Virginia Woolf, Hugh Walpole, the Hogarth Press, and the Book Society

This article explores the unlikely relationship and alliance between the novelists Virginia Woolf and Hugh Walpole. It examines the ways in which these typically highbrow and middlebrow writers influenced each others’ lives and work, and focuses in particular on the interactions between the Woolfs’ Hogarth Press and Walpole’s Book Society, the first book club to operate in Great Britain. The article uses a number of case studies drawn from the Hogarth Press archives to demonstrate how by the 1930s, the Hogarth Press was much more commercial in its operations and pursuits of reading markets than is often recognized.

Prizes for modernity in the provinces: The Arts Council’s 1950-1951 regional playwriting competition

As part of its contribution to the 1951 Festival of Britain, the Arts Council ran what can be seen in retrospect to be an important playwriting competition. Disregarding the London stage entirely, it invited regional theatres throughout the UK to put forward nominations for new plays within their repertoire for 1950-1951. Each of the five winning plays would receive, what was then, the substantial sum of £100. Originality and innovation featured highly amongst the selection criteria, with 40 per cent of the judges’ marks being awarded for “interest of subject matter and inventiveness of treatment”. This article will assess some of the surprising outcomes of the competition and argue that it served as an important nexus point in British theatrical historiography between two key moments in post-war Britain: the first being the inauguration of the Festival of Britain in 1951, the other being the debut of John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger in May 1956. The article will also argue that the Arts Council’s play competition was significant for two other reasons. By circumventing the London stage, it provides a useful tool by which to reassess the state of new writing in regional theatre at the beginning of the 1950s and to question how far received views of parochialism and conservatism held true. The paper will also put forward a case for the competition significantly anticipating the work of George Devine at the English Stage Company, which during its early years established a reputation for itself by heavily exploiting the repertoire of new plays originally commissioned by regional theatres. This article forms part of a five year funded Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project, ‘Giving Voice to the Nation: The Arts Council of Great Britain and the Development of Theatre and Performance in Britain 1945-1994’. Details of the Arts Council’s archvie, which is housed at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London can be found at http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/wid/ead/acgb/acgbf.html Keywords: Arts Council of Great Britain, regional theatre, playwriting, Festival of Britain, English Stage Company (Royal Court) , Yvonne Mitchell

En retorisk analys av Fahrenheit 9/11 ur ett dokumentärhistoriskt perspektiv

The history of rhetorics in documentary film is a long one. The French brothers Louise and Auguste Lumiére were among the first persons who produced a documentary and their work has had a big impression in the history of documentary during the 1900 century. John Grierson has been called “the father” of documentary film. He produced films in the English speaking part of the world and he is the founder of the concept “documentary film”. Propaganda filming has a big part in the history of documentary film. Most frequently it appeard in Germany before and during the secound WW II, but propaganda films has been produced in Great Britain and USA as well as in other parts of the world. Rhetorics are of current interest today. It effects the news, papers, magazines, books and movies. The purpose with this essay is to investigate the rhetorics in Michael Moores controversial documentary of September 11th, Fahrenheit 9/11. The main question is: what rhetorical tools does Michael Moore use in order to communicate his politcal message in Fahrenheit 9/11? The rhetorical analysis includes exordium, narratio, propsitio, argumentatio and conclusio as well as ethos, logos and pathos. In order to conduct the analysis I have used Kurt Johannesson’s book Retorik eller konsten att övertyga, Maria Karlberg and Brigitte Mral’s book Heder och påverkan. Att analysera modern retorik. And at last a chapter by Brigitte Mral named Retorikanalys in the book Metoder i kommunikationeverenskap, by Mats Ekström and Larsåke Larsson. For the background about the history of documentary film I have used Barsam M. Richard, Nonfiction Film A Critical History and Bjørn Sørenssen’s book Å fange virkeligheten –Dokumentarfilmens århundre.The analysis shows that Moore uses different rhetorical tools in order to point out that George W Bush is the wrong man for the role as the president of United States of America. Some of the most effective tools that Moores uses are his own voice, pictures who awakes emotions, recordings and sharp arguments. His way of using ethos, logos and pathos is very clear. The disposal can also be distinct discern, however there are some exceptions towards the classical rhetoric. One example is that Moore doesn´t describe the arrangement of the movie in exordium.

A displaced Britishness: Welsh Patagonians in Canada and Australia

This paper focuses on a unique group of British emigrants in their double migration experience from Wales to Patagonia in the second half of the nineteenth century and thence to Canada or Australia in the early twentieth. The history of the Welsh Patagonian settlements in the Chubut Valley of Argentina and the Andes foothills has been extensively documented. Less is known about the two subsequent migrations from Patagonia to Canada in 1902, and from Patagonia to Australia between 1910 and 1915. What distinguishes these movements is that, in each case, the settlers migrated as a group and placed a high priority on taking up adjoining land. In their three adopted countries they established discrete Welsh communities, some more enduring than others.

There is a general consensus that the initial move from Wales to Patagonia in 1865 was for nationalistic, cultural and linguistic reasons but for those who followed later, economic motives were more common. By the time of the migration from Patagonia to Canada in 1902, there was no illusion that Welsh nationalism could be preserved intact or autonomy guaranteed. Historians dispute the primary motivation for this particular move, some arguing that socio-economic and political factors in Patagonia were paramount, others that it resulted from inducements and political manoeuvrings from Canada and Great Britain. What is clear is the desire of the settlers to return to a country 'under a British flag'.

This paper addresses these issues relating to the Welsh Patagonian migration to Canada in the context of a comparison with the migration to Australia some years later. Such a comparative analysis has not previously been undertaken. Notions of identity and an erstwhile ‘Britishness’ are explored, in terms of the migrant’s sense of self and the political implications of citizenship, military service, reception and assimilation in the
host societies.

'The suffering members sympathise' : constructing the sympathetic self in the hymns of Charles Wesley

For the first time in history, this timely landmark volume brings together contributions from the leading scholars working on the life and work of Charles Wesley.

Commonsense, manners, guts' : 'manliness' in the English school story 1887-1917

[No Abstract]

Concepts and principles in unjust enrichment : a comparative study

The Thesis was inspired by a perceived need better to understand the unique description of unjust enrichment by the Australian courts, as a unifying legal concept. It demonstrates that concepts and principles are essential features of the common law because they identify the character and taxonomy of rules. The comparative study, encompassing Australian and English law primarily, and law of other jurisdictions, modern and ancient, elucidates the special characteristics of the concepts and principles of Anglo/Australian unjust enrichment and of concepts and principles generally. A like concept has had a place in the common law since its inception under several characterisations. It bears the mark of ancient Roman jurisprudence, but relates to independent principles. The jurisprudence was formed by special characteristics of its history. It is distinct from modern Roman/Dutch law but the doctrinal overtones of its foundational case law reflect the basis of reasoning which in Continental law, is found in the adopted ancient codes. It is this foundation of reasoning and the firm rejection of a normative general principle that makes Anglo/Australian law different in character and jurisprudence from unjust enrichment in USA and Canada. Stifled for centuries by quasi contract misconceptions, the law of unjust enrichment entered the modern law in the 20th C through the seminal judgements of Lord Wright in Fibrosa Spolka Akcyjna v Fairbairn Lawson Coombe Barbour Ltd, and related cases and through the strong judicial and juristic following they inspired. That “…any civilised system of law is bound to provide remedies for … unjust enrichment…” became an imperative across the common law world: it has long held a place in the Roman Dutch jurisdictions of South Africa and Continental Europe. The special character of unjust enrichment in Anglo/Australian law is focussed upon a unique action where-by the law imposes an obligation upon the establishment of a recognised ground. The notion of breach of a primary rule does not arise: the obligation is therefore a primary obligation imposed by law, as distinct from a remedy for a breach. Important consequences flow from the characteristic. The juristic development of unjust enrichment in the common law has long been the sole prerogative of the superior courts. The place of historical features of the jurisprudence has however been subsumed by modern judicial methodology that is slowly assuming a unifying pattern of reasoning from case to case; from one ground to another. This is the special characteristic of the unifying legal concept and English principle of unjust enrichment. The thesis draws widely based conclusions about concepts and principles of unjust enrichment and the actions and obligations they sponsor. It portrays them as the substance of legal reasoning and analyses underlying theory. to this end, it addresses counter juristic and historical arguments. Its central conclusion are that there are sound jurisprudential arguments for actions based upon a unifying legal concept and English principle of unjust enrichment, and that the explanation of the unjust enrichment concept as the foundation of an independent branch of the common law and taxonomy is theoretically sustainable. In this manner concepts and principles of the common law are demonstrated as critical characteristics of the common law at large.

Human nature in Hobbes's political thought

This study of Thomas Hobbes's political thought maintains that, in Hobbes's abstract and historically presented view, short-sighted and self-absorbed people engaged in war to their ultimate harm. In Hobbes's societal remedy, citizens submissively obeyed centralised rule. Their compliance, and detachment from the political process, satisfied their wish for peace.

Survey of a group of nineteenth and early twentieth century British millionaires : the influence of this wealth on their descendants

This study selected British wealth holders who died between 1858 and 1914 and registered probate values of over 1 million pounds. Their descendants were traced using an array of sources. These descendants generally consisted af a group of wealthy individuals in the upper few percent of wealth holders in the British community as indicated by their probate valuations. Generally the male descendants were wealthier, received a better education, and dominated in commerce and business activities.

Stock-in-trade valuation in the United Kingdom 1840 to 1959

Commentators have made a number of unsubstantiated claims about why the lower of cost and market rule had become the accepted method of valuation. It is demonstrated that none of these explanations can be substantiated. Leon Festinger's theory of "dissonance reduction" is used to explain why the significant criticisms of the rule have been ignored.

Spaces of empire : culture, discourse, and urban formation with particular reference to British Hong Kong, 1842-1914

Traces the ideological formations of British colonialism using the techniques of modern European cartography to examine the practices of spatial production in Hong Kong's capital city, Victoria. This examination demonstrates how notions of British cultural identity and self-representation were inscribed throughout the colonial urban environment by considering the ways in which the British colonial authorities sought to condition, control, and maintain the organisation of space.