Latest news with #biography
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Left-wing haters need a lesson in Thatcherism
Deputising for Charles Moore in these pages from time to time is more than enough to make my imposter syndrome run wild, but emulating him by writing a biography of Margaret Thatcher when he has already written a magnificent three volume one, is perhaps inevitably a step too far. Mine will be published on Thursday but is barely a pamphlet by comparison, and perhaps has a different objective. Its aim is twofold – to introduce her to a new generation, which wasn't alive when she was in power. It's astonishing to realise that, to have ever voted for Margaret Thatcher, you would have to be at least 54 years old. In the 35 years since her fall from power, so many myths have grown up about her that many younger Brits probably think she was responsible for the slaughter of the first born. There have been only three significant prime ministers since the war whose policies still impact the way we live today – Attlee, Thatcher and Blair. As Tony Benn would have put it, they were each signposts rather than weathervanes. But today's younger generations have been indoctrinated into believing that Margaret Thatcher was privileged and her policies were only ever aimed to benefit the rich. That's presumably why she oversaw the biggest transfer to the working classes in the history of our country – by which I mean the sale of council houses and encouraging ordinary people to buy shares in privatised companies. People believe she supported the racist Apartheid regime in South Africa because she didn't impose sanctions. In fact, she did more to bring Apartheid to an end than virtually anyone else, as our then Ambassador to South Africa, Robin Renwick, has detailed in his various books. Nelson Mandela personally thanked her for her role in getting him released and bringing the evils of that regime to an end. According to Left-wing haters, Thatcher did nothing for the environment. Yet it was she who was the head of government in the world to warn of the dangers of climate change in 1989 – before most people had ever heard of the term. If I was wanting to court controversy, I could also have said she closed down most of the coal industry, something our current Government is urging China and others to do. That she was a dictator who brooked no dissent is another myth about Lady Thatcher. Yes, she would lead from the front and challenge others to defeat her argument, but there are countless occasions when people did just that and contrary to their fears, their careers prospered. It's how John Major got into the cabinet. A theme of the book is also that although she revelled in being seen as a conviction politician, in reality she was very pragmatic and realised that a bull in a china shop approach rarely achieved the desired results. Trade union reform is a case in point. Contrary to popular myth, Thatcher was not 'anti-European' and most people who knew her doubt she would have supported Brexit. Her famous Bruges speech, where she said she said 'We haven't successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state only to see them reimposed at a European level' was actually very pro-European if people took the time to read the whole thing. Woke up Did you know that men can have periods and menstruate? Nope, me neither. But that's the latest quackery promoted by the more extreme parts of the trans lobby. Their logic, presumably, is that trans men are men (just as 'transwomen are women'), and as such they continue to menstruate. Bunzl, one of the biggest toiletry suppliers in the UK, has produced an inclusive language guide, God save us. It recommends that common terms such as 'sanitary', 'hygiene' and 'feminine products' should be replaced with the term 'period products' to avoid offence. Who on earth is supposed to be offended? This sort of ridiculous virtue-signalling idiocy needs to be called out by people across the board, and not just those with Nigel and Farage in their names. Biological men cannot menstruate. Fact. And that's the end of it. Every little helps For a Government that repeatedly tells us that it is unashamedly pro-growth, it has spent much of its first year in power introducing policies which achieve the exact opposite, and the chickens are starting to come home to roost. I've lost count of the number of business people I know who have imposed recruitment freezes, had to shed workers or cancel planned pay rises as a result of the decision to increase Employers' National Insurance to 15 per cent and cut the threshold to £5,000, and in addition increase the minimum wage by 6.7 per cent. There is no form of political or economic sophistry that Rachel Reeves can deploy to persuade us that there measures are anything else but growth killers. Tesco now tell us they're planning for many of their stores to shut an hour earlier as their costs have increased by £235 million, just from the NI hike alone. Proof, were it ever needed, that actions have consequences.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Behind the Scenes: The Dramatic Lives of Philip Burton; Yankeeland; Soft Tissue Damage
Behind the Scenes: The Dramatic Lives of Philip Burton by Angela V. John (Parthian, £20) A talented writer, teacher and producer, Philip Burton (1904-95) recognised the potential of his young protégé, born Richard Jenkins, helping propel him into Richard Burton (he took Philip's surname) and box-office stardom. He brought the young actor from the south Wales town of Port Talbot to the London stage and on to the glamour of Hollywood. This study draws on previously unseen sources, bringing Philip Burton for the first time into the spotlight. In the 1950s, he moved to the US, working as a theatre director and delivering Shakespearean lecture-recitals, before settling in Florida, where he spent his final years writing books. The biography is published 100 years after the actor's birth and coincides with the release of the biopic, Mr Burton, starring Toby Jones. – Paul Clements Yankeeland by Lacy Fewer (Köehlerbooks, £23.95) In 19th-century Wexford, Brigid Kelly and her cousin Molly dream of a new life in America. They call it 'Yankeeland'– a place featured in the fashion magazines they smuggle past Brigid's pious stepmother and in the stories of their aristocratic neighbour. Soon, Brigid and her husband emigrate; Molly is left behind. Drawn to the unfamiliar, Brigid lands in Lily Dale, New York, where she's captivated by the radical ideas of Spiritualism and women's suffrage. Yankeeland is historical fiction based on Fewer's family, beginning when Brigid's grandniece (Fewer's surrogate) uncovers her letters. As a result, Yankeeland's characters feel idealised, and they often shapeshift to meet the demands of the plot. In the end, the novel's careful handling of its real subject – shame – is well-rendered and timeless. – Kristen Malone Poli READ MORE Soft Tissue Damage by Anna Whitwham (Rough Trade Books, £14.99) 'You're concussed', the author is told, in the final line of the opening chapter of this powerful memoir. She has just emerged from the boxing ring. 'Mum's cancer…' are the two words that proceed. It is through boxing and the actualisation of pain, that the journalist and author of award-winning novel, Boxer Handsome, learns to process grief and recover her long-held instinct to hurt herself. 'I needed to be hurt to know how not to be hurt' she writes. The author presents an almost addictive discipline in her writing that is clean and taut; Whitham knows how to stun, without knocking her reader out. The result is a unique and enthralling memoir of vulnerability, resilience and learning to protect oneself. – Brigid O'Dea
CTV News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Patsy Gallant wraps tour celebrating 70 years in Moncton: ‘there is just no place like it'
The Queen of Disco Patsy Gallant returns home to New Brunswick for a special show at the Capital Theatre. If you ask Patsy Gallant when it all started, she would tell you she was three-years old but she didn't start counting her 70 years in show business until she turned six. 'I'm just so privileged to still be singing, having my voice and my health and the energy to do that because I do two hour shows and I stay with the people after,' said Gallant. The New Brunswick native started her career alongside her sisters before going solo. She appeared on multiple television shows before getting her own – The Patsy Gallant Show, which aired on CTV in the late 70's. Gallant also starred in musicals, including an eight-year tenure on stage in Paris, France in the French rock opera, 'Starmania' during the 1990's. More recently, Gallant published her biography in French and produced her own album. 'I always try to learn new things and better myself,' she said. 'Nobody knew I was a writer. I've been writing for 40 years. The album that I wrote is called To Exist and Be Heard and there's a reason behind that, I wanted to prove that I was something else other than just Sugar Daddy and a Disco Queen because I've done it all.' For the first time in close to 30 years, Gallant is stepping back on stage Friday night at Moncton's Capitol Theatre as part of a tour celebrating her 70-year career. 'She's an incredibly important artist, originating from the region… and she's had an incredible international career really,' said Capitol Theatre's managing director, Kim Rayworth. 'I think she keeps renewing herself. […] I think people will see some new material for sure, but I know she'll bring the greatest hits and the crowd and fan favourites.' Gallant said the show caters to the Moncton crowd with a performance in both French and English and she's excited to perform for her family. 'They all bought their tickets and I said 'I could have given you tickets,' but they all bought their tickets. They're so sweet,' she said. Gallant said she'll spend Saturday catching up with her family and rediscovering what Moncton has to offer, including the smell of the ocean, fiddleheads and lobster. 'There is just no place like it. There is no place like it and then when I hear that accent, you can imagine, it brings me back to my childhood.' This is one of the last shows of the current season for the Capitol Theatre. Rayworth said next week they will announce about 50 artists for next year. Tickets to see Patsy Gallant in Moncton can still be purchased online or at the door. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Dive into the best literary fiction out now; GIRL, 1983 by Linn Ullmann, THE DIRECTOR by Daniel Kehlmann, ALLEGRO PASTEL by Leif Randt
Girl, 1983 is available now from the Mail Bookshop GIRL, 1983 by Linn Ullmann (Hamish Hamilton £18.99, 272pp) LINN Ullmann comes from impressive stock: she's the daughter of Liv Ullmann and the Swedish auteur Ingmar Bergman, and she wrote beautifully about both in her 2015 memoir Unquiet. She writes more directly about herself in this novelised work of memory, which pivots on an encounter between a 16-year-old girl (a barely disguised Ullmann) and a much older photographer in Paris in 1983. Sex took place, but Ullmann picks at the event like an angry sore, with her inability to remember precisely what happened as much the book's subject as the event itself. A startling, restless, discomforting piece of work that carefully teases apart rigid ideas about experience and truth, predator and victim. THE DIRECTOR by Daniel Kehlmann (Quercus £22, 352pp) THE Austrian filmmaker G.W. Pabst, acclaimed for Westfront 1918 (1930) and The Threepenny Opera (1931) has fallen from popular memory, but Daniel Kehlmann mines fascinating territory in this fictionalised biographical portrait of a communist-leaning artist, who found himself cosying up to the Nazis in order to keep his career afloat during the Second World War. Quite how Pabst regarded the propaganda films he produced is a floating question in this hallucinatory novel, which features walk-on parts for Greta Garbo and Louise Brooks (and a brilliantly chilling, loosely disguised Goebbels) alongside fictionalised aspects of Pabst's life (including a floundering, excruciatingly awful period in Hollywood). Throughout, Kehlmann sustains a pervading sickly sense of reality sliding perilously close to nightmare, which is quite possibly how the very private, principled Pabst came to regard his own life. ALLEGRO PASTEL by Leif Randt (Granta Magazine Editions £12.99, 320pp) 'JEROME didn't want to schedule too much during the day. He had noticed with relief very early on in their relationship that, like him, Tanja felt the strong need to regularly withdraw silently to her laptop.' I chose this quote by opening the book at random, but it sums up pretty well both the style and content of this lauded German novel about the relationship between a Berlin-based writer and a website designer living the painstakingly curated lives of your standard globalised millennial. The toneless deadpan sentences take on a strange comic energy as Randt details the relentless self-absorption of two people who paradoxically appear to have no meaningful inner life at all. Its tough to read, like being forced to stare for hours at an achingly po-faced, self-aware and extended Instagram post – no wonder it's being called a novel to capture the voice of a generation.
Globe and Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
Richard Hughes von Hurst Discloses the True Story of Jack Whalen in His Latest Book
Richard Hughes von Hurst's new book, 'Jack - The Enforcer,' delivers a profound exploration of the life and legacy of Jack Whalen, a complex figure whose tale surpasses the limits of crime and heroism. In mid-20th-century Los Angeles, this biography digs into Whalen's change from a renowned World War II pilot to an infamous figure knotted in the city's underworld. The book offers a nuanced portrayal of Jack Whalen, often mischaracterized as just a criminal. Through exhaustive research and personal tales, von Hurst discloses the man behind the myth, demonstrating his daring acts, loyalty to family, and dedication to justice in a world rife with corruption. Readers will journey through Whalen's formative years, witnessing his struggles and accomplishments against the background of a lively and sometimes dangerous Hollywood. The story concludes with the tragic murder of Whalen. This pivotal event marked the end of his life and sent shockwaves throughout the community and the criminal underworld. Richard Hughes von Hurst's engaging storytelling seizes the soul of Jack Whalen, depicting him as a protector and a hero whose legacy continues to resonate. The book recounts events; it witnesses the lasting influence of one man's life on his family and the world around him. It invites readers to reexamine defined ideas about crime and morality, challenging them to look beyond the headlines and know the deeper realities. von Hurst, a Hollywood native, brings an exceptional perspective to this biography. Born into a family in St Louis with Irish and Scottish roots, he has long been captivated by the tales of his uncle, Jack Whalen. With a background in the entertainment industry, including acting and talent management, von Hurst combines his artistic sensibilities with meticulous research to create a gripping narrative. He has spent years gathering stories, interviews, and archival materials to ensure that Jack Whalen's life is presented genuinely and respectfully. 'Jack - The Enforcer' is an essential read for people interested in the complex intersections of family, history, and the complications of human nature. It illuminates that period's cultural dynamics, the influence of organized crime on society, and the personal sacrifices made by those who wanted to shield their close ones. As readers dig into the pages of this appealing biography, they will find themselves engrossed in a story specific to Jack Whalen and universally connected in its themes of faithfulness, fairness, and the struggle for honesty in a flawed world. The book will be accessible through local retail stores and major online platforms. Accompany Richard Hughes von Hurst in reviving a legend whose life was marked by courage and tragedies, and whose narrative deserves to be told.
