British Birthdays
Graham Greene (10/02/1904 – 04/03/1991) - English writer ("His hilarity was like a scream from a crevasse.")
Robert Runcie (10/02/1921 – 07/11/2000) - English archbishop ("I sometimes think that Thomas Cook should be numbered among the secular saints. He took travel from the privileged and gave it to the people.")
Jan Morris (10/02/1926 –) - English writer ("(Travel seems) not just a way of having a good time, but something that every self-respecting citizen ought to undertake, like a high-fiber diet, say, or a deodorant.")
Sting (10/02/1951 –) - English bassist, singer (Police) ("When you're as rich as I am, you don't have to be political.")
Sir Peter B. Medawar (02/28/1915 – 10/02/1987) - Brazil-born British zoologist (same birth and death dates as Ernest Renan) ("I cannot give any scientist of any age better advice than this: the intensity of a conviction that a hypothesis is true has no bearing over whether it is true or not.")
Contributed by Anastasia Streltsova
Greene, Graham (1904-91). One of the most versatile, prolific, and popular writers of the mid-20th cent., Greene was born at Berkhamsted (Herts.), where his father was headmaster of the public school, and educated at Balliol College, Oxford. He converted to catholicism at the time of his marriage in 1927. Greene published a book of verse, Babbling April, in 1925, and followed with a historical novel, The Man Within, in 1929. Next he produced a series of thrillers (‘entertainments’) starting with Stamboul Train (1932) and continuing to The Third Man (1950), made into a remarkable film. Increasingly Greene explored the world of catholic guilt in Brighton Rock (1938), The Power and the Glory (1940), The Heart of the Matter (1948), and The End of the Affair (1951). His themes of ambiguity, betrayal, and seediness reflected and appealed to his own times.
ReplyDeleteGordon Matthew Thomas Sumner(born 2 October 1951), known by his stage name Sting, is a British musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, actor and philanthropist. Prior to starting his solo career, he was the principal songwriter, lead singer and bassist for the rock band The Police.
ReplyDeleteSting has varied his musical style throughout his career, incorporating distinct elements of jazz, reggae, classical, New Age, and worldbeat into his music.As a solo musician and member of The Police, Sting has received sixteen Grammy Awards for his work, receiving his first Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1981, three Brit Awards — winning Best British Male in 1994, a Golden Globe, an Emmy Award, and several Oscar nominations for Best Original Song. He is a member of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.