "HS2 is a vote of confidence in the railways and recognition of the vital role the industry has to play in supporting jobs and driving sustainable economic growth."

But the Taxpayers' Alliance, a pressure group which lobbies for lower taxes, said the project would leave "generations of ordinary taxpayers paying for a train set that will mostly be used by the rich".

"HSR is a white elephant that won't help the millions of commuters stuck on overcrowded trains up and down Britain," said Emma Boon, campaign director.

Sarah Lee, head of policy for the Countryside Alliance, urged the government to reconsider rather than approve a scheme "without full consideration of the devastating impact HS2 will have on Britain's countryside or the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people living along the route".

London to Birmingham
09 January 2012
Train times result

Depart

Arrive

Duration

Changes

11:37 London Marylebone 13:19 Birmingham Moor Street 1h 42m 0 super off-peak
11:43 London Euston 13:08 Birmingham New Street 1h 25m 0 off-peak
11:46 London Euston 14:01 Birmingham New Street 2h 15m 0 super off-peak
12:03 London Euston 13:27 Birmingham New Street 1h 24m 0 off-peak
12:07 London Marylebone 14:04 Birmingham Snow Hill 1h 57m 0 super off-peak
12:13 London Euston 14:16 Birmingham New Street 2h 3m 0 super off-peak
12:23 London Euston 13:45 Birmingham New Street 1h 22m 0 off-peak
12:37 London Marylebone 14:18 Birmingham Moor Street 1h 41m 0 super off-peak
12:43 London Euston 14:08 Birmingham New Street 1h 25m 0 off-peak
12:46 London Euston 15:01 Birmingham New Street 2h 15m 0 super off-peak

London to Birmingham train times information
Trains to Birmingham depart from London Euston or Marylebone every ten minutes on average. The journey takes one and a half to two hours, although some indirect routes do take longer. Trains terminate at either Snow Hill or New Street station in Birmingham. Services are run by Virgin Trains, Chiltern Railways and London Midland.

Virgin Trains offers frequent direct services between London and Birmingham. While on board, travellers can access the internet through Virgin’s wireless connection; this service is free for first class ticket holders and available for a nominal fee to standard fare passengers.

Chiltern Railways offers quiet zones and provides catering services on most trips between Banbury and Birmingham Moor Street.

London Midland provides an at-seat trolley service for passengers on daytime runs between London and Birmingham.
*Information correct at time of writing (March 2011). May be subject to change

London 2012 Cultural Olympiad

2012-01-06T01:01:00.000-08:00

By ANDREW MCKIE

Max McClure / Courtesy Situations

'Nowhereisland' in the High Arctic

It may become harder and harder to believe amid the increasing hype during the run-up to the Olympic Games, but there will be people who don't have much interest in the five-ring circus going on this summer. That group won't be confined to the beleaguered residents of the United Kingdom—spare a thought, too, for the poor husbands, wives, children and parents dragged to London by sports-mad relatives.

There is, however, one fortunate side effect of the fact that the Olympics have become an enormous commercial operation that would have been unrecognizable to the Ancient Greeks. It is that they are now surrounded by a huge range of diversions for those who cannot stand sports, or who simply fancy a change from watching people running about and throwing things. Music, dance, film, theater and literature all feature in what is grandly called the Cultural Olympiad (london2012.com/cultural-olympiad), but one of the most interesting and notable components is in the field of visual arts.

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Andy Moore

Imagineer Director Jane Hytch steers 'Lady Godiva.'

This reflects the fact that art is a major draw, not only for visitors to Britain, and London in particular, but for its citizens: more people visit museums and galleries each year than attend league football matches, the nation's most popular sport. In part, that is down to the strength of the great national and provincial collections, and, in recent years, to the growth of blockbuster exhibitions. But it is also evident in the popularity of British contemporary art.

It is this—the kind of large, specially commissioned installation work featured in biennales and public spaces—which for the most part dominates the culmination of the four-year Cultural Olympiad. Under the title "Artists Taking the Lead," and with a total budget of £5.4 million, each region or, in the case of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, nation, of the U.K. has selected a project to commemorate the Games. The projects exhibit all the virtues and vices, range and unpredictability of contemporary art—and, in some cases, may provoke the public incomprehensibility that often greets it.

Enlarge Image

Angela Catlin

Craig Coulthard on the site of 'Forest Pitch.'

More on Arts at the Olympics

Scotland's selection is the one that has the closest connection with sports, but also typifies the whimsy and playfulness prevalent in current work, as well as an interest in environment and landscape shared with many of the other projects. The artist Craig Coulthard plans to level an area of forest in the Scottish Borders and turn it into a football pitch where, on July 21, two matches will be played between teams made up of recent British citizens and nationalized residents (forestpitch.org). Thereafter, the playing area will be allowed to revert to nature.

Other exhibitions also concentrate on the elements and the natural world. One of the most spectacular—if it achieves its objectives—ought to be the gigantic column of steam that is being created at Birkenhead, in northwest England, and is intended to be visible from as far as 100 kilometers away. This is the work of Anthony McCall, an Anglo-American artist who began as a filmmaker and whose subsequent practice has concentrated on exploring fire and light.

Perhaps even more ambitious is "Nowhereisland" (nowhereisland.org), which has been created by Alex Hartley. A meditation on national identity, climate change and the environment, it consists of a floating island dragged from the Svalbard archipelago in the High Arctic to the coast of southwest England. Mr. Hartley is inviting people to become citizens of this imagined territory (so far, more than 4,000 people had signed up) and has also created a program of videos, texts and other work inspired by the project and presented by "Resident Thinkers," to run throughout the year.

Enlarge Image

Ian Conroy

A hot water bottle with a knitted cover, one of the thousands of donated objects that will form part of Brian Irvine and John McIlduff's project Nest.

Other work includes public participation—including the construction of a boat in southeast England, a walk in the Norfolk landscape and a warehouse of personal possessions and a new musical work in Northern Ireland. Not all the plans for public involvement have gone smoothly, though; Martin Creed's intention to have as many bells as possible rung across the country for three minutes at 8 a.m. on the opening day of the Games (www.allthebells.com) has run into difficulties with church bell ringers, who point out that it is impracticable to ring church bells "quickly and loudly," as his specification for the work (which is officially called "Work No. 1197," since Mr. Creed numbers all his projects) demands.

Judging by the previous success of events such as "The Sultan's Elephant," which was staged in London six years ago, I imagine that one of the most popular works will be the contribution of the West Midlands, a gigantic puppet of Lady Godiva (www.imagineerproductions.co.uk) that will eventually make its way to London.

For those who prefer a more traditional setting for their contemporary arts, the Tate Modern is staging a major retrospective of Damien Hirst's work (April 4- Sept. 9), while Tracey Emin, another enfant terrible from the "Young British Artists"—though she is now in eminently respectable middle age and professor of drawing at the Royal Academy—has a retrospective in her hometown of Margate (May 26-Sept. 23). And the National Portrait Gallery will be hosting a Lucian Freud retrospective (Feb. 9-May 27).

There ought to be plenty to divert those who find themselves in Britain this summer, but are more devoted to the Muses than the athletic inheritance that the Greeks handed down to the modern world. After all, Niké, the goddess of victory whose name will surely be one of the most prominent at the Games this summer, never managed to get a seat on Olympus, while Athene, goddess of the arts, had a secure berth there.

Carrying the Olympic Torch
Music, dance, film, theater and literature all feature in the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, but one of the most interesting and notable components of the program is in the field of visual arts. • All of Britain Will Be a Stage •

All of Britain Will Be a Stage

By PAUL LEVY

Paradoxically, though this Olympic year is going to be a bumper year for the performing arts in the U.K., the anticipated huge crowds in London may well mean that the arts fans who profit the most will be those who live outside the capital.

While dozens of plays, operas and other stagings will be linked to the 2012 Games, the labels are tricky to untangle. The Cultural Olympiad, in fact, refers mostly to community projects that will be completed by the time the Olympics and Paralympics end. And the Danny Boyle-directed Opening Ceremony, a production that will be seen by a gigantic world-wide TV audience and recently had its budget doubled to £80 million, weirdly doesn't come under the umbrella of "culture."

Enlarge Image

Angelos Giotopoulos

'Bamboo Blues' by Pina Bausch, part of World Cities 2012 season, is at Sadler's Wells and the Barbican.

The aspect of the Cultural Olympics (total budget: £97.6 million) we are most interested in, however, is the London 2012 Festival (festival.london2012.com), which will feature a program of mainly new works for the theater, concert hall, opera house and dance stage, running from June 21 to Sept. 9. (Confusingly, not all the venues are in London—but the Games are there, so the festival bears the capital's name.) Though many—perhaps most—of the performance events are new commissions, some, like the Globe's plays (except for a new "Henry V") and a good many of the exhibitions, are a matter of re-christening already-scheduled events.

Shivers went through the London cultural establishment last year when the Olympic Delivery Authority urged the city's residents not to use the Underground during the Games, to help reduce traffic on an already stressed transportation system. The West End was identified as one of the hot spots. Although one or two theaters in the area are "going dark" during the Olympics, or giving their casts and crews their holidays then, Society of London Theatre president Mark Rubinstein is optimistic. "We know things will be different, and that we will have to work harder," he said, but added that he is confident of pulling in a new audience of people who have come for the Games but "know that you haven't seen London if you haven't seen a West End show." The big event: Cast members from all of London's musicals will perform in "West End Live" at Trafalgar Square June 23.

More on Arts at the Olympics

Ruth Mackenzie, culture director of the Cultural Olympiad, offered a few of the top items on her list, including Handspring Puppet Company's "Crow," in which the British outpost of the South African troupe bring Ted Hughes's poetic masterpiece to a stage yet to be determined (June 21-Sept. 9). "Another hot tip," she says, "would be the commission for [Scottish composer] James MacMillan at Coventry Cathedral" (June 23).

Following Ms. Mackenzie's lead, here are my recommendations. The Royal Shakespeare Company has specially commissioned a stunning series of Shakespeare plays, adding to the nomenclatural fun by incorporating it in a "World Shakespeare Festival 2012" (worldshakespearefestival.org.uk), starting on the bard's April 23 birthday. "What Country Friends Is This?" is the RSC's take on the shipwreck trilogy—"The Comedy of Errors," "Twelfth Night" and "The Tempest." Other hot tickets will be the Iraqi National Theatre's "Romeo and Juliet in Baghdad" at Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon (April 26-May 5) and London's Riverside Studios (June 28-30), Calixto Beito's "Forests" at Old Rep Theatre in Birmingham (Aug. 31-Sept. 15) and the Wooster Group's "Troilus and Cressida" in Stratford-upon-Avon (Aug. 3-18). Sam Mendes, Rupert Goold and other luminaries will also mount special productions for BBC TV and Radio.

There's a Paralympic aspect to the London Festival, too, including a dance theater piece, "Ménage à Trois," at Southbank Centre (Sept. 1-9), which explores performer Claire Cunningham's 20-year relationship with her crutches. For children and consenting grown-ups, there's Punchdrunk's on-stage "Dr. Who" adventure, "The Crash of the Elysium," in Ipswich (June 15-July 8; ip-art.com).

Lovers of contemporary opera will relish Damon Albarn's "Dr. Dee" at the English National Opera (June 25-July 7; eno.org). Like the Punchdrunk production, this is a co-commission with—and already seen at—the Manchester International Festival. "Dr. Dee" consists of pop vocals plus "contemporary orchestral music played on 16th-century period instruments," in a staging by Rufus Norris.

"We are passionate about offering once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to see work and artists who have changed the way we think about the world and/or about art," Ms. Mackenzie says. "Pina Bausch and Robert Wilson being two obvious examples. But the Beethoven/Boulez cycle at the Proms by [Daniel] Barenboim's East/West Divan and the George Benjamin weekend at the Southbank [May 12-13] also being good examples."

The tribute to Ms. Bausch, the late German performer and choreographer, "Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch: World Cities 2012," is at Sadler's Wells (sadlerswells.com) June 6-July 9, while Mr. Wilson directs Philip Glass's four-act, five-hour opera "Einstein on the Beach" at the Barbican, May 4-13 (ticket holders are encouraged to leave their seats when called to by nature—or thirst or hunger). With choreography by Lucinda Childs, it might well be true that this rarely performed piece is "one of the greatest artistic achievements of the 20th century." Mr. Barenboim is conducting his orchestra in the complete cycle of Beethoven Symphonies at this summer's BBC Proms (bbc.co.uk/proms), culminating in a performance of the 9th Symphony on July 27, the Olympics' opening day. The concerts will also feature works by Pierre Boulez.

The lion's share of festival funding for all this comes from the Lottery, plus the Arts Council and co-funding organizations; many programs are still to be announced. But this so-very-typical British way of pulling last-minute rabbits out of mysteriously acquired hats will, I've no doubt, result in some remarkable performances.

Write to Paul Levy at wsje.weekend@wsj.com

Olympic Posters Make a Leap

London 2012

Rachel Whiteread 'LOndOn 2O12.'

More on Arts at the Olympics

London 2012

Howard Hodgkin 'Swimming.'

A dozen of Britain's leading artists were invited to design official posters for the Olympics and Paralympics, and some of these are so fine that art lovers with deep pockets will want to invest in a boxed set of the complete, signed limited editions from Counter Editions (wwwcountereditions.com/london2012), at £11,805. The rest of us will have to make do with those available at £7 each from shop.london2012.com, or a trip to the Tate Britain, where they're all on display in a free exhibition that runs from now until the London 2012 Festival ends Sept. 9.

Some of the posters rise well above the level of something to tack on a student's dormitory wall, which is a tribute to the taste of the mystery commissioners (their identities are concealed somewhere in the labyrinth of Olympics-related committees).

Chris Ofili's "For the Unknown Runner" has a classical urn containing one of his generic African figures, whose gender is cleverly made ambiguous by a thick black line. Rachel Whiteread's "LOndOn 2O12" plays on the five Olympic circles in a random and colorful way.

Tracey Emin's "Birds 2012," depicting two small birds on a branch kissing, looks too much like Mary Poppins hanging on to her open umbrella, and bears the scrawled caption, "You inspire me with Your determination And I Love You." It's the most expensive of the limited editions at £1,800, and, I'd say, is the least interesting.

Michael Craig-Martin's wonderfully colored blue stopwatch, done with his characteristic black-outlined precision, is simply called "GO." Howard Hodgkin's "Swimming" is a masterclass in blue (disclosure: both are good friends of mine). Most of the artists commissioned have contributed images that are typical of their work. But Mr. Hodgkin has done something remarkable, in that his picture appears to be abstract swirls of blue laid on with a heavily loaded, very wide brush—but from the lowest suggestion of a wave emerges the dark form of the heroic swimmer.

—Paul Levy

America’s inequality need not determine the future of Britain

2012-01-05T01:02:00.000-08:00

英國比美國更平等？

America’s inequality need not determine the future of Britain

英國《金融時報》首席經濟評論員馬丁·沃爾夫

“The poor you will always have with you,” said Jesus. Despite vast rises in wealth, mainly over the last century, this remains true today because we define poverty relatively. Some object to this judgment: has destitution not disappeared from high-income countries and is it not diminishing in the developing world? The answer is: yes, although much poverty remains. But we are social animals. As stomachs fill, we wish to participate fully in our societies. But rising inequality is in the way.

耶穌說：“你們將永遠與窮人相伴。”儘管財富大幅增長（這主要體現在上個世紀），但由於我們對貧困的定義是相對的，所以耶穌的話在今天仍然適用。有些人反對這一觀點：高收入國家的貧困現象難道沒有銷聲匿跡？發展中國家的貧困難道沒有日益減少嗎？答案是：確實如此，不過仍存在很多貧困現象。但我們都是“社會動物”。填飽肚子之後，我們就希望參與到社會生活的方方面面。然而，但是，不平等狀況的加劇卻成為了攔路虎。

As the US Congressional Budget Office noted in a fascinating recent study, for the 1 per cent of the population with the highest income, average real after-tax household income grew by 275 per cent between 1979 and 2007, reaching 17 per cent of the total. For the others in the top quintile of the distribution, average real after-tax household income grew by 65 per cent. For the 60 per cent in the middle (the 21st to 80th percentiles), the growth in average real after-tax household income was a little less than 40 per cent. For the bottom quintile, average real after-tax household income rose about 18 per cent. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development states that “the wealthiest Americans have collected the bulk of the past three decades’ income gains”. Moreover, it notes, most of these gains accrued to executives and finance professionals.

美國國會預算辦公室(CBO)在近來一份有趣的調查中指出，收入最高的1%人口——平均稅後實際家庭收入在1979年至2007年間增長了275%——占總收入的比例已達到了17%。而對於收入最高20%人群中的其他人而言，平均稅後實際家庭收入增幅為65%。處於中間的60%（21%至80%）人口，平均稅後實際家庭收入增長略低於40%。最貧困的20%人口，平均稅後實際家庭收入增幅為18%左右。經合組織(ECOD)表示，“在過去30年收入增長中，大部分落入了美國最富有人群的囊中。”此外，該機構還指出，這些收入增加的部分大多流向了企業高管和金融從業人員的腰包。

An important question is whether similar shifts are happening – or are likely to happen – in the UK and other high-income countries. This was the theme of a discussion sponsored by the UK’s Resolution Foundation in November.* The conclusion I drew was that, although the forces for greater inequality seen in the US were at work across the high-income countries – a point confirmed by the OECD’s recent analysis – outcomes differed in terms of levels and trends.**

一個重要的問題是，在英國和其他高收入國家，是否正出現（或有可能將出現）類似的變化？這正是英國決議基金會(Resolution Foundation)11月份發起的一次研討會的主題。*我得出的結論是：儘管在所有高收入國家，導致類似美國那種不平等加劇的力量也在發揮作用——經合組織近來的分析證實了這一觀點——但在結果上體現出了程度和趨勢的不同。**

The UK has been similar to the US, in both respects, over the past two decades. Inequality is far lower in, say, the Netherlands and Germany has hardly grown over the past two decades in, say, France. In 2005 the share of the top 1 per cent in pre-tax incomes varied from 5.6 per cent in the Netherlands and 6.3 per cent in Denmark and Sweden to 12.7 per cent in Canada, 14.3 per cent in the UK and 17.4 per cent in the US. Policies and social preferences – particularly the role of stock-driven rewards and of financial services, at the top – make a very big difference.

過去20年中，英美兩國在上述兩方面表現得都十分相似。比如說，不平等狀況在荷蘭和德國要輕微得多，而法國則在過去20年裏基本上沒有加劇。2005年，最頂端1%人群占稅前收入的比例，荷蘭為5.6%，丹麥和瑞典為6.3%，加拿大為12.7%，英國為14.3%，而美國為17.4%。政策和社會偏好——尤其是頂層人群在股票相關回報和金融服務業所扮演的角色方面——造成了非常大的差異。

It is also important to distinguish what is happening among the bulk of the population from trends at the top. It is as important to distinguish levels from changes: the US has always been relatively unequal. But much of the rise in inequality dates to the last century. Stephen Machin of the London School of Economics noted at Resolution’s seminar that the ratio of earnings at the middle of the distribution to that at the bottom has stabilised over the past decade. Again, the share of the top 1 per cent in the US was already 16.5 per cent in 2000, close to the 17.7 per cent reached in 2008. In the UK it was already 12.7 per cent in 2000.

另外，區分一下大多數人和頂端人群在趨勢上的不同也十分重要。而區分變化的幅度也是同樣重要：美國相對而言一直不太平等。但不平等加劇在很大程度上可以追溯到上個世紀。倫敦經濟學院(LSE)的史蒂芬•梅欽(Stephen Machin)在參加決議基金會主辦的研討會時指出，過去10年間，中等收入階層與底層的收入比例保持穩定。再看一下美國，其最富有的1%人群的收入占比到2000年已達16.5%，到2008年則接近17.7%。2000年時，英國的這一比例已達到12.7%。

What is driving developments? The OECD concludes, surprisingly perhaps, that “neither rising trade integration nor financial openness had a significant impact on either wage inequality or employment trends”. Technological changes are almost certainly more important, though the two forces are hard to distinguish. There are also more single-headed households and a greater tendency for high-earning men and women to form couples. But the higher dispersion of male earnings is even more important.

這些變化背後的推動力是什麼？經合組織得出的結論是（或許令人吃驚），“無論是日益緊密的貿易融合，還是金融開放，都沒有對薪酬不公或就業趨勢產生重大影響。”幾乎可以確定的是，技術變革更為重要，儘管兩種力量很難區分開來。單身家庭數量增多，高收入男女結婚的可能性增大。但男性收入分散度的上升則更為緊要。

People will disagree over why rising inequality matters and what should be done about it. I suggest it matters most, at least in the high-income countries because it both undermines hopes for any reasonable degree of equality of opportunity and cements the inequalities in power that have, in turn, allowed the preservation of a wide range of privileges, particularly in taxation.

對於不平等現象加劇之所以事關重大、以及本應採取何種對策，人們會有不同的看法。我認為，至少在高收入國家，不平等現象加劇最為緊要，因為它既摧毀了人們對於實現任何合理程度的機會均等的希望，也加固了權力上的不平等，進而使大範圍的特權得以保留，尤其在稅收方面。

These outcomes should matter even to those who have no concern for equality of outcome. I would add that some – perhaps a great deal – of the ultra-high incomes at the top are almost certainly the fruit of rent extraction facilitated by a breakdown in the control exercised by principals – outside investors – over their agents – corporate executives and financiers. Huge rewards then are both unjust and inefficient.

這種結果甚至對於那些不關心結果公平的人都具有重要意義。我想補充一點，有些人（或許非常多的人）能夠獲取處於頂層的超高收入，原因就在於委託人（外部投資者）對於其代理人（公司高管和金融家）的管理失控造成了抽租現象。一次巨額回報不但有失公平，同時也是無效的。

What is to be done? That demands a huge agenda. It must cover employment, education, corporate governance and financial reform and, however difficult, also elements of redistribution. It will be unavoidably divisive. So be it. This debate cannot be avoided if western democracies are to stay legitimate in the eyes of their peoples. That may not be true in the US. It is surely true in the UK. Warren Buffett has argued that “there’s been class warfare going on for the last 20 years and my class has won.” The remark has not made him popular with his peers. But he was surely right.

我們應當怎麼辦？我們需要一個宏大的議程。它必須涵蓋就業、教育、公司治理和金融改革，而且無論有多大困難，還應包括再分配的內容。這個議程將不可避免地導致分裂。那就由它去吧。如果西方民主國家想在本國民眾的眼中保持合法性，這場論爭不可避免。美國的情況或許並非如此。但在英國，情況就是這樣。沃倫•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)曾辯稱，“過去20年發生了一場階級鬥爭，我所屬的階級已在鬥爭中勝出。”此番言論沒有讓他受到同一階層的人的追捧。但巴菲特說得肯定沒錯。

譯者/邢嵬

Apple Lead Designer Knighted

2012-01-02T19:42:00.001-08:00

Apple Lead Designer Knighted

Apple Senior Vice President Jonathan Ive has received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his work in leading the design of some of the company's most innovative products.

SAN FRANCISCO—Apple Inc. Senior Vice President Jonathan Ive has received a knighthood for his work in leading the design of some of the company's most innovative products, British officials here said late Friday.

Queen Elizabeth II named the London-born Ive, who goes by Jony, a Knight Commander of the ...

dropping incendiary bombs on London

2011-12-31T19:51:00.000-08:00

On Dec. 29, 1940, during World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.

燒夷彈

感謝有您邁向2012

2011-12-29T17:33:00.000-08:00

感謝有您 邁向2012

hc的”剪貼簿”在2011年約有25萬人次造訪

戴明圈: A Taiwanese Deming Circle

"交情千千" 電子連絡簿(日報)

胡適的世界 The World of Hu Shih

管理學新生

 Books Birdviews 書海

 People 人物

 品質世界 quality world

教育人

 英文人行道 et cetera, et cetera .

漢語人行道：演變風貌

 譯藝

 英國風

 日本心得帖

 亞洲

 SHE健康一生

The Design Museum

2011-12-27T04:27:00.000-08:00

http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/2011/terence-conran

16 November – 04 March 2012

The Design Museum marks Sir Terence Conran’s 80th birthday with a major exhibition that explores his unique impact on contemporary life in Britain. Through his own design work, and also through his entrepreneurial flair, Conran has transformed the British way of life. The Way We Live Now explores Conran’s impact and legacy, whilst also showing his design approach and inspirations. The exhibition traces his career from post-war austerity through to the new sensibility of the Festival of Britain in the 1950s, the birth of the Independent Group and the Pop Culture of the 1960s, to the design boom of the 1980s and on to the present day.

The exhibition is curated by Stafford Cliff and Deyan Sudjic.

For Families
Mini-worlds Kids workshops
Details and booking on the workshops page

Late Opening
Resident Steady Go
Friday 20 January, 6 - 10pm
Details and booking on the overtime page

The Q&A: Terence Conran

Make things with your hands

A conversation with a pioneer of contemporary user-friendly design(7)

三本英國建築史

2011-12-27T02:01:00.000-08:00

英國(時代-生活)/ Edwardian Architecture /Victorian Architecture 這兩本中國可能已翻譯.....

國家文庫:英國/生活叢書編輯.--二版 .--紐約：時代, 民77 1988

Edwardian Architecture :: Handbook to Building Design in Britain, 1890-1914 by Alastair Service , Service

Victorian Architecture (World of Art) [Paperback]

Roger Dixon (Author), Stefan Muthesius (Author)

Architecture without kings: the rise of Puritan classicism under ... - Google 圖書結果
Tim Mowl, Brian Earnshaw - 1995 - Architecture - 240 頁
books.google.com.tw/books?isbn=0719046793...
Amazon.com: Architecture Without Kings: The Rise of Puritan ...
- [ 翻譯此頁 ]
Amazon.com: Architecture Without Kings: The Rise of Puritan Classicism Under Cromwell (9780719046797): Timothy Mowl, Brian Earnshaw: Books.

Holbein and England /小漢斯·霍爾拜因

2011-12-26T17:43:00.001-08:00

May 2005
320 p., 9 3/4 x 11 1/4
180 b/w + 40 color illus.
ISBN: 9780300102802
Cloth: $65.00 sc

Holbein and England

Susan Foister

REVIEWS

PREVIEW

CONTENTS

EXCERPTS

Shortlisted in 2005 for the William Berger Prize for British Art History, awarded by the Berger Collection Educational Trust and the British Art Journal.

Included in Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles list, January 2006

One of the greatest artists of sixteenth-century Europe, Hans Holbein the younger earned high acclaim for his work both in the city of Basel and in England for Henry VIII and other patrons. This book is the first to explore the full range of the artist’s English body of work as well as the relation of this work to the visual and material culture of Tudor England. Providing a detailed account of the paintings, drawings, and woodcuts that Holbein produced in England, the book demonstrates convincingly that that country was not as remote from a common European culture as is often assumed. Rather, it was an unmistakable part of that culture.

Susan Foister discusses not only Holbein's well-known portraits but also his decorative paintings and murals, now lost, his designs for goldsmiths, and the works that can be associated with the English Reformation. In addition, she considers Holbein's religious and secular images, his techniques and practices, his status as an official court painter, and a variety of other intriguing topics.

Susan Foister is curator of Early Netherlandish, German and British painting and Director of Collections, National Gallery London.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 Holbein
Holbein in England
Holbein’s English Patrons
Holbein at Work
A Holbein Workshop?
2 England
Paintings in Early Sixteenth-century England
Valuing Paintings
Acquiring Paintings
3 Decoration and Design
The Greenwich Revels of 1527
The Hanseatic Commissions
Designs for Goldsmiths
4 Holbein and the English Reformation
Holbein and the Imagery of the English Reformation
The Coverdale Bible
Holbein’s Radical Reformation Woodcuts
5 Holbein the Portraitist
From Basel to England
Princely Portraits
Portraits of Foreigners
Portraits for the English
Conclusion: Holbein and England after 1543
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Appendix
Photograph Credits
Index

English

维基百科，自由的百科全书

盧卡斯為霍爾拜因畫的微型畫像，1543年

《大使們》，1533年

小漢斯·霍爾拜因 （德語：Hans Holbein der Jüngere，約1497年－1543年11月29日以前）是德國畫家，最擅長油畫和版畫，屬於歐洲北方文藝復興時代的藝術家，他最著名的作品是許多肖像畫和系列木版畫《死神之舞》。

[编辑] 早期生平

霍爾拜因出生於巴伐利亞的奧格斯堡，是歐洲最大的礦冶工業和金融業的中心。^[1]他主要是向他的父親老漢斯·霍爾拜因學習繪畫，後來他和哥哥一起去了瑞士的巴塞爾，在那裡他遇見人文主義者伊拉斯謨，伊拉斯謨委託他為自己的諷刺作品《愚人頌》繪製插圖，他同時還為馬丁·路德翻譯的德語《聖經》繪製了插圖，他也為巴塞爾市政廳繪製壁畫，為教堂和私人住宅設計玻璃鑲嵌畫和裝飾畫。1517年應邀到瑞士中部作畫，順道到過義大利，學習義大利的「新藝術」。回來後被接納為巴塞爾畫家同業公會會員，和一位皮革商的寡婦結婚，並開了自己的畫店。1524年，曾到法國旅行。^[2]

[编辑] 在英國

當時發生在瑞士的宗教改革反對教堂懸掛繪畫等偶像，因此作為一位藝術家霍爾拜因的處境比較艱難，1526年他轉道尼德蘭去了倫敦，伊拉斯謨為他向托馬斯·莫爾寫了一封推薦信，所以霍爾拜因在英國站住了腳，他為亨利八世和他的朝臣們繪製了許多肖像，還曾經為亨利八世設計朝服，並為其第二個妻子安妮·博林設計墓碑和墓前裝飾，不過他為博林畫的畫像可能在博林被處死後已經被銷毀了。他還曾經為亨利八世後來的其他幾位妻子畫過肖像。亨利八世曾經批評他的肖像畫過於美化他的妻子們。1528年，他回到巴塞爾處理一些事務，並承接了幾項繪畫，第二年繼續拋妻離子回到倫敦，再也沒有回家。

《托馬斯·莫爾像》，1527年

1543年，他正在為亨利八世畫另一幅肖像時，由於感染瘟疫在倫敦去世，年僅48歲，他是在 10月7日寫下的遺囑，在遺囑的11月29日附件上註明他「最近已經逝世」。^[3]

[编辑] 風格

《死神之舞》中的「死神和修道院長」

霍爾拜因在創作一幅肖像畫以前，經常用鉛筆描繪衣物、裝飾品等細節，有時也用鋼筆或堊筆，然後在紙上沿輪廓紮上小孔，鋪在畫布上，用炭粉將其轉移到畫布上。在晚年也使用複寫紙。他的畫作對細節描繪非常詳細、真實，甚至於儀器上的刻度、信箋上的文字、桌布上的花紋都描繪的一絲不苟，但整體風格仍然非常統一，人文主義風格非常明顯，俄羅斯作家陀斯妥耶夫斯基曾經評價他的作品《墓中的基督》：「可以把許多人的信仰奪去。」 ^[2]

他曾經從同為英國王室畫家的弗拉芒畫家盧卡斯·霍亨布特那裡學習畫微型畫，盧卡斯曾為他畫了一幅微型畫像，他自己從沒有畫過自畫像。

[编辑] 注釋

^ Biography at Kunstmuseum
^ ^2.0 ^2.1 朱龍華編著《荷爾拜因》上海人民美術出版社， 1964年6月，上海
^ Michael Levey, The German School; National Gallery Catalogues, 1959, National Gallery, London

[编辑] 外部連結和參考文獻

維基共享資源中相關的多媒體資源：

小漢斯·霍爾拜因

OTHER TITLES BY THIS AUTHOR

A trip along the Dales Way shows how Britain balances walkers’ rights with property rights

2011-12-24T03:44:00.000-08:00

The joy of walking

A path through time immemorial

A trip along the Dales Way shows how Britain balances walkers’ rights with property rights

Dec 17th 2011 | ILKLEY | from the print edition

PACKHORSES first crossed the Old Bridge in Ilkley in 1675, probably bringing wool to market from the sheep farms that still dot the Yorkshire Dales. The modern traveller will approach the bridge across the river Wharfe with a different purpose. A sign at its foot heralds the start of the Dales Way, a 76-mile (122-kilometre) trek through some of the prettiest parts of England.

The intrepid hiker who makes the full trip will walk on every kind of surface: main roads, narrow rocky paths that are slippery when wet (as this correspondent can painfully attest), alleys overgrown with weeds, and fields where mud has merged with sheep and cow dung to form a brown ooze the colour of oxtail soup. He will pass through tiny villages with quintessential Yorkshire names like Hubberholme and Yockenthwaite and cross (via an overhead walkway) the six lanes of the M6 motorway that threads from Birmingham to Carlisle. And he will observe the English at play in all kinds of weather—teenage boys enjoying a refreshing swim, trout fishermen standing thigh-high in the current, elderly couples accompanied by their dogs and even one man taking his falcon for a walk.

The joys of walking have long inspired poets and writers. Some have spoken of the sense of freedom that comes from leaving the city behind; the delicious choices offered by forked paths that lead through deep woods or over hilltops. In the “Song of the Open Road”, Walt Whitman wrote:

Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

Walking seems to set the mind free for contemplation. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said that “All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.” The Welsh writer Lloyd Jones, who was inspired to produce his first novel by a 1,000-mile trek round his homeland, said that “The moving landscape provides an absorbing diversion which frees the mind and gives us a fresh viewpoint, and we’re most at ease with the world when we walk because everything is happening at a manageable pace.”

Some politicians like the ability to ponder the great issues of state as they plod. William Gladstone, a Victorian prime minister and moralist, was an enthusiastic daily walker, opening a route up Mount Snowdon at the age of 83. While mired in the euro zone’s financial woes this year, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, chose to spend her summer holiday walking in the south Tyrol (although the trip didn’t inspire any immediate solutions to the problem).

In Europe, now that national borders have withered away, the open road is longer. Paths criss-cross the continent from the Black Sea to the Atlantic. Lis Nielsen of the European Ramblers’ Association recounts how she met a young Slovenian while walking in her native Denmark. He had grown up in a village marked by a sign for the E6 hiking trail that runs from Finland to the Aegean. He dreamed of following the route to Denmark and saved up all his annual holiday entitlement so he could do so.

America has a huge number of hiking routes, nearly all on public land. The Appalachian Trail, which follows the eponymous mountains from Georgia to Maine, is almost 2,200 miles long (some hikers claim that there is little to see but trees). Yosemite national park in California includes over 800 miles of trails.

Some 56m Americans went hiking in 2010, according to a survey by the Outdoor Industry Foundation. The number of people who went backpacking overnight rose by 18% between 2006 and 2010. It is a cheap activity, well-suited to an era of economic malaise. A survey of hikers in America’s Washington state found that, on average, they each spent just $409 a year on their hobby.

Broadly speaking, the countries that offer the most liberal rights to walkers are those with the most free space. In Norway and Sweden, where the national character is steeped in stoicism and fresh air, there is a general assumption in favour of access. But the pattern does not always hold. In the thinly populated American West, hikers sometimes find it necessary to cross private land in order to link between national and state parks. They can do so only if landowners are friendly: the idea of a “right to roam”—enacted in Britain in 2000—would strike most Americans as very strange.

Recreational walking is by far the most popular leisure activity in Britain: 16% of Britons do it each week, according to the government, compared with 11% who go to the gym. Perhaps this derives from the old connection between rural pursuits and breeding: Victorian businessmen who made good hastened to buy a country estate. Perhaps the claustrophobia caused by living in the most densely populated large country in Europe drives Britons to seek out open spaces at the weekends. Or perhaps it is down to the British love of dogs, who trot behind many an occasional walker.

But while Britons have itchy feet, they are also very attached to the notion that their homes are their castles. So there is a struggle—albeit a generally well-mannered one—between walkers’ rights and property rights.

Walking since time immemorial

The 4,000 or so people who annually complete the Dales Way are tackling just one of the 720 long-distance trails that traverse the British Isles. The longest, the South West Coast path, is 630 miles long, taking in the coast of Devon and Cornwall; it is also one of the easiest to navigate as long as travellers follow a simple rule (start in Minehead and keep the sea on your right). New long-distance paths are added every year, largely by linking existing paths together; there were just 150 national trails back in 1980. The total British network covers close to 150,000 miles; a lot for a small group of islands.

These treks are part of a grand British tradition; the right to walk over private land. This right is not unlimited. The route has to have been established by custom. Some of the paths were built by the Romans; others date back to “time immemorial”, a date established by legal convention to be the reign of Richard the Lionheart (1189-1199).

Paths were originally designed for practical, rather than leisure, use. In Scotland broad paths were built after the Jacobite rebellions of the 18th century, as a way of allowing English soldiers to move quickly round the rugged landscape. Medieval peasants needed to cross feudal estates to get to market. Some paths disappeared when common land was enclosed in the 18th century but walkers fought back: in 1826, the Manchester Association for the Preservation of Ancient Footpaths was formed with the aim of taking a local landowner to court.

A legal principle dubbed “once a highway, always a highway” means that a right of way, once established, is hard to abolish. That is why English hikers can find themselves wandering through a cornfield, or facing the suspicious gaze of a sheep; activities that in America might attract the attention of an angry landowner with a shotgun. The Dales Way takes the hiker past the kitchen windows of several farms and down private driveways; on this correspondent’s trek, an enterprising schoolboy had set up a stall, complete with honesty box, to sell drinks to parched walkers.

A rough code binds both parties. Landowners are not supposed to block footpaths, or leave hikers at the mercy of an angry bull; walkers are supposed to shut gates, leave no litter and keep their dogs under control. The designated highway authority (usually the local council) is responsible for maintaining the route and, as a result, owns the physical ground of the path, “to the depth of two spades” according to legal custom.

These hiking rights were established through classic English compromise. In 1932, 400-500 ramblers walked across a stretch of grouse moor in Derbyshire in the face of robust opposition. Gamekeepers sought to repel the invasion, lest the hikers scare away the birds that their employers sought to shoot. Some of the trespassers were sent to jail. In those days, hiking was a cheap way for factory workers to escape from their satanic mills at weekends, so the pastime was imbued with proletarian virtue. Ministers in the post-war Labour government of 1945-51 held an annual ramble in the Pennines. That government duly passed the National Parks and Access to Countryside Act, enacting walkers’ rights and creating much-loved parks in, for instance, the Lake District and Snowdonia. Another Labour government passed the Countryside and Rights of Way Act in 2000 that gave walkers Nordic-style rights to roam across open land like moors and mountains.

Hiking was a cheap way for factory hands to escape from satanic mills at weekends

Such acts have a difficult balance to strike. Even those who guard the right to roam most jealously would object if passers-by wandered through their back gardens. Some celebrities, such as Madonna, have argued that walkers represent a threat to their personal security and demanded restrictions on access rights. One landowner, Nicholas van Hoogstraten, blocked a path through his land with barbed wire and even a padlocked gate. The Ramblers’ Association took him to court and won.

But such cases are rare. The most alarming hazard this correspondent came across was a sign implying the presence of a bull in the next field; fortunately, it turned out to be a pictorial, rather than actual, deterrent.

To the annoyance of landowners, ramblers tend to resist permanent alterations to ancient paths, even when a diversion would make the walk no less pleasant; but landowners are often able to get courts to agree to temporary diversions past their land (as the model Claudia Schiffer did when she married in the Suffolk village of Shimpling in 2002). The Ramblers’ Association, which fights doggedly for walkers’ rights, says it is notified of such diversions, the vast majority of which are unopposed, 70-80 times a week.

In America, the hiker’s biggest problem is generally isolation. It can be a week between towns on the Appalachian Trail, so travellers need a week’s worth of food as well as extra water. On long stretches of the trail, the accommodation is a wooden hut with one side exposed to the elements.

The British hiker, by contrast, is rarely far from a bed-and-breakfast where sweaty clothes can be shed, showers taken, and a full English breakfast provided, complete with such nutritionally dubious items as fatty bacon and fried bread. At the communal dining table, doughty old women rub shoulders with rugby-playing students. While the landlady slaves away in the kitchen, the landlord may well give the guests the benefits of his views on the finer points of politics and economics. But even if his company is uncongenial, the boarding house will soon be left far behind. On the Dales Way, only the sheep can hear you scream.

Eton College/Harrow School, birch

2011-12-24T00:47:00.000-08:00

birch, Eton College , Harrow School

現在我假設本文的推論是對的而且胡先生在英國的著名"貴族"中學 (我知道的至少有3所)中只訪問過Eton College
他老人家過了30來年在台北的徵信新聞的一篇談體罰的文之章說 (各校當時體罰細節可能類似)
這所也是邱吉爾先生上過的
我想這是胡先生記錯了
邱吉爾上的是Harrow School - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

記憶之誤/Eton College 演講" The New Literary Movement in..

Eton College 演講" The New Literary Movement in China"

胡適1926年10月16日 (周六) 的日記前半部遺失
從前幾天和剩下的當日後半可知他是到英國著名的Eton College去演講" The New Literary Movement in China" (此講稿他很慎重其事約花3晚可能7-10鐘頭)

胡適提到的該校校有以紅色標出其中缺 Shelley 他是該校Syon 學院畢 (現在找不到它) 他還提到BALFOUR:Balfour: A Political Biography - Sydney H. Zebel - Google BooksThis biography analyses the long political career of Arthur James Balfour (1848-1930), the Conservative politician who became the first Earl of Balfour.

Past pupils of Eton College are known as Old Etonians. In recent years, the school has become popular with the British Royal Family; Princes William and Harry are Old Etonians. Eton has also produced nineteen British Prime Ministers, including William Ewart Gladstone, Sir Robert Walpole, the first Duke of Wellington, and the current Prime Minister, David Cameron. A rising number of pupils come to Eton from overseas, including members of royal families from Africa and Asia, some of whom have been sending their sons to Eton for generations. One of them, King Prajadhipok or Rama VII (1893–1941) of Siam, donated a garden to Eton.^[83] The mediaevalist and ghost story writer M. R. James was provost of Eton from 1918 until his death in 1936. The English Antarctic explorer Lawrence Oates attended the school. The jazz trumpeter and radio broadcaster Humphrey Lyttelton attended Eton. Actors educated at Eton include Max Pirkis, Eddie Redmayne, Simon Woods, Damian Lewis, Dominic West, Jeremy Brett, Hugh Laurie, Tom Hiddleston and Patrick Macnee. Musician Frank Turner also was at Eton. Other Old Etonians include Henry Fielding, Guy Burgess, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, John Maynard Keynes and Henry More.

學校網頁
http://www.etoncollege.com/

Eton College - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor".^[1]

It is located in Eton, near Windsor in England, north of Windsor Castle, and is one of the original nine English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868.

Eton has a long list of distinguished former pupils. David Cameron is the nineteenth British Prime Minister to have attended Eton.^[2]^[3]

Eton has traditionally been referred to as "the chief nurse of England's statesmen",^[4] and has been described as the most famous public school in the world.^[5] Early in the 20th century, a historian of Eton wrote, "No other school can claim to have sent forth such a cohort of distinguished figures to make their mark on the world".^[6]

The Good Schools Guide called the school "the number one boys' public school," adding, "The teaching and facilities are second to none."^[7] The school is a member of the G20 Schools Group.

Contents

Christopher Logue

2011-12-23T04:16:00.001-08:00

Christopher Logue

Christopher Logue, poet, died on December 2nd, aged 85

Dec 17th 2011 | from the print edition

PACIFISM was Christopher Logue’s creed. He marched to Aldermaston against Britain’s bomb in 1958, armed only with sandwiches. Three years later he served time in prison for inciting anti-nuclear demonstrations. By then, Homer’s “Iliad” had started to lodge in his head.

O please!”

As a prisoner he was sent to demolish a munitions factory. The irony of that pleased him. All war was criminal behaviour in his eyes. Fighting was something he couldn’t do. He had joined the army briefly at 17, diminutive and shying from physical contact, mostly to avoid work. But when they did a bayonet charge in training, aiming their steel points at bags of straw, hideously roaring, his trousers fell down.

Violence, no. Impatience, yes. Jamming the scissors into a vacuum pack of salmon. Crashing his palms on the typewriter keys when he couldn’t change the ribbon. Panting to bring in the Marxist paradise at once in drab postwar Britain, though he hadn’t even got through the “Communist Manifesto”. Reading his poems aloud in the 1960s (a chorus of “Antigone” for the bicycle-makers of Nottingham) in the hope he could immediately culturise the workers. Fuming at his own timidity, political, intellectual, social, sexual. Especially sexual. That lonely twice-daily wank over Men Only.

Trojans with Uzis

Loafing around, he lived for poetry. He longed to write like T.S.Eliot, the best, but couldn’t. Nor like Keats (he wept over that). A sojourn in Paris in the 1950s produced a slim volume to hawk around the cafés, and a trio of dirty books. He wrote satirical left-wing ballads for the Establishment Club, mixed with Ken Tynan and Lindsay Anderson on the edge of London’s shocking 1960s theatre scene, set his poems to jazz, uncovered pseuds and bizarre news stories for Private Eye. All this put him among the Oxford boys at last. But, not having been to any university, he was never “in”.

Doris Lessing suggested he should look at the “Iliad”, Homer’s 15,000-line, 2,800-year-old epic of the Trojan war. Donald Carne-Ross then asked him to adapt a sliver for BBC radio. With no Greek, he worked from multiple translations and Carne-Ross’s word-for-word cribs. Soon, though, he knew it for himself. He could run each sequence backwards and forwards, take it from the top, add, subtract. Put in stuff from hoardings and headlines. Assured that there was no original text, he took his own careering way. “All Day Permanent Red”, an ad for Revlon lipstick, became his title for the first battle scene. And

Blood? Blood like a car-wash…

He knew the music—“War Music”, as he called the work when it grew. More rhythmical and more alive than any version of the “Iliad” up till then. He sang it out himself: roughly the iambic pentameter, stopped dead for shouts of “Kah!” and “Yes!” and “Apollo!”. Redcurrant-haired Achilles, creamy-armed Hera, “Dribbler” Priam and Hector, eight feet tall, peopled his brain for 50 years. He lived on bits and bobs; sponsors, including Paul Getty, kept him going. And as Homer’s rewrite man, for the first time his poetry soared away:

His opposing Greek and Trojan armies had Uzis and whumphing helicopters, rose as one to their feet like the retracting slats of a Venetian blind, inflicted “high-reliability fast-forward pain”. Yet above them were the immortal gods, ambrosia-slurping, irresponsible, their faces set “like NO ENTRY signs” against any truce. Beside them the fighters faded, “a match flame struck in full sunlight”. As a “Catholic atheist”, beaten into line by the Christian Brothers, naturally an unbeliever but unimpressed with his own atheism, he heard the relentless music of that Heaven:

No end to war, that also meant. All day permanent violence, because human males craved it and the powers-that-be decreed it. Now as then. But through the cinematic, strobe-lit lines of his “Iliad” came the great galvanising shout he had tried to raise all his life. Against war. For peace.

The Phrases and Sayings of Tudor England / "15世紀的英國私人生活"

2011-12-23T03:56:00.000-08:00

昨夜讀"15世紀的英國私人生活" (英文本)
沒想到movable feasts (：可移動慶節；非固定慶節：日期每年變換、不固定的慶節（瞻禮），如復活節、耶穌升天、聖神降臨、天主聖三等。)比固定假期日多一天

****

This week its the annual Christmas quiz - www.phrases.org.uk/christmas-quiz

Merry Christmas to all Phrase A Week readers and thanks for all the nice feedback during the past year.

Gary Martin

My book on The Phrases and Sayings of Tudor England (Kindle format) might make a good stocking-filler for anyone who is interested in word and phrase origins.

movable feasts

2011-12-22T19:01:00.000-08:00

昨夜讀"15世紀的英國私人生活" (英文本)
沒想到movable feasts (：可移動慶節；非固定慶節：日期每年變換、不固定的慶節（瞻禮），如復活節、耶穌升天、聖神降臨、天主聖三等。)比固定假期日多一天

In Christianity, a moveable feast or movable feast is a holy day – a feast day or a fast day – whose date is not fixed to a particular day of the calendar year but moves in response to the date of Easter, the date of which varies according to a complex formula. Easter is itself a "moveable feast".^{[citation needed]}

By extension, other religions' feasts are occasionally described by the same term. In addition many countries have secular holidays that are moveable, for instance to make holidays more consecutive; the term "moveable feast" is not used in this case however.

By metaphoric extension, a movable feast was used by Ernest Hemingway to mean the memory of a splendid place that continues to go with the moving traveler for the rest of life, after he has had the experience of it and gone away. The author used the term A Moveable Feast for the title of his late-life memoirs of his early life as a struggling writer in Paris in the 1920s. He said to a friend: "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."^[1]

Contents

Moveable feasts in Christianity

Triodion – the period of 70 days before Easter (Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Greek-Catholic)
Septuagesima – 63 days (ninth Sunday) before Easter (Pre–Vatican II Calendar)
Saturday of Souls – 57 days before Easter (Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Greek-Catholic)
Sexagesima – 56 days (eighth Sunday) before Easter (Pre–Vatican II Calendar)
Quinquagesima Sunday – 49 days (seventh Sunday) before Easter (Pre–Vatican II Calendar)
Shrove Monday – 48 days before Easter. (Western Christianity)
Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras – 47 days before Easter. (Western Christianity; not technically a moveable feast, because it is not a holiday on any church calendar)
Ash Wednesday – 46 days before Easter. (Western Christianity; strictly speaking, not a feast but a fast, characterised by solemnity and acts of self-denial)
Triumph of Orthodoxy – 42 days before Easter (Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Greek-Catholic)
People's Sunday – 41 days before Easter (in Malta)
Mothering Sunday – 21 days before Easter (Anglicanism)
Passion Sunday – 14 days before Easter (Anglicanism)
Lazarus Saturday – 8 days before Easter (Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Greek-Catholic)
Palm Sunday – 7 days before Easter
Maundy Thursday – 3 days before Easter
Good Friday – 2 days before Easter (Good Friday is actually a fast rather than a feast. See Ash Wednesday above.)
Holy Saturday - 1 day before Easter
Easter – the date around which the others are placed
Saint Gregory's Day – 3 days after Easter (in Malta)
The Octave of Easter or Divine Mercy Sunday, also known as Low Sunday or Quasimodo Sunday – the Sunday after Easter.
Radonitsa – 8 or 9 days after Easter (Eastern Orthodox)
Ascension Day – 39 days after Easter
Pentecost – 49 days after Easter (50th day of Easter)
Whit Monday or Pentecost Monday – the day after Pentecost
Trinity Sunday – 56 days after Easter (Western Christianity)
All Saints – 56 days after Easter (Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Greek-Catholic), but in the West this feast is fixed on November 1
Corpus Christi – 60 days after Easter (Western Christianity)
feast days of some significant saints' days, if a moveable feast falls too close to their usual date.

Some of the fixed feasts in Christianity

Christmas – December 25
Octave of the Nativity – January 1
Presentation of Christ in the Temple – February 2
Transfiguration – August 6
Dormition of the Theotokos/Assumption of Mary – August 15
Exaltation of the Cross – September 14
feast days of most individual saints

References

^ Hotchner, A.E., Papa Hemingway, New York: De Capo Press, 2005, p.?

External links

"Why Some Feasts Are Moveable", a Slate article
Advent, Christmastide, Lent, Eastertide

No Feast Lasts Forever第2次世界大戰期間3年的倫敦生活

2011-12-22T03:28:00.000-08:00

這本回憶錄有2章談第2次世界大戰期間3年的英國/倫敦生活
是一特例不過可參考

No Feast Lasts Forever《沒有不散的筵席》

黃蕙蘭（1893年－1993年），外交家顧維鈞第二任妻子，南洋富商「糖王」黃仲涵之女。1904年負笈美國，後在倫敦與顧維鈞相識，1920年結為連理，生子裕昌、福昌。黃蕙蘭本人善於交際，且娘家鉅富，故蔣宋美齡曾指出，黃蕙蘭在顧維鈞的外交生涯中起了重要作用。1956年離婚。病逝於百歲壽辰當日。

黃蕙蘭是胡適同輩人。她的回憶錄《沒有不散的筵席》(No Feast Lasts Forever : Madame Wellington Koo, 1975)由天津編譯所翻譯出版 1988 網路上有PDF檔不過該書譯序說書成於1970年代。由 Isabella Taves幫助完成。胡適在1943年1月22日起讀到的英文本(作者贈的)，可能是初稿。胡適的評價是”寫得出我意外的細密親切，文字也很好。……..”

No Feast Lasts Forever [Hardcover]

Madame Wellington Koo (Author), Isabella Taves (Author)

Customer image from Jay Tiger

Product Details

Hardcover: 313 pages
Publisher: Quadrangle/New York Times Book Co (1975)
Lang

Luxury shoppers travel to UK for bargains

2011-12-21T19:43:00.000-08:00

2011年12月22日 07:19 AM
Luxury shoppers travel to UK for bargains
By Claer Barrett Retail Correspondent

On a chilly Friday in December, one might expect that designer outlet centre Bicester Village in Oxfordshire would be full of Christmas shoppers. However, the dominant group of customers snapping up discounted Burberry, Gucci and Prada products are Chinese university students – often accompanied by their parents – splurging on gifts to take home for the lunar new year.

“The price is what we like,” says Zhing Xingzi, 33, from Beijing who is studying international relations at Nottingham University. Here with three female Chinese friends, who are trying on shoes in the Gucci outlet, he stands watch over their day's haul – 20 bags bearing the brands of Burberry, Prada, Ugg and Juicy Couture. “In China, just a few people can do this, not everyone,” he says, referring to the country's high sales taxes on luxury goods. “But the desire for brands is there, and we would buy more in China if it was at this price.”

The changing appetites of Asian shoppers have driven share prices of luxury groups up and down during the course of 2011. Concern that the devastating earthquake that hit Japan – one of the most important markets for luxury goods – in March would stall demand for top brands was cushioned by burgeoning demand from newly affluent Chinese consumers. However, over the summer, fears of a slowdown in China's economy wiped as much as 25 per cent off the share prices of luxury groups, including Burberry, which is expanding on the mainland.

Angela Ahrendts, Burberry's chief executive, has coined the term “Travelling Luxury Consumer” or TLC to describe its key customer group, arguing this is a more powerful force than the Chinese market alone, which now accounts for over 10 per cent of Burberry's sales.

“When Chinese consumers travel, they spend six times more than when they stay at home,” she explains. “Saying 'I bought this in London' adds further cachet.” For this reason, Burberry has sunk £20m into upgrading its London flagship stores, with Regent Street on target to complete “just in time for the Olympics” next year.

Other London purveyors of luxury are also feeling flush. High spending foreign tourists have powered a 32 per cent boost in post-tax annual profits at upmarket London department store Harvey Nichols, which rose to £7.25m in the year to April, according to documents filed in Companies House on Friday.

Harrods, its larger Knightsbridge neighbour, broke through the £1bn sales barrier in 2011, posting a 39 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £108m and reporting that the Chinese were its top-spending international visitors, blowing an average of £3,500 a visit.

The Chinese connoisseur who spends £25,000 on vintage wine might grab the headlines, but the majority of shoppers are of much smaller means. This helps explains the draw of Bicester, which boasts the only train station in the UK to have signs translated into Mandarin and Arabic, and is now the UK's third-biggest tourist shopping destination after Harrods and Selfridges.

Its owner, the outlet specialist Value Retail Group, says visitor numbers will top 5.5m this year, with two-thirds of shoppers coming from outside the UK, and 40 per cent from outside of the EU.

Crystal Zhang, a 23-year-old from Shanxi Province, is studying cross-cultural communication at Newcastle University, and has brought her mother and aunt on a shopping trip. “It's their first time in the UK,” she says, as they excitedly search through rails of discounted Burberry trenchcoats, clutching flasks of tea. “We haven't bought anything yet, we will have a good look first. We don't have unlimited money.”
Korean national Yung Kyoo Kim, 34, has just graduated from London Metropolitan University. “My parents came over for my graduation, but really, I think they wanted to go shopping,” he says, nodding to his mother, who is proudly carrying two bags of Salvatore Ferragamo shoes.

“Tourists want the authentic product, but importantly, the authentic luxury experience,” says Scott Malkin, chairman of Value Retail, referring to Bicester's well-ordered stores, armies of shop assistants and the “little touches”, which include cushions on outdoor seating .

Stating that levels of tourist shoppers are “consistent” across Value Retail's nine European outlet villages, he recalls that Japanese shoppers were “pouring into” outlet villages in the US in the 1980s and 1990s, arguing a “similar logic” applies to China, where it plans to open an outlet village in Suzhou in 2013.

“We see 4m Chinese visitors a year in our European centres, but estimate there are up to 200m aspirational shoppers in China, and many of those could never visit us otherwise,” he says.

As the village will be entirely stocked by surplus luxury products from the region's growing numbers of stores, one might question the Chinese expansion plans of luxury groups. “Our experience is that it drives more footfall into our international stores,” says Godfrey Davis, chairman of Mulberry, the luxury English retailer, which is in the process of doubling its Asian store portfolio. “The travelling luxury consumer has always existed, and is a very important part of the market. But familiarity and desire for the brand is what breeds consumption .”
中國人撐起英國名牌村
英國《金融時報》零售業記者克拉爾•巴雷特

在12月份一個寒冷的周五，你可能會以為，名牌折扣店雲集的牛津郡比斯特購物村(Bicester Village)會充斥著前來購買聖誕禮物的消費者。然而，在這裡搶購博柏利(Burberry)、古馳(Gucci)和普拉達(Prada)等各色名牌折扣商品的消費者卻以中國留學生為主——他們很多是在父母的陪伴下，大把地花錢，為春節回家選購禮物。

“我們中意的是這裡的價格。”今年33歲的章行自（音譯）表示，他來自北京，目前在諾丁漢大學(Nottingham University)攻讀國際關係。與他同行的三位女性朋友也是中國人，她們在古馳折扣店裡試鞋子，他則在一邊看著她們這一天的戰果：20大包的博柏利、普拉達、Ugg和橘滋(Juicy Couture)。 “在中國，只有少數人會這麼購物，不是所有人。”他指的是中國對奢侈品徵收高額消費稅這件事。 “但人們都渴望擁有名牌，如果在中國也是這樣的價錢，我們會多買一些。”

今年以來，亞洲消費者對奢侈品的興趣變幻莫測，導致奢侈品集團的股價也忽起忽落。 3月份日本發生重大地震後，業內原本擔心消費者對頂極品牌的需求將陷入停滯，因為日本是全球最重要的奢侈品市場之一。然而，中國新富消費者對奢侈品的需求迅速增長，沖淡了這種擔憂。然而，到了夏季，由於消費者擔心中國經濟將會放緩，奢侈品集團的股價一度下跌25%，其中包括正在中國內地擴張的博柏利。

博柏利首席執行官安吉拉•阿倫茨(Angela Ahrendts)首創“奢侈品旅遊消費者”(Travelling Luxury Consumer)這個概念，用於形容該集團的關鍵消費者群體。她認為，這個群體的力量比中國市場更可觀，後者如今在博柏利總銷售額中占到10%以上。

阿倫茨表示：“中國消費者在外旅遊時，花的錢比在家裡多6倍。說'這件東西是在倫敦買的'，會讓人平添一種優越感。”為此，博柏利已投入2000萬英鎊，準備將倫敦各旗艦店修葺一新，在攝政街(Regent Street)的那家店將趕在明年“奧運前及時”完工。

倫敦其他奢侈品商家也備感歡欣。根據上週五提交英國公司註冊處(Companies House)的材料，拜大手大腳花錢的外國旅遊者所賜，在截至4月的一年裡，倫敦高檔百貨公司哈維•尼克斯(Harvey Nichols)的稅前利潤大幅增長32%，達725萬英鎊。

在騎士橋(Knightsbridge)與哈維•尼克斯比鄰、規模比之更大的哈羅斯(Harrods)，2011年銷售額突破了10億英鎊，稅前利潤比上年增長39%，達1.08億英鎊。該公司表示，在國際購物者中，中國人的消費能力首屈一指，他們平均一次購物的花銷為3500英鎊。

中國鑑賞家以2.5萬英鎊購買一瓶葡萄酒的消息，或許能登上媒體的頭條，但大多數購物者的身家要少得多。這有助於解釋比斯特購物村的吸引力所在。在全英國所有火車站中，只有這個購物村的火車站配有以中文和阿拉伯語書寫的標語牌。比斯特購物村也是英國第三大旅遊購物目的地，僅次於哈羅斯和賽弗里奇(Selfridges)。

比斯特購物村是Value Retail集團旗下的產業，這家專門從事名牌折扣店業務的集團表示，今年比斯特購物村的消費者人次將突破550萬，其中三分之二來自英國以外地區，40%來自歐盟以外。

來自山西的克里斯特爾•張(Crystal Zhang)今年23歲，在紐卡斯爾大學(Newcastle University)攻讀跨文化交流專業。她讓她母親和姨媽一起來英國購物旅遊。 “她們第一次來英國。”克里斯特爾表示，這時她們正興奮地穿梭在博柏利折扣風衣的櫃檯前，手裡緊抓著水壺。 “我們還什麼都沒買呢，我們要先好好看一下，我們的錢有限。”
韓國人金英奎（音譯）今年34歲，剛從倫敦城市大學(London Metropolitan University)畢業。 “我父母來參加我的畢業典禮，但我想他們其實是想來購物。”他沖他媽媽點了點頭，他媽媽正得意地提著兩袋菲拉格慕(Salvatore Ferragamo)的鞋子。

“旅遊者想買到正品，但更想獲得真正的奢侈體驗。”Value Retail董事長斯科特•馬爾金(Scott Malkin)表示，他提到了購物村里秩序井然的商店、成群的店員，以及各種“細緻體貼”的服務，比如店門外座椅上還鋪著墊子。

馬爾金表示，通觀Value Retail在歐洲的9個名牌折扣店購物村，所有旅遊購物者的水平都是“一致的”。他回憶到，在上世紀八、九十年代，日本消費者“蜂擁進入”美國的名牌折扣店購物中心。在他看來，中國也會出現“類似情形”。 Value Retail計劃2013年在蘇州開一家名牌折扣店購物中心。

“我們在歐洲的折扣店中心每年迎來400萬中國消費者，而在中國，渴望擁有奢侈品的消費者估計多達2億人，如果我們不在那裡開店的話，其中許多人可能永遠不會光顧我們。”

由於新購物中心的商品將全部來自該地區越來越多的名牌商店，全部是積壓的商品，人們可能會懷疑奢侈品集團在中國的擴張計劃。 “根據我們的經驗，這麼做會促使更多人走進我們的國際商店。”英國奢侈品零售商瑪百莉(Mulberry)董事長戈弗雷•戴維斯(Godfrey Davis)表示。瑪百莉正計劃將亞洲門店數量增加一倍。 “奢侈品旅遊消費者從來都有，也是這個市場的重要組成部分。但是，對品牌的熟悉感和渴望才能促成消費。”

中國留英美同學博士論文

2011-12-20T18:11:00.000-08:00

據袁同禮先生比較中國留英美同學博士論文 1905-60 可知20世紀美國對中國的影響力遠遠大於英國

《吳宓自編年譜》
對袁同禮先生有基本的介紹 (頁255)
Wikipedia 袁同禮項中少了許多著作請查臺灣大學圖書館
不過上述的藏書中少了一本最有意思的作品
A Guide to Doctorial Dissertations by Chinese Students in America, 1905-1960
華盛頓:中美文化協會 1961

周法高先生:
中國留英美同學博士論文目錄之分析
書名漢學論集出版者精華印書館印, 1964/台北:正中 1965/1991 頁89-108

據唐德剛《胡適雜憶》袁同禮將胡適獲得博士的年份分別記在 1917和1927兩年中

Entente cordiale?

2011-12-20T17:22:00.000-08:00

EU crisis: The Frogs do love us – they’re just hopping mad with Germany

Our entente with the French is still cordiale, but they badly need someone to shout at, writes Boris Johnson.

David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy greet each other in Paris Photo: EPA

The return of the Entente cordiale?

The UK and France have signed a treaty which will see them setting up a
joint military force and sharing equipment and nuclear missile research
centres.

The DW-WORLD.DE Article
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=ew6i1bI44va89pI1#6191182

Entente cordiale
（政府間の）友好的取り決め；((the E- C-))英仏協商（1904）.

(April 8, 1904) Anglo-French agreement that settled numerous colonial disputes and ended antagonisms between Britain and France. It granted freedom of action to Britain in Egypt and to France in Morocco and resolved several other imperial disputes. The agreement reduced the virtual isolation of each country and was consequently upsetting to Germany, which had benefited from their antagonism. The Entente paved the way for Anglo-French diplomatic cooperation against Germany before World War I and for later military alliances.

The noun has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: an informal alliance between countries
Synonym: entente

〔ntnt〕

[名]

1 [C][U]（国家間の）協約((between, with ...)).

2 ((集合的))協商国.

［フランス語］

Meaning #2: a friendly understanding between political powers
Synonym: entente

There is a scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail that captures the current dialogue between Paris and London. One evening King Arthur arrives with his knights at a darkened castle. He tells the figure on the battlements that he has come to recruit noble knights in his quest for the grail. For some reason the guard turns out to have a heavy French accent.

In fact, the whole castle is occupied by French knights, and they treat the English king with disgraceful rudeness.

First, the guard tells Arthur that he has no interest in obtaining a Holy Grail, since they already have one in the castle. When Arthur says he would like to have a look at this marvel, the French knight refuses, and concludes: “I don’t want to talk to you no more, you empty-headed animal food trough whopper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.” The French then cry “fetchez la vache”, and use a trebuchet to bombard the Knights of the Round Table with a dead cow.

If you cut out some of the raspberry blowing and bottom-flashing, that is just about the level of the current diplomatic broadsides from Paris. David Cameron goes to the dark castle in Brussels in his quest for common sense, and ever since they have been peppering us with dead cows. Various French ministers have queued up to say rude things about Britain and the British economy. In an amazing breach of diplomatic convention, the French prime minister has called for Britain’s credit rating to be downgraded and announced that he would much rather be French than these so silly British.

In a bid to calm things down, Nick Clegg has been forced to ring the French up and ask them to stop being so jolly insulting.

倫敦市長：歐元一年內瓦解

2011-12-20 01:34
中國時報
【江靜玲／倫敦十九日電】

　倫敦市長強森（Boris Johnson）預言，歐元將在一年內瓦解。強森形容，歐盟領袖企圖拯救歐元，宛若是吹「泡泡糖」，遲早會爆掉。

　歐元區財長於十九日召開緊急視訊會議，就十二月八日和九日歐盟高峰會議後的情勢變化，進行意見交換。英國是歐盟廿七會員國中，唯一拒絕簽署歐盟新財政條約的國家，但英國財相奧斯本仍參與十九日的視訊會議。

　根據英國媒體報導，英國準備透過國際貨幣基金提供一百億英鎊的貸款，協助紓解歐元區危機。英國首相卡麥隆和財相奧斯本對此均保持低調立場。

　但英國保守黨重量級政客、倫敦市長強森卻在此刻跳出來放話，指稱歐盟各國領袖「歇斯底里」的企圖拯救歐元，根本就像是一場「吹泡泡糖」遊戲，警告歐元將在十二個月內瓦解。

　強森表示，明年此時，如果歐元不會發生任何變化，「我將會感到萬分驚訝。」強森預言，歐元區國家中，定有一些國家將在未來一年內離開歐元區，歐盟各國領袖極力企圖把經濟差距不一的國家湊在一起，其結果是歐元區經濟將難以成長，經濟信心也將難以恢復。

　針對強森的警告，英國前保守黨財相拉孟特（Lord Lamont）也表示，歐元區瓦解的代價將「巨大無比」，但歐元區瓦解已是不可避免的趨勢，勉強企圖扭轉這個趨勢，付出的代價，勢將更慘重。

英國個人主義的起源he Origins of English Individualism:The F...

2011-12-15T04:51:00.001-08:00

英國個人主義的起源he Origins of English Individualism:The F...

否決歐洲聯盟（EU）條約修訂案New Eurozone Deal Won't Include UK: Europe's great divorce

2011-12-13T19:49:00.000-08:00

白金漢大學教授不排除英國退出歐盟可能性
柏林隨著卡梅倫首相拒絕歐盟協議改革，英國白金漢大學政治學家格利斯（Anthony Glees）稱，英國完全可能有一天退出歐盟。格雷斯教授週一（12月12日）在接受德意志電台的採訪時指出，英國與歐盟的關係恰似婚姻關係，"雙方都應幸福，若有一方不再願意，婚姻便也完結"。格利斯教授指出，卡梅倫首相對歐盟所持懷疑立場獲得多數英國人的認可，"這對歐洲、對卡梅倫，以及對英國本身都是一個巨大的危險"。

Britain and the EU summit

Europe's great divorce

Dec 9th 2011, 8:03 by Charlemagne | BRUSSELS

WE JOURNALISTS are probably too bleary-eyed after a sleepless night to understand the full significance of what has just happened in Brussels. What is clear is that after a long, hard and rancorous negotiation, at about 5am this morning the European Union split in a fundamental way.

In an effort to stabilise the euro zone, France, Germany and 21 other countries have decided to draft their own treaty to impose more central control over national budgets. Britain and three others have decided to stay out. In the coming weeks, Britain may find itself even more isolated. Sweden, the Czech Republic and Hungary want time to consult their parliaments and political parties before deciding on whether to join the new union-within-the-union.

So two decades to the day after the Maastricht Treaty was concluded, launching the process towards the single European currency, the EU's tectonic plates have slipped momentously along same the fault line that has always divided it—the English Channel.

Confronted by the financial crisis, the euro zone is having to integrate more deeply, with a consequent loss of national sovereignty to the EU (or some other central co-ordinating body); Britain, which had secured a formal opt-out from the euro, has decided to let them go their way.

Whether the agreement does anything to stabilise the euro is moot. The agreement is heavily tilted towards budget discipline and austerity. It does little to generate money in the short term to arrest the run on sovereigns, nor does it provide a longer-term perspective of jointly-issued bonds. Much will depend on how the European Central Bank responds in the coming days and weeks.

Some doubt remains over whether and how the "euro-plus" zone will have access to EU institutions—such as the European Commission, which conducts economic assessments and recommends action, and the European Court of Justice, which Germany hopes will ensure countries adopt proper balanced-budget rules—over Britain's objections.

But especially for France, on the brink of losing its AAA credit rating and now the junior partner to Germany, this is a famous political victory. President Nicolas Sarkozy had long favoured the creation of a smaller, "core" euro zone, without the awkward British, Scandinavians and eastern Europeans that generally pursue more liberal, market-oriented policies. And he has wanted the core run on an inter-governmental basis, ie by leaders rather than by supranational European institutions. This would allow France, and Mr Sarkozy in particular, to maximise its impact.

Mr Sarkozy made substantial progress on both fronts. The president tried not to gloat when he emerged at 5am to explain that an agreement endorsed by all 27 members of the EU had proved impossible because of British obstruction. “You cannot have an opt-out and then ask to participate in all the discussion about the euro that you did not want to have, and which you also criticised,” declared the French president.

With the entry next year of Croatia, which will sign its accession treaty today, the EU is still growing, said Mr Sarkozy. “The bigger Europe is, the less integrated it can be. That is an obvious truth.”

For Britain the benefit of the bargain in Brussels is far from clear. It took a good half-hour after the end of Mr Sarkozy's appearance for Mr Cameron to emerge and explain his action. The prime minister claimed he had taken a “tough decision but the right one” for British interests—particularly for its financial-services industry. In return for his agreement to change the EU treaties, Mr Cameron had wanted a number of safeguards for Britain. When he did not get them, he used his veto.

After much studied vagueness on his part about Britain's objectives, Mr Cameron's demand came down to a protocol that would ensure Britain would be given a veto on financial-services regulation (see PDF copy here). The British government has become convinced that the European Commission, usually a bastion of liberalism in Europe, has been issuing regulations hostile to the City of London under the influence of its French single-market commissioner, Michel Barnier. And yet strangely, given the accusation that Brussels was taking aim at the heart of the British economy, almost all of the new rules issued so far have been passed with British approval (albeit after much bitter backroom fighting). Tactically, too, it seemed odd to make a stand in defence of the financiers that politicians, both in Britain and across the rest of European, prefer to denounce.

Mr Cameron said he is “relaxed” about the separation. The EU has always been about multiple speeds; he was glad Britain had stayed out of the euro and out of the passport-free Schengen area. He said that life in the EU, particularly the single market, will continue as normal. “We wish them well as we want the euro zone to sort out its problems, to achieve stability and growth that all of Europe needs.” The drawn faces of senior officials seemed to say otherwise.

The 23 members of the new pact, if they act as a block, can outvote Britain. They are divided among themselves, of course. But their habit of working together and cutting deals will, inevitably, begin to weigh against Britain over time.

Mr Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, have given notice of their desire for the euro zone to act in all the domains that would normally be the remit of all 27 members—for example, labour-market regulations and the corporate-tax base.

Britain may assume it will benefit from extra business for the City, should the euro zone ever pass a financial-transaction tax. But what if the new club starts imposing financial regulations among the 17 euro-zone members, or the 23 members of the euro-plus pact? That could begin to force euro-denominated transactions into the euro zone, say Paris or Frankfurt. Britain would, surely, have had more influence had the countries of the euro zone remained under an EU-wide system.

It says much about the dire state of the debate on Europe within Britain's Conservative party that, as Mr Cameron set out to Brussels, another Tory MP portentously invoked the memory of Neville Chamberlain, who infamously came back from Munich with empty assurances from Adolf Hitler. Mr Cameron may have made a grievous mistake with regard to Britain's long-term interest. But at least nobody can accuse him of returning from Brussels with a piece of paper in his hand.

(Picture credit: AFP)

New Eurozone Deal Won't Include UK

David Cameron vetoed a series of financial regulations at EU talks, leaving the 17 eurozone countries to move forward on t

European leaders hammered out the new deal outside of the EU framework

Photo illustration by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.

After nearly 10 hours of talks in Brussels, European leaders agreed Friday to an intergovernmental pact aimed at enforcing more disciplined budgets in the wake of a debt crisis that has threatened the euro.

But the big news from the agreement, brokered by all 17 countries who use the euro as their currency (the eurozone), is that it will be done outside of the framework of the European Union after British Prime Minister David Cameron refused to sign on.

Cameron balked at joining the deal after a series of exceptions he demanded to safeguard British interests were blocked by France, the Guardian explains. Cameron defended his decision, saying, "What is on offer isn't in Britain's interests so I didn't agree to it."

The agreement and new rules are seen as necessary and urgent as the eurozone economy teeters on the brink of collapse. The crisis started in Greece two years ago, prompting huge bailouts, but with Italy and Spain in a troubled economic state, the crisis has worsened recently and the entire eurozone is now stagnant, if not already in a recession, CBS News and the New York Times explain.

Without some sort of stabilizing plan in place, the commitment of institutions like the European Central Bank to continue to purchase bonds from heavily indebted countries is questionable. ECB’s head Mario Draghi gave a promising response to the new agreement, saying: "It is a very good outcome for euro area members."

To attempt to stabilize the euro by forcing more fiscal and financial discipline, the 17 eurozone countries will hammer out a deal that includes penalties for those countries breaking the new rules. (Overspending countries will face sanctions, for example.) A handful of countries who hope to use the euro as their currency in the future will probably also sign, the BBC reports. The leaders are aiming to have the pact in effect by March of next year.

沈子涵/整理

　法新社倫敦10日報導，根據10日新出爐的民調，大多數英國人認為首相卡麥隆（David Cameron）本週在布魯塞爾高峰會上否決歐洲聯盟（EU）條約修訂案，是正確的抉擇。

　根據英國「週日郵報」（Mail on Sunday）調查，卡麥隆做法不但獲得疑歐派（eurosceptic）英國媒體讚賞，也贏得62%民眾支持，僅19%受訪者認為他做錯了。

　多達66%民眾希望公投表決英國是否退出歐盟，而認為倫敦當局應與布魯塞爾重新磋商雙邊關係的受訪者也占66%。卡麥隆所屬的保守黨（Conservative party）中早有許多人要求付諸公投決定去留歐盟。

　真正希望英國退出歐盟的受訪者較少，只有48%，33%希望留在歐盟。

　不過有48%民眾認為歐盟會因債務危機解散，29%認為不會；約65%民眾相信歐元會消失，僅19%認為歐元能度過危機。

　儘管歐盟廣泛認為卡麥隆動用否決權誤事，但51%英國受訪者覺得卡麥隆在歐盟峰會表現得宜，44%認為德國總理梅克爾（Angela Merkel）表現優異，35%讚賞法國總統沙柯吉（Nicolas Sarkozy）作為。

　這項Survation網路民調昨晚和今天進行，受訪者共1020人。

伊麗莎白二世時期白金漢宮的生活

2011-12-10T17:59:00.000-08:00

書名伊丽莎白二世时期白金汉宮的生活

出版者山东画报出版社, 2005
出版社：上海人民出版社：2007年

伊麗莎白二世時期白金漢宮的生活

自從伊麗莎白1952年登基以來，全世界都參與了王室精心上演的劇目︰婚禮、登基大典、喪葬、降生和受洗。華衣美食，豪宅名車，王室成員的衣食住行無不受到民眾的熱切關注。

作者以白金漢宮的日常生活為主線，娓娓道來，如同和讀者聊家常一般，從白金漢宮的歷史到它的建築、裝飾，從普通僕人到上等貴族，從一日三餐到國家儀式，涵蓋了溫莎家族的各個主要方面。本書作者從多角度詳細敘述了英王室生活的衣、食、住、行等主要方面，也深刻剖析了家族主要成員的背景及人物性格，如冷峻嚴肅的菲利浦親王，郁郁寡歡的查爾斯王儲，和藹可親的王太後和風流倜儻的威廉王子等。此時，一幅幅生動的生活畫卷、一個個栩栩如生的人物呈現在讀者的眼前。

詳細資料

叢書系列：日常生活譯叢
規格：平裝 / 288頁 / 15cmX23cm / 普級 / 單色 / 初版
出版地：大陸

引子
第一章導游
紅地毯
豪華、寧靜、休閑
王室套房
第二章女王的一天
女王生活的24小時
王室早餐
開始工作
王室的心腹
“管家”
來訪者
微笑！
建議、鼓勵、提醒
從溫斯頓‧邱吉爾到托尼‧布萊爾
王宮晚會
第三章請入席
王室宮殿
廚房
女王的飯菜
女王的午餐
盛宴
白金漢宮李子布丁
第四章為女王服務
“蜂箱”
身份
權勢集團
王太後之家
第五章過節
榮譽
舞會
聖誕快樂
活動日程
王室周年紀念
第六章王室的馬和狗
白金漢宮的女冠軍
賽馬
皇家馬廄
蘇珊、糖果、蜂蜜以及其他
第七章旅游
官方訪問
準確無誤的安排
馬拉松女人
不同尋常的交通方式
乘車！
第八章王室財富
例外的納稅人
絕倫的藝術品收藏
王室的寶石
溫莎堡的財富

白金漢宮股份有限公司
第九章王室儀式
皇家葬禮
歡樂的儀式
加冕禮
禮儀問題
第十章王室供應商
陛下的尊容
禮物？
第十一章王室安全
白金漢宮，還是鍍金鐵籠？
闖進女王寢宮的人
第十二章王室肖像
宮廷肖像畫家
理想主義與現實主義之間
攝影師之王
王室攝影師
“帕帕拉奇”
第十四章王太後與女王丈夫
女王媽媽
叛逆的親王
第十五章威爾士親王
王位繼承人
生態壬儲
王儲怎樣使自己的徽章重放異彩？
父親與兒子
第十六章戴安娜
純潔的化身
征服
世紀婚禮
威爾士囚犯
第十七章卡米拉
卡米拉其人
一個秘密的愛情故事
卡米拉行動
第十八章威廉與哈里
現代教育
爸爸查爾斯
超級明星威廉
第十九章威信與人氣
家族秘密
白金漢宮的歷史變遷
白金漢宮指南
譯後記

Victoria and Albert Museum

2011-12-10T16:37:00.000-08:00

V&A Home Page - Victoria and Albert Museum

www.vam.ac.uk/ - Cached

The Victoria and Albert Museum is the world's greatest museum of art and design.

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Cromwell Road London SW7 2RL, United Kingdom
020 7942 2000

Current exhibitions The current programme of major exhibitions in the V&A ...	Search the Collections Search over one million objects from the V&A Collections ...
Fashion Victoria and Albert Museum. The world's greatest museum of art ...	Getting here Information about travelling to the V&A by public transport, car ...
Opening times The Victoria and Albert Museum is open from 10.00 to 17.45 daily ...	Contact Us Victoria and Albert Museum. The world's greatest museum of art ...

Victoria and Albert Museum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_and_Albert_Museum - Cached
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A), set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, ...

V&A博物館續推新展館

【明報專訊】「當一個人厭倦倫敦，他其實已經嫌棄生命。（When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.）Samuel Johnson在1777年寫下的話，被重複引述無數次。大英帝國在18世紀邁進工業革命，海軍強盛，在世界各地擴張殖民地，國勢隆隆日上，倫敦自然充滿了新鮮事物與樂趣。來到21世紀，世界的balance of power雖然換了局面，可是，倫敦還是倫敦，不會讓人（尤其旅客）厭倦。

明年倫敦將舉辦奧運，改變與發展在所難免，運動場館所在地東倫敦區變化便特別大。其實，近年倫敦的發展，多集中在東面，因為倫敦中心的West End（所謂的西邊，是以中世紀倫敦的規模為標準，因西邊位處上風位，空氣較清新，所以是皇宮貴族的聚居地），古蹟與受保護建築特別多，限制了新發展。

東倫敦的蛻變，像Canary Wharf一帶的商業區，拔地而起的摩登高樓大廈群，無疑讓人眼前一亮，但其實倫敦「傳統」區域也在變化，只是它們的變化比較低調，外觀變動不大，不容易讓人察覺，但只要細加留意，變化還是悅目可觀的。像南肯辛頓（South Kensington），那是倫敦數一數二的高尚住宅區。因為1851年世博（Great Exhibition）空前成功，帶來可觀收入，原本杳無人居的大片土地被當局購入，發展教育及展覽館。所以如今，我們能找到Victoria and Albert Museum（簡稱V&A博物館）、科學館及自然歷史博物館，毗鄰左右而且高度集中此區。

衣服收藏豐富「西太后」研裁剪術

其中的V&A博物館，成立於1857年，歷史長逾150年。最初命名為South Kensington Museum，在1899年改名為Victoria and Albert博物館。V&A的藏品多樣化，除了油畫、雕塑等傳統藝術品外，還開創多項先河，包括世界第一家提供公共餐廳的博物館、藏有全世界第一張商業聖誕卡、首家博物館收藏相片等。當然，許多人更知道它的衣服收藏豐富，Vivienne Westwood當年便常常流連V&A，研習宮廷服的裁剪術。在2001年，博物館進行名為FuturePlan發展大計，並定位為世界最大的藝術及設計博物館（the world's greatest museum of art and design）。展館陸續登場，記者近幾年到訪，果然次次有新意，例如2008年開設了The William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery ，展出逾3000件珍貴珠寶。剛在今年10月24日，則新設了攝影廊（Photographs Gallery），展出了歷史上舉足輕重的攝影大師作品，包括Henri Cartier-Bresson、Man Ray、Irving Penn等等。據網站透露，明年博物館除了特展外，還繼續有新意，如加建家具館、時裝館等，總之，它讓你每次來參觀，都能帶來新面貌新啟發。

Heads Up

A Home for Hidden Treasures in London

Jonathan Player for The New York Times

An area of the “Renaissance City” gallery at the Victoria and Albert.

By PAM KENT

Published: January 22, 2010

WHEN it first opened in 1852, the stated mission of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London was to inspire designers, manufacturers and artists of the day. Now, with a brand-new set of galleries, the museum is hoping to inspire visitors by luring them back through the centuries.

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Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, Gothic altarpieces and a room devoted to the Italian master Donatello are among a feast of treasures on show at the 10 new Medieval and Renaissance galleries at the museum, known locally as the V & A. In all, more than 1,000 years of history — from the fall of the Roman Empire to the end of the Renaissance — are surveyed in the galleries, which span three floors and more than 35,000 square feet in the east wing of the museum.

Built at a cost of £31.75 million (about $50 million) over seven years, the galleries feature 1,800 pieces, shown both thematically and chronologically. The opening represents the completion of the first phase of the museum’s £120 million 10-year plan to refurbish and redisplay its entire collection.

The new galleries, which opened Dec. 2, include hundreds of previously unseen pieces, necessitating a great deal of conservation work and research. “Many of the pieces have not been on display for 25 or 30 years, either because they needed work or we didn’t have the space,” said Moira Gemmill, the museum’s director of projects.

For example, the museum’s 12th-century Romanesque Trie-Château stone window arches had been in storage since 1983 because “there wasn’t a location for it,” she said. Now the museum can take the extremely rare arcade and “weave it into the overall chronology.”

Explanatory labeling, which has purposely been kept to a minimum, is complemented by computer displays at which the visitor can interact with the collection (you can flip through those da Vinci notebooks, for example; at other screens visitors can find out more about the exhibits through text and images). “We wanted the objects to be the heroes,” Ms. Gemmill said. “We didn’t want them to be crowded with graphic, contextual interpretation.”

Other objects are partnered with audio. At the “Boar and Bear Hunt” tapestry, circa 1425-30, visitors can listen to the poet Simon Armitage reading a hunt-themed passage from the 14th-century narrative poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Elsewhere, the pairings are visual. At the heart of “The Renaissance City” gallery, a courtyard is evoked with a working fountain surrounded by dramatic sculptures.

In other presentations, the scale is decidedly smaller. In an area devoted to Renaissance style and living, a cabinet contains an array of drinking glasses. But only on close inspection can the viewer note the interesting quirks. A glass, circa 1570, features a windmill apparatus for a stem; the windmill is actually a whistle that, when blown, moves the hands of a clock at the back of the stem. The trick, apparently, was to drink while the clock spun. Failure to complete that task meant the drinker had to finish as many additional glasses as the remaining number on the clock.

Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL; 44-20-7942-2000; www.vam.ac.uk. Open Saturday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Free admission.

《十八世紀英國紳士的大旅遊》

2011-12-09T17:24:00.001-08:00

黃郁珺《十八世紀英國紳士的大旅遊》台北：唐山，2008

這本是輔仁大學的歷史所碩士論文的出版 (西洋史叢書的第二本)。還有很認真的學生在撰寫論文，並且有機會出版，是很可喜、可賀的事。論文處理的主題很重要和有趣，寫得也很用心。大旅遊的目的是教育，其實可能含蓋歐洲各名城和地方，所以我弄不清楚是否該包括希臘。無論如何，本書以義大利為主。

基本上，重要的英文和漢文文獻都提到了，似乎只有一夲書的書名前後不一：The Compleat Gentlemen (p.33) vs. The Complete Gentlemen (p.46) ；容易令人誤解的”public school” (現在多改稱為independent school)，作者用「公學」，而引張漢裕翻譯的《國富論》則採用錯誤的「公立學校」。不過這些是微不足道的小毛病。如果有索引，那就相當好了。

我只舉一小例說明作者的細心。118頁的注94中指出：「…..此處趙乾龍所譯歌德《意大利遊記》將privy 譯為「客房」，疑為「廁所」之誤植。…..」我們看哥德的上下文，知道英譯的屋外簡易廁所的privy ，比較合脈絡。妙的是，我查另外一本湖南文藝出版社(2006)的翻譯，也用「客房」。

這讓我想起吉川幸次郎的《漢武帝》中，引《漢書‧外戚傳》中說：衛子夫「於軒中得幸」。吉川先生引高木正一先生指出漢末的《釋名》說：「廁或曰軒」。

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This is London from dawn till night. 114 photos. by Cas Oorthuys. Text by Neville Braybrooke.

Published 1953 by B. Cassirer; distributed by Faber & Faber, London in Oxford . Written in English.

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This is London from dawn till night.
114 photos. by Cas Oorthuys. Text by Neville Braybrooke.

Published 1953 by B. Cassirer; distributed by Faber & Faber, London in Oxford .
Written in English.

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