January 31

Phil Manzanera (born Philip Geoffrey Targett-Adams, 31 January 1951, London, England) is a musician and record producer. He is the lead guitarist with Roxy Music. In 2006 Manzanera co-produced David Gilmour's album On an Island and played in Gilmour's band for tours in Europe and North America. He wrote and presented a series of 14 one-hour radio programmes for station Planet Rock entitled The A-Z of Great Guitarists and his instrumental album, Firebird V11, was released in 2008.

Grant Morrison, MBE (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and countercultural leanings in his runs on titles including DC Comics' Animal Man,  Action Comics, All-Star Superman, and Batman, and Marvel Comics' New X-Men and Fantastic Four.

James Sutton (born James Cook, 31 January 1983) is an English television actor, best known for playing the parts of John Paul McQueen in the British Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks and Ryan Lamb in the ITV soap Emmerdale.

January 30

Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for English progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist. Collins sang the lead vocals on several chart hits in the United Kingdom and the United States between 1976 and 2010, either as a solo artist or with Genesis. His singles, sometimes dealing with lost love, ranged from the drum-heavy "In the Air Tonight", dance pop of "Sussudio", piano-driven "Against All Odds", to the political statements of "Another Day in Paradise". Collins's professional music career began as a drummer, originally in a band called The Real Thing with Andrea Bertorelli, who later became his first wife. Collins played drums and shared lead vocals (with Brian Chatton) in Flaming Youth which recorded one album, (Ark II). In 1970, he took over drums for Genesis, which had already recorded two albums. In Genesis, Collins originally supplied backing vocals for front man Peter Gabriel, singing lead on only two songs: "For Absent Friends" from 1971's Nursery Cryme album and "More Fool Me" from Selling England by the Pound, which was released in 1973. Following Gabriel's departure in 1975, Collins became the group's lead singer.

Christian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in blockbuster films and smaller projects from independent producers and art houses. Bale first caught the public eye at the age of 14, when he was cast in the starring role of Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun (1987). Based on the original story by J. G. Ballard, Bale played an English boy who is separated from his parents and subsequently finds himself lost in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. In 2000, he garnered critical acclaim for his portrayal of serial killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. He earned a reputation as a method actor after he lost 63 pounds to play the role of Trevor Reznik in the 2004 film The Machinist.

Peter James Crouch is an English footballer who plays for Premier League club Stoke City as a striker. He was capped 42 times by England national team from 2005 to 2010. Crouch started his career as a trainee with Tottenham Hotspur. He failed to make an appearance for Spurs and after loan spells at Dulwich Hamlet and Swedish club IFK Hässleholm he joined Queens Park Rangers. QPR were relegated at the end of the 2000–01 season and Portsmouth stepped in and paid £1.5 million for Crouch. He had a good season at Fratton Park and after scoring 19 goals he joined Aston Villa in March 2002 for £5 million. He did not have a good spell at Villa and was loaned out to Norwich City in 2003 before making a move to Southampton where he re-gained his form and was signed by Liverpool in July 2005. At Liverpool, Crouch enjoyed considerable success winning the FA Community Shield and FA Cup in 2006 and also gained a runner-up medal in the 2007 UEFA Champions League Final. After scoring 42 goals in three season at Anfield Portsmouth re-signed him for £11 million and he forged an effective partnership with Jermain Defoe. He spent just one season at Portsmouth and left for Tottenham Hotspur where he again linked up with Defoe and Harry Redknapp. He scored a vital goal for Tottenham against Manchester City which earned the club a place in the UEFA Champions League. He scored seven goals in ten European matches for Spurs in 2010–11, but was unable to replicate this form in the Premier League. He joined Stoke City on 31 August 2011 for a club record fee of £10 million. In his first season with Stoke he scored 14 goals and won the club's player of the year award.

January 29

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine (January 29, 1737 [1] (NS February 9, 1737) – June 8, 1809) was an English-American political activist, author, political theorist and revolutionary. As the author of two highly influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution, he inspired the American Patriots in 1776 to declare independence from Britain. His ideas reflected Enlightenment era rhetoric of transnational human rights. He has been called "a corsetmaker by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination."

Born in Thetford, England, in the county of Norfolk, Paine emigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 with the help of Benjamin Franklin and he arrivied in time to participate in the American Revolution.

Paine lived in France for most of the 1790s, becoming deeply involved in the French Revolution. He wrote the Rights of Man (1791), in part a defense of the French Revolution against its critics. His attacks on British writer Edmund Burke led to a trial and conviction in absentia in 1792 for the crime of seditious libel.  In 1802, he returned to America where he died on June 8, 1809. Only six people attended his funeral as he had been ostracized for his ridicule of Christianity.

Linda Smith (comedian)

Linda Helen Smith (29 January 1958 – 27 February 2006) was a British stand-up comic and comedy writer. She appeared regularly on Radio 4 panel games, and was voted "Wittiest Living Person" by listeners in 2002. She met her partner, Warren Lakin, at university, and they were together for nearly 30 years until her death.

Life and career

Smith was born in Erith in Kent in 1958 and was educated at Erith College (now Bexley College) and at the University of Sheffield where she graduated in English and Drama. She joined a professional theatre company before turning to comedy. In 1987, she won the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year, then known as the New London Comic Award, and performed on the Edinburgh Fringe before breaking into radio comedy.

Her first appearances on national radio were on Radio 5's The Treatment in 1997. She was subsequently a regular panellist on The News Quiz and Just a Minute and appeared frequently on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (from June 2001 onwards).

On the 17 November 2003, Smith appeared on the BBC television show Room 101, where she successfully managed to put in Adults who read Harry Potter books, Tim Henman, 'Back to School' signs that appear in shops and Posh People. However, she failed to put in Bow ties after host Paul Merton pointed out that Stan Laurel regularly wore a bow tie.

January 28

Richard Clifford 'Dick' Taylor (born 28 January 1943) is an English musician who was an early bass guitarist for The Rolling Stones. He left to become an art student at Sidcup Art College and while there formed The Pretty Things in September 1963. Taylor now lives on the Isle of Wight, England.

Frank Skinner (born Christopher Graham Collins on 28 January 1957 in West Bromwich) is a British writer, comedian and actor. He is best known for his television presenting, often alongside David Baddiel, with whom he also collaborated for the football song "Three Lions."

He is a radio presenter on the Saturday morning slot on Absolute Radio.

Jessica Ennis, MBE (born 28 January 1986) is a British track and field athlete specialising in multi-eventing disciplines and 100 metres hurdles. A member of the City of Sheffield Athletic Club, she is the current Olympic heptathlon champion. She is also the former European and world heptathlon champion and the former world indoor pentathlon champion. She is the current British national record holder for the heptathlon, the indoor pentathlon, the high jump and the 100 metres hurdles.

January 27

Alexander Stuart is a British-born, Los Angeles-based novelist and screenwriter.

Stuart's books include The War Zone, Tribes, Life On Mars (which inspired the British television documentary, The End of America),Five And A Half Times Three (written with Ann Totterdell, about the death from cancer of their five-and-a-half-year-old son, Joe Buffalo Stuart), and the children's books, Joe, Jo-Jo And The Monkey Masks and Henry And The Sea (written with Joe Buffalo Stuart). Stuart's books have been translated into eight languages and published in the United States, Britain, Europe, and Israel.

Rosamund Mary Elizabeth Pike (born 27 January 1979) is an English actress. Her film roles include Bond girl Miranda Frost inDie Another Day, Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, Helen in An Education, Lisa in Made in Dagenham, Miriam Grant-Panofsky in Barney's Version, Kate Sumner in Johnny English Reborn and Andromeda in Wrath of the Titans.

January 26

Jill Esmond (26 January 1908 – 28 July 1990) was an English actress and first wife of Laurence Olivier.
In 1928 she appeared in the production of Bird in the Hand where she met fellow cast member Laurence Olivier for the first time. In his autobiography Olivier later wrote that he was smitten with Esmond, and that her cool indifference to him did nothing but further his ardour. When Bird in the Hand was being staged on Broadway, Esmond was chosen to join the American production - but Olivier was not.

Determined to be near Esmond, he travelled to New York where he found work as an actor. Esmond won rave reviews for her performance. Olivier continued to follow Esmond, and after proposing to her several times, she agreed and the couple were married on 25 July 1930; they had one son, Tarquin Olivier (born 21 August 1936), who later became a film producer.

Returning to the United Kingdom she made her film debut with a starring role in an early Alfred Hitchcock film The Skin Game (1931), and over the next few years appeared in several British and (pre-Code) Hollywood films, including Thirteen Women (1932). She also appeared in two Broadway productions with Olivier, Private Lives in 1931 with Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence, and The Green Bay Tree in 1933.

Her career continued to ascend while Olivier's own career languished, but when his career began to show promise after a couple of years, she began to refuse roles. She had been promised a role by David O. Selznick in A Bill of Divorcement (1932) but at only half-salary. Meanwhile, Olivier discovered that Katharine Hepburn had been proposed a much greater salary, and convinced Esmond to turn down the role.

Layla Kayleigh (born 26 January 1984) is a British-American TV personality who used to host The Feed segment of G4's Attack of the Show! and co-hosts MTV's America's Best Dance Crew where she is the backstage correspondent.
In addition to once hosting MTV2 in Britain and ABC's football halftime show, Kayleigh was once a correspondent for Al Gore's Current TV .She has appeared on the MTV show Punk'd. She was the main host of "The Feed" segment of Attack of the Show! on G4, as well as shortened versions of "The Feed" during the network's commercial breaks. Kayleigh has been on The Best Damn Sports Show Period on Fox Sports Net, and also reporting on all the entertainment/sports news on the Vegas Insider. Kayleigh was also a guest on the Fox News Channel show "Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld". Kayleigh has started a video blog, with each entry posted onto her MySpace page and official website.
On May 23, 2007, the World Poker Tour announced that she would be their hostess for Season Six. Kayleigh is featured on the cover of the July–August 2007 issue of Gambling.com, and the August issue of Bluff Magazine.
Kayleigh is a co-host on America's Best Dance Crew on MTV as their on the road correspondent looking for talent in the different cities. The show, which features Mario Lopez as host premiered on January 26, 2008 with a live casting special and began its first season on February 7, 2008 with Kayleigh as backstage correspondent interviewing the bottom two crews. Season 2 of America's Best Dance Crew started on June 19 on MTV. Season 3 of America's Best Dance Crew premiered on January 15, 2009 on MTV.
On the March 16, 2009, episode of "Attack of the Show!", Kayleigh announced that she would be leaving G4.
On May 7 and May 27, 2010, Kayleigh appeared as a member of the Great American Panel on Hannity. She is now a correspondent for the TV Guide Network.
She was listed number 33 and number 88 on AskMen.com's top 99 women in 2008 and 2011 edition, respectively.
She recently appeared in lingerie for a PETA ad campaign protesting the use of animals in product-testing experiments.

Paul the Octopus (26 January 2008 – 26 October 2010) was a common octopus from Weymouth, England. Paul lived in a tank at a commercial attraction, the Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, Germany and became internationally famous after his feeding behaviour was used to correctly predict the winner of each of the Germany national football team's seven matches in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, as well as the outcome of the final.

The prediction process was designed so that Paul was presented with two boxes containing food in the form of a mussel, each box marked on the outside with the flag of a national football team in a forthcoming match. His choice of which mussel to eat first was interpreted as indicating his prediction of a win for the country whose flag was on that box. Selections by the octopus were correct in four of Germany's six Euro 2008 matches, and were correct in all seven of their matches in the 2010 World Cup. The octopus also correctly selected a win for Spain against the Netherlands in the World Cup Final on 11 July by eating the mussel in the box with the Spanish flag on it.These predictions were 100% (8/8) correct for the World Cup and 86% (12/14) correct overall.

Paul the Octopus was retired after the 2010 World Cup, and died the following October.

Most news sources reported Paul having made predictions for both Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup. However, the keeper at the aquarium has been reported as saying that this was not the same octopus.

January 25

Dydd Santes Dwynwen (Welsh for St Dwynwen's Day) is considered to be the Welsh equivalent to Valentine's Day and is celebrated on 25 January every year. It celebrates Dwynwen: she is the Welsh saint of love. Throughout Wales, children and adults make cards to give each other in a celebration of their love, or sometimes anonymously to entice the other person into love. Much of Welsh history is based on stories and songs which were traditionally passed on by word of mouth. As such, the original tale has become mixed with elements of folktales and Celtic stories.
 

A Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, author of many Scots poems. The suppers are normally held on or near the poet's birthday, 25 January, sometimes also known as Robert Burns Day or Burns Night (Scots: Burns Nicht), although they may in principle be held at any time of the year. Burns suppers are most common in Scotland and Northern Ireland but occur wherever there are Burns Clubs, Scottish Societies, expatriate Scots, or aficionados of Burns' poetry. There is a particularly strong tradition of them in southern New Zealand's main city Dunedin, of which Burns' nephew Thomas Burns was a founding father.

January 24

Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset and 1st Earl of Middlesex (24 January 1638 – 29 January 1706) was an English poet and courtier.
He bore his share in the excesses for which Sir Charles Sedley and Lord Rochester were notorious. In 1662 he and his brother Edward, with three other gentlemen, were indicted for the robbery and murder of a tanner named Hoppy. The defence was that they were in pursuit of thieves, and mistook Hoppy for a highwayman. They appear to have been acquitted, for when in 1663 Sir Charles Sedley was tried for a gross breach of public decency in Covent Garden, Sackville, who had been one of the offenders, according to Samuel Pepys was asked by the Lord Chief Justice "whether he had so soon forgot his deliverance at that time, and that it would have more become him to have been at his prayers begging God's forgiveness than now running into such courses again."

Something in his character made his follies less obnoxious to the citizens than those of the other rakes, for he was never altogether unpopular, and Rochester is said to have told Charles II that "he did not know how it was, my Lord Dorset might do anything, yet was never to blame". In 1665 he volunteered to serve under the Duke of York in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. His famous song, To all you ladies now at Land, was written, according to Prior, on the night before the victory gained over foggy Opdam off Harwich (3 June 1665). Dr Johnson, with the remark that seldom any splendid story is wholly true, says that the Earl of Orrery had told him it was only retouched on that occasion.

In 1667 Pepys laments that Sackville had lured Nell Gwyn away from the theatre, and that with Sedley the two kept merry house at Epsom. Next year the king was paying court to Nell, and her Charles the Second, as she called him (Charles Hart, a former lover, being her Charles the First), was sent on a sleeveless errand into France to be out of the way. In 1678 he narrowly escaped death at the hands of the deranged Earl of Pembroke, with whom he was engaged in a lawsuit.

His gaiety and wit secured the continued favour of Charles II, but did not especially recommend him to James II, who could not, moreover, forgive Dorset's lampoons on his mistress, Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester. On James's accession, therefore, he retired from court. He concurred in the invitation to William of Orange, who made him a Privy Counsellor, Lord Chamberlain (1689), and Knight of the Garter (1692). During William's absences in 1695–1698 he was one of the Lord Chief Justices of the Realm. In 1699 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society

He was a generous patron of men of letters. When Dryden was dismissed from the laureateship, he made him an equivalent pension from his own purse. Matthew Prior, in dedicating his Poems on Several Occasions (1709) to Dorset's son, affirms that his opinion was consulted by Edmund Waller; that the Duke of Buckingham deferred the publication of his Rehearsal until he was assured that Dorset would not rehearse upon him again; and that Samuel Butler and Wycherley both owed their first recognition to him. Prior's praise of Dorset is no doubt extravagant, but when his youthful follies were over he appears to have developed sterling qualities, and although the poems he has left are very few, none of them are devoid of merit. Dryden's Essay on Satire and the dedication of the Essay of Dramatick Poesie are addressed to him. Walpole (Catalogue of Noble Authors, iv.) says that he had as much wit as his first master, or his contemporaries Buckingham and Rochester, without the royal want of feeling, the duke's want of principles or the earl's want of thought; and Congreve reported of him when he was dying that he slabbered more wit than other people had in their best health.

Julian Miles "Jools" Holland, OBE, DL (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, and television presenter. He was a founder of the band Squeeze and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, George Harrison, David Gilmour, Magazine and Bono.

Holland is a published author and appears on television shows besides his own and contributes to radio shows. In 2004, he collaborated with Tom Jones on an album of traditional R&B music. He currently hosts Later... with Jools Holland, a music-based show aired on BBC2, on which his annual show Hootenanny is based. He also regularly hosts the weekly program Jools Holland on BBC Radio 2, which is a mix of live and recorded music and general chat, and features studio guests, along with members of his Orchestra.

Jade Louise Ewen (born 24 January 1988) is an English singer, songwriter, actress and member of the Sugababes. Ewen began her singing career in a girl group named Trinity Stone signed to Sony BMG in 2005, but they disbanded in 2007 with no album released. In 2009, she represented the UK at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest performing the Andrew Lloyd Webber penned "It's My Time" after winning the UK national selection. She achieved fifth place, making her the most successful British Eurovision act since 2002.

Ewen replaced Keisha Buchanan of the Sugababes in September 2009 and has since attained two UK top-ten singles with the group and one album Sweet 7; the band have been on hiatus since 2011 with a new album planned for release some point in 2013.

January 23

Alister Edgar McGrath (born 23 January 1953) is an Irish theologian, priest, intellectual historian and Christian apologist, currently Professor of Theology, Ministry, and Education at Kings College London and Head of the Centre for Theology, Religion and Culture. He was previously Professor of Historical Theology at the University of Oxford, and was principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford until 2005. He has also taught at Cambridge University. 

Lisa Snowdon (born 23 January 1972) is an English fashion model, television personality and presenter. She was the host of the reality television show Britain's Next Top Model from 2006 until 2009. She currently co-presents Capital Breakfast on Capital London.

January 22

Birthdays

'George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, later George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was a British poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. Among Byron's best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and the short lyric "She Walks in Beauty." 

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St. Alban (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Although his political career ended in disgrace, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution.

January 21

David Paul Scofield CH CBE (21 January 1922 – 19 March 2008), better known as Paul Scofield, was an English actor of stage and screen. Noted for his distinctive voice and delivery, Scofield received an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for his performance as Sir Thomas More in the 1966 film A Man for All Seasons, a reprise of the role he played in the stage version at the West End and on Broadway for which he received a Tony Award.

Alfred Hawthorne Hill, better known by his stage name Benny Hill (21 January 1924– 20 April 1992) was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.
Between the end of the Second World War and the dawn of the popularity of television with the British public, Hill worked as a radio performer. His first appearance on television was in 1950. In addition, he attempted a sitcom anthology, Benny Hill, which ran from 1962 to 1963, in which he played a different character in each episode. In 1964, he played Nick Bottom in an all-star TV film production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. He also had a short-lived radio programme, Benny Hill Time, on BBC Radio's Light Programme from 1964 to 1966.
Benny Hill's film credits include parts in nine films including Who Done It? (1956); Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965); Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), in which he played the relatively straight role of the Toymaker; The Italian Job (1969); and, finally, a clip-show film spin-off of his early Thames TV shows (1969–73), called The Best of Benny Hill (1974). Hill's audio recordings include Gather in the Mushrooms, (1961), Pepys' Diary (song), (1961), Transistor Radio (1961), Harvest of Love (1963), and Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West) (1971). He also appeared in the 1986 video of the song Anything She Does by the band Genesis. Hill's song, Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West), on the Best of Benny Hill album, was the UK Singles Chart Christmas number one single in 1971



Robert Del Naja (pron. /ˈrɒbə(r)t dɛl ˈnaʒa/; born 21 January 1966), also known as 3D, is an English artist and musician. Initially gaining notoriety as a graffiti artist and member of the Bristol collective known as "The Wild Bunch", Del Naja went on to become a founding member of the band Massive Attack, where he is still active.
Del Naja is one of the founding members of Bristol trip-hop collective Massive Attack, who have released 5 studio albums and 2 compilation albums, and has often featured as a vocalist on their releases. In addition to his work with Massive Attack, he provided vocals to "Invasion" on UNKLE's album Never, Never, Land, and "Twilight" on War Stories.

January 20

St Agnes's Eve 20 January

This was the day on which girls and unmarried women who wished to dream of their future husbands would perform certain rituals before going to bed. These included transferring pins one by one from a pincushion to their sleeve whilst reciting the Lord's Prayer, or abstaining from food and drink all day, walking backwards up the stairs to bed, and eating a portion of dumb cake ( previously prepared with a group of friends in total silence and often containing an unpleasantly large portion of salt) before lying down to sleep.

First Parliament
20 January 1265

The first English Parliament called by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester in the reign of King Henry III, met in the hall at Westminster on 20 January 1265.

Although councils of great landholders had been held earlier, this was the first in which the Commons were represented; there being present two knights from each country and two citizens for each borough. Ever since the Commons have had their share in matters of state.

What does the word Parliament mean?

The word Parliament means an event arranged to talk and discuss things, from the French word "parler".

Parliament Today

The two Houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (the House of Lords and the House of Commons) are based at Houses of Parliament (also known as the Palace of Westminster), in London.

January 19

John Weldon (19 January 1676 – 7 May 1736) was an English composer.

Born at Chichester in the south of England, he was educated at Eton, where he was a chorister, and later received musical instruction from Henry Purcell. By 1694 Weldon had been appointed organist of New College in Oxford and became well known in the musical life of that city, writing music for masques as well as performing his organist duties.
Some believe he set Shakespeare's play The Tempest to music in 1695, although others attribute that to Henry Purcell.
Weldon moved to London and in 1701 took part in a competition to set Congreve's libretto The Judgement of Paris to music. Perhaps surprisingly, Weldon's setting was chosen over contributions by his older, more experienced and better-known competitors, Daniel Purcell (younger brother of Henry), John Eccles and Godfrey Finger. Even more curiously, Purcell's and Eccles's scores were later published by John Walsh. Weldon's however was not and remains in manuscript, though the lack of recognition of his relatively new name may also have played a part.There is some evidence to suggest that the judges of the competition were not entirely impartial, however it has also been suggested that Weldon's setting was considered less old fashioned than his somewhat older contemporaries.In the same year as the competition, Weldon was made a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal.

Having established his reputation in London, Weldon continued for some years to write music for the theatre. Music for The Tempest, until the mid 1960s believed to have been composed by Henry Purcell, was in all probability written by Weldon for the Drury Lane Theatre, in 1712.Weldon's musical style owes much to Purcell's influence but is more Italianate and also embraces the 'modern' French styles and forms that were becoming increasingly popular at the time.

John Weldon devoted the latter part of his life almost exclusively to the duties of the Chapel Royal and to writing church music. He succeeded John Blow (1649-1708) as Chapel Royal organist, and in 1715 was made second composer under William Croft (1678-1727). He wrote six anthems for the tenor Richard Elford. From 1714, Weldon also held the post of organist at two London Churches, St Bride's, Fleet Street and St Martin-in-the-Fields. He died on 7 May 1736 and is buried in St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, London.

John Weldon's grandson Samuel Thomas Champnes would follow in his musical footsteps and become one of Handel's soloists. Many of their descendants were involved in the church and took the Weldon surname as their second name, often writing the music for hymns in the Ancient and Modern song book.

Nina Bawden CBE FRSL JP (19 January 1925 – 22 August 2012) was a British novelist and children's writer. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1987 and the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010. She is one of a select group to have both served as a Booker judge and made the shortlist as an author.
Some of Bawden's 55 books have been dramatised by BBC Children's television. Many have been published in translation.
Her novels include On the Run (1964), The Witch's Daughter (1966), The Birds on the Trees (1970), Carrie's War (1973), and The Peppermint Pig (1975). For the latter she won the 1976 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers.Carrie's War won the 1993 Phoenix Award from the Children's Literature Association as the best English-language children's book that did not a major contemporary award when it was originally published twenty years earlier. It is named for the mythical bird phoenix, which is reborn from its ashes, to suggest the book's rise from obscurity. (Bawden and Carrie's War had been a commended runner up for the Carnegie Medal in Literature from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.)
In 2010 Bawden and The Birds on the Trees made the shortlist for the Lost Man Booker Prize. Forty years earlier, the Booker-McConnell Prize for the year's best British novel had skipped 1970 publications. Bawden and Shirley Hazzard were the only living nominees out of the six shortlisted; the award went to J. G. Farrell for Troubles. In 2004, she was awarded the Golden PEN Award by English PEN for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature".

Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is a contemporary English writer. Barnes won the Man Booker Prize for his book The Sense of an Ending (2011), and three of his earlier books had been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: Flaubert's Parrot (1984), England, England (1998), and Arthur & George (2005). He has also written crime fiction under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh (his late wife's surname), though has published nothing under that name for more than twenty-five years. In addition to novels, Barnes has published collections of essays and short stories. He was selected as the recipient of the  2011 David Cohen Prize for Literature.

Barnes has also won several literary prizes in France, including the Prix Médicis for Flaubert's Parrot and the Prix Femina for Talking It Over. Previously an Officier of L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, in 2004 he became a Commandeur of L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His honors also include the Somerset Maugham Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Shakespeare Prize, the San Clemente literary prize, and the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He received the Europese Literatuurprijs in 2012.

January 18

                                                                    Birthdays

Anthony Giddens, Baron Giddens (born 8 January 1938) is a British sociologist who is known for his theory of structuration and his holistic view of modern societies. He is considered to be one of the most prominent modern sociologists, the author of at least 34 books, published in at least 29 languages, issuing on average more than one book every year. In 2007, Giddens was listed as the fifth most-referenced author of books in the humanities.

Richard Archer (born 18 January 1977 in Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey, England) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist, principal songwriter and main composer of indie rock band Hard-Fi. Hard-Fi have produced several top 10 hits and two #1 albums. The influence of Archer's hometown of Staines-upon-Thames is often evident in his lyrics. He used to front a band called Contempo from 1997 until 2001.

Robert Paul Green (born 18 January 1980) is an English footballer who plays for Queens Park Rangers as a goalkeeper . He has also played for the England national team. Green played over 200 times for both West Ham United where he spent 6 years and for Norwich City. He was a member of their 2003–04 First Division winning side. He has represented England at England U16, England U18, England B level and for the full England squad and represented them in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

January 17

                                                          Birthdays

 

 

Anne Brontë ( 17 January 1820 – 28 May 1849) was a British novelist and poet, the youngest member of the Brontë literary family.

The daughter of a poor Irish clergyman in the Church of England, Anne Brontë lived most of her life with her family at the parish of Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. For a couple of years she went to a boarding school. At the age of 19 she left Haworth and worked as a governess between 1839 and 1845. After leaving her teaching position, she fulfilled her literary ambitions. She wrote a volume of poetry with her sisters (Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, 1846) and two novels. Agnes Grey, based upon her experiences as a governess, was published in 1847. Her second and last novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which is considered to be one of the first sustained feminist novels, appeared in 1848. Anne's life was cut short when she died of pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 29.

Mainly because the re-publication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was prevented by Charlotte Brontë after Anne's death, she is less known than her sisters Charlotte, author of four novels including Jane Eyre, and Emily, author of Wuthering Heights. However her novels, like those of her sisters, have become classics of English literature.

 

 

Michael Kevin "Mick" Taylor (born 17 January 1949 in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire) is an English musician, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (1966–69) and The Rolling Stones (1969–74). "He is regarded by many Stones aficionados as the best musician ever to play with the band, and appeared on some of their classic albums including Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St.." Since resigning from the Rolling Stones in December 1974 Taylor began working with numerous other artists and has released solo albums. Taylor was listed in Rolling Stone magazine's 2012 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, ranked at 37th place.

 

 

Hollie-Jay Bowes (born Billie Jean Bowes, 17 January 1989) is an English recording artist and actress best known for her role as Michaela McQueen in Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks. Her parents changed her name from Billie Jean to Hollie Jean as her father thought she would get bullied at school and be called 'Billie Bowes', and at 13, she changed her name to Hollie-Jay. Her previous roles include Dawn O'Malley in CBBC's Grange Hill and she was also in The Courtroom and Basil Brush .

 

January 16

January 16, 2013

ü  1809 – Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña.

ü  1939 – The Irish Republican Army (IRA) begins a bombing and sabotage campaign in England

Births

ü  1245 – Edmund Crouchback, son of Henry III of England

ü  1501 – Anthony Denny, confidant of King Henry VIII of England

ü  1853 – Gen Sir Ian Hamilton, British military commander

ü  1872 – Edward Gordon Craig, English actor, producer, director and scenic designer

ü  1947 – Magdalen Nabb, British author

ü  1947 – Harvey Proctor, British politician

ü  1949 – Caroline Munro, British actress

ü  1961 – Paul Raven, English musician

ü  1962 – Paul Webb, British musician