Latest news with #TracyChevalier
BBC News
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
University of Warwick to award eight honorary degrees
Eight honorary degrees are being awarded by a Coventry university to celebrate the achievements of inspirational degrees are being awarded as part of University of Warwicks's 60th anniversary journalist Clive Myrie, author Tracy Chevalier and YouTuber Colin Furze are among those selected for the accolade. The university said each person's story was chosen to help inspire the next generation of graduates. The full list of those set to receive an honorary degree from the university is below: Baroness Catherine Ashton (Hon DLitt)Baroness Catherine Ashton is a former UK Minister and the EU's first High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy between 2009 and was chancellor of the University of Warwick from 2017 to 2024 and its first female Chevalier FRSL (Hon DLitt)Tracy Chevalier is a bestselling novelist whose works include Remarkable Creatures, The Last Runaway, and Girl with a Pearl Earring, which was adapted into a major Hollywood is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has served as chair of the UK Society of Authors and president of the Royal Literary Myrie (Hon DLitt)Clive Myrie is a BBC journalist and broadcaster who joined the BBC's graduate journalism programme in 1987. He has reported from over 80 countries, covering major conflicts, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Gaza. Since 2009, he has been a BBC news presenter and, since 2021, he has hosted Furze (Hon DSc)Colin Furze is a British inventor and YouTuber known for his imaginative engineering builds, including a hover bike, underground bunker, and world-record-breaking trained as a plumber, his projects include the world's longest motorcycle, a 71-mph mobility scooter and a motorised pram. The university will recognise the individuals during graduation ceremonies. Talan Skeels-Piggins (Hon DLitt)Talan Skeels-Piggins is a Paralympian, motorcycle racer and former Royal Navy a spinal injury in 2003, Talan captained a county-winning hockey team, represented Cornwall in hockey and windsurfing, and served as a Royal Navy Lieutenant with deployments worldwide. After his injury, he competed in alpine skiing for Great Britain at the 2010 Winter Paralympics and became the first paraplegic to race in an able-bodied motorcycle race. Dr Gemma Tetlow (Hon DSc)Dr Gemma Tetlow is Chief Economist at the Institute for Government and a Warwick alumni with a BSc and MSc in Economics. She earned her PhD from University College London. Her career includes senior roles at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and as economics correspondent at the Financial Urban (Hon DLitt)Mark Urban is a British journalist, military historian, and author with over 30 years' experience reporting on international conflict and diplomacy. A former Royal Tank Regiment officer, he was diplomatic editor for BBC Two's Newsnight until May 2024 and now writes for The Sunday Times specialising in defence and foreign Ekaterina Zhuravskaya (Hon DSc)Professor Ekaterina Zhuravskaya is an economist at the Paris School of Economics and EHESS, and co-editor of the American Economic Review. Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Business Mayor
15-05-2025
- Business Mayor
The best seats on every train and the spots to pick for a quiet journey
BUSY trains are a nightmare for everyone, but there are some tricks to minimise noise and bagging the best seat. A train conductor for London Northwestern Railway knows all the insider secrets on how to have the most comfortable journey – here they are. 4 A train conductor from London Northwestern Railway has revealed top tips Credit: Alamy 4 Using an online tool 'how busy is my train' can help you avoid crowds Credit: Alamy Most of the time all anyone wants on a train is to find a quiet spot, sit back and relax, and one hack to help with that is the 'how busy is my train' tool. All you have to do is enter your departure station, destination, date, and time. Then you'll be able to find out how busy, or quiet, your train is predicted to be. The calculations are based on the average demand on a typical day, and are split into 'quiet', 'moderate', 'busy', and 'standing expected' levels. The tool even highlights the exact parts of the journey that fall under each category. So when you're struggling to decide on a time to set off, this tool will tell you exactly which slot offers the best chance at finding a seat. And it's not just London Northwestern Railway, other train companies have it too. When the train is guaranteed to be busy, it's suggested you head to either end of the platform. Typically, the middle carriages of a train are always the most popular especially if there are large groups onboard. Read More Venice without the crowds: the inside story by Tracy Chevalier If you want to go further down the platform and aim for the end carriages, there's likely to be fewer people and less noise. New £18m Scots train station near Glasgow set to open next year 4 Try and avoid the four seaters if you're after peace and quiet Credit: Alamy Once you've picked a carriage, next comes picking your seat. The advice is to choose a seat away from the toilets or amenities as they are likely to be in use by passengers throughout the journey. Also try not to sit too near the train doors where people will be getting on and off, or standing up to chat, if you don't want to be distracted. The four seater arrangement might be tempting because it usually has legroom, but London Northwestern Railway warns solo passengers to steer clear. The larger seats with tables are a hotspot for larger groups usually of friends or family who will undoubtedly be talking. So if you're looking for a quiet journey, follow these tips and they should help. Sun Travel also discovered a major train hack that allows you to hop-on and hop-off a train to see different destinations with just one ticket. And a little-known trick that could save you hundreds when travelling to Europe by train.
The Guardian
03-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
‘Meta has stolen books': authors to protest in London against AI trained using ‘shadow library'
Authors and other publishing industry professionals will stage a demonstration outside Meta's London office today in protest of the organisation's use of copyrighted books to train artificial intelligence. Novelists Kate Mosse and Tracy Chevalier as well as poet and former Royal Society of Literature chair Daljit Nagra will be among those in attendance outside the company's King's Cross office. Protesters will meet at Granary Square at 1.30pm and a letter to Meta from the Society of Authors (SoA) will be hand-delivered at 1.45pm. It will also be sent to Meta headquarters in the US. Earlier this year, a US court filing alleged that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg approved the company's use of a notorious 'shadow library', LibGen, which contains more than 7.5 million books. Last month, the Atlantic republished a searchable database of the titles contained in LibGen, through which many authors discovered their works may have been used to train Meta's AI models. SoA chair Vanessa Fox O'Loughlin characterised Meta's actions as 'illegal, shocking, and utterly devastating for writers'. 'A book can take a year or longer to write. Meta has stolen books so that their AI can reproduce creative content, potentially putting these same authors out of business,' she added. A spokesperson from Meta said: 'We respect third-party intellectual property rights and believe our use of information to train AI models is consistent with existing law.' Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion A group of prominent authors including Mosse, Richard Osman, Kazuo Ishiguro and Val McDermid recently signed an SoA letter addressed to culture secretary Lisa Nandy, asking for Meta executives to be summoned to parliament. The statement was published on as a petition which has since garnered 7,000 signatures. 'I was horrified to see that my novels were on the LibGen database and I'm disgusted by the government's silence on the matter,' said novelist AJ West, who is leading today's protest. 'To have my beautiful books ripped off like this without my permission and without a penny of compensation then fed to the AI monster feels like I've been mugged.' A court filing made in January by a group of authors suing Meta for copyright infringement in the US – which includes Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jacqueline Woodson, Andrew Sean Greer, Junot Díaz and the comedian Sarah Silverman – claimed that company executives, including Zuckerberg, were aware that LibGen is a database believed to contain pirated material when they allowed its use. Authors are 'rightly up in arms', said SoA chief executive Anna Ganley. 'The fact that these online libraries of pirated books continue to exist is bad enough, but when global companies use them to unlawfully access and exploit authors' copyright-protected works, it is a double blow for authors.' Demonstrators are encouraged to make placards, and the SoA has suggested several protest hashtags: #MetaBookThieves, #DoTheWriteThing and #MakeItFair.
