P. D. James

She did not begin writing until she reached her thirties. Her first novel, Cover Her Face, featuring the investigator/poet Adam Dalgliesh of New Scotland Yard, was published in 1962. James retired in 1979 to devote herself to her writing. She has said that her influences include Jane Austen, Dorothy L. Sayers, herself a well-known British author of mysteries, Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh. Many of P.D. James' mystery novels take place against the backdrop of Britain's vast bureaucracies such as the criminal justice system and ...

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P. D. James, P. D. James - Biography, P. D. James - Writing, P. D. James - List of books, P. D. James - Prizes and Awards

Read more here: » P. D. James: Encyclopedia II - P. D. James - Writing

The New Age movement is hardly novel! Its philosophy is rooted in ancient traditions, often based on mystical experiences, each within a different context.

Part II of II, written by Michael Rogge

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Autoerotic asphyxiation, or AEA, is the practice of self-strangulation, typically by the use of a ligature, while masturbating. The decrease of blood to the brain is said to heighten the sexual pleasure as more endorphines are produced when the body reaches the near state of asphyxia. AEA is an extremely dangerous practice that results in many deaths each year, most of them accidental. A small number of people doing AEA use a plastic bag over their head. But most prefer the strangulation method. 99% of those practising AEA or showing an interest to do so are said to be men. AEA is virtually ...

Including:

• Autoerotic asphyxiation - Cultural references

Read more here: » Autoerotic asphyxiation: Encyclopedia - Autoerotic asphyxiation

See also: 1989 in literature, other events of 1990, 1991 in literature, list of years in literature. 1990 in literature - Events. J. K. Rowling gets the idea for Harry Potter while on a train ride from Manchester to London. She says "I was staring out the window, and the idea for Harry just came. He appeared in my mind's eye, very fully formed. The basic idea was for a boy who didn't know what he was." It would be seven more years before the world was introduced to Harry. ...

Including:

• 1990 in literature - Events
• 1990 in literature - New books
• 1990 in literature - New drama
• 1990 in literature - Deaths
• 1990 in literature - Awards

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Modesty Blaise debuted in the London Evening Standard on May 13, 1963. The strip was syndicated among a large number of newspapers ranging from the Johannesburg Star to the Detroit Free Press, the Bombay Samachar, The Calcutta Telegraph, (Calcutta, India), The West Australian (Perth, Australia) and The Evening Citizen, Glasgow, Scotland. After Jim Holdaway's death in 1970, the art of the strip was provided by the Spanish artist Romero. Eight years later, Romero quit to make time for his own comics projects, and after short atte ...

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Modesty Blaise, Modesty Blaise - Premise, Modesty Blaise - The comic strip, Modesty Blaise - Reprints, Modesty Blaise - Story list, Modesty Blaise - The movies, Modesty Blaise - The books, Modesty Blaise - In comic books, Modesty Blaise - Other adaptations, Modesty Blaise - Future of the character, Modesty Blaise - Trivia

Read more here: » Modesty Blaise: Encyclopedia II - Modesty Blaise - The comic strip

Linda Condon is raised by her single mother, who denies the girl any information about her absentee father. Mother and daughter live together in a seemingly endless succession of hotels in various regions of the United States, and Linda receives little formal education. While Stella Condon frequently goes out with men of dubious reputation, her daughter, who is always loyal to her shallow and superficial mother, spends her early adolescent days alone in her hotel room or with other guests in the artificial and phony atmosphere of the lobby. ...

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Linda Condon, Linda Condon - Outline of the plot, Linda Condon - Quotations, Linda Condon - Editions and online availability, Linda Condon - Read on, Linda Condon - Mother-daughter relationship in fiction

Read more here: » Linda Condon: Encyclopedia II - Linda Condon - Outline of the plot

The fictional Lord Peter's life begins in 1890. He is the younger son of Mortimer, 15th Duke of Denver, and his relict, Honoria Lucasta, who lives on throughout the novels as Dowager Duchess. His two siblings, Gerald, 16th Duke, and Lady Mary both feature in the novels, as does Gerald's snobbish wife, Helen, and devil-may-care heir, Viscount St. George. Mary eventually marries Peter's friend, Chief Inspector Charles Parker of Scotland Yard, several years after the two first meet (after her fiancé dies violently in Clouds of Witness, a crime for wh ...

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Lord Peter Wimsey, Lord Peter Wimsey - Biography, Lord Peter Wimsey - Bibliography, Lord Peter Wimsey - Novels, Lord Peter Wimsey - Short story collections, Lord Peter Wimsey - Stage moviestelevision and radio, Lord Peter Wimsey - Books about Lord Peter by other authors

Read more here: » Lord Peter Wimsey: Encyclopedia II - Lord Peter Wimsey - Biography

List of people known by initials - A—F. B. J. Armstrong P. T. Anderson W. H. Auden J. L. Austin A. J. Ayer J. G. Ballard P. T. Barnum J. M. Barrie H. E. Bates C. E. W. Bean L. L. Bean P.G.T. Beauregard W. A. C. Bennett E. C. Bentley P. W. Botha T. C. Boyle J. N. Brønsted A. J. Burnett A. S. Byatt J. J. Cale See also:

List of people known by initials, List of people known by initials - Famous people known by their initials, List of people known by initials - Borderline cases, List of people known by initials - Individuals known always or for the most part by initials and surname, List of people known by initials - A—F, List of people known by initials - G—P, List of people known by initials - Q—Z, List of people known by initials - Individuals known by first name and an initial as a surname, List of people known by initials - Individuals whose use of their middle initial carries special significance, List of people known by initials - Fictional characters

Read more here: » List of people known by initials: Encyclopedia II - List of people known by initials - Individuals known always or for the most part by initials and surname

Born Edith Graydon in London, she was the eldest of five children. During her childhood, she was a happy, talented girl who excelled at dancing and acting, and was academically bright, with a natural ability in arithmetic. Upon leaving school, she found employment as a bookkeeper for a fabric importer. She quickly established a reputation as a stylish and intelligent woman and was promoted by the company several times, ...

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Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - Early life and events leading to the murder, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - The murder, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - The trial, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - Imprisonment and execution, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - Reactions to the executions, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - The case in popular culture

Read more here: » Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters: Encyclopedia II - Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - Early life and events leading to the murder

In 1994, DC Comics released a graphic novel adaptation of Modesty Blaise (the novel), with art by Dick Giordano. In Sweden, the strip has been in continuous distribution since 1969 in a monthly comic adventure magazine called "Agent X9" (after the existing Modesty comic magazine "Agent" was merged with the "X9" magazine). Many of O'Donnell's stories actually premiered here (translated into Swedish), and the magazine continues to run a Modesty Blaise story every month, from the archives. Sweden is also an ongoing source for in-p ...

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Modesty Blaise, Modesty Blaise - Premise, Modesty Blaise - The comic strip, Modesty Blaise - Reprints, Modesty Blaise - Story list, Modesty Blaise - The movies, Modesty Blaise - The books, Modesty Blaise - In comic books, Modesty Blaise - Other adaptations, Modesty Blaise - Future of the character, Modesty Blaise - Trivia

Read more here: » Modesty Blaise: Encyclopedia II - Modesty Blaise - In comic books

Peter O'Donnell was invited to write a novel to tie in with the film. The novel, called simply Modesty Blaise and based on his original screenplay for the movie, fared considerably better than the movie itself did (it was also released a year before the movie). During the following decades, he would write a total of eleven Modesty Blaise novels and two collections of short stories. Several of the short stories either adapt comic strip stories, or would later be adapted as comic strips themselves, and there was frequent crossover of ch ...

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Modesty Blaise, Modesty Blaise - Premise, Modesty Blaise - The comic strip, Modesty Blaise - Reprints, Modesty Blaise - Story list, Modesty Blaise - The movies, Modesty Blaise - The books, Modesty Blaise - In comic books, Modesty Blaise - Other adaptations, Modesty Blaise - Future of the character, Modesty Blaise - Trivia

Read more here: » Modesty Blaise: Encyclopedia II - Modesty Blaise - The books

One of the Modesty Blaise novels, "Last Day in Limbo", was adapted as a BBC radio drama in the 1980s. In the early 1980s, an audio tape reading of the short story, "I Had a Date with Lady Janet", was released featuring John Thaw as the voice of Willie Garvin. Modesty Blaise has been the inspiration for a number of similar (but usually inferior) book series, most notably the ultraviolent mid-1970s series The Baroness by Paul Kenyon. The 1993 American television series, South Beach was also inspired by Modesty Blaise, and fans of the character also see more than a few similarities betwe ...

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Modesty Blaise, Modesty Blaise - Premise, Modesty Blaise - The comic strip, Modesty Blaise - Reprints, Modesty Blaise - Story list, Modesty Blaise - The movies, Modesty Blaise - The books, Modesty Blaise - In comic books, Modesty Blaise - Other adaptations, Modesty Blaise - Future of the character, Modesty Blaise - Trivia

Read more here: » Modesty Blaise: Encyclopedia II - Modesty Blaise - Other adaptations

As mentioned above, in 1996, Peter O'Donnell wrote the final Modesty Blaise story collection, Cobra Trap, and in 2001, retired the original comic strip. The Modesty Blaise character and concept remain popular enough that there have been calls for new writers to continue her adventures. O'Donnell, who owns the rights to Modesty Blaise, has been vehement that no one else ever write about Modesty Blaise. He made an exception for the 2003 film, My Name is Modesty, but after the film (the third attempt to adapt the character for the ...

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Modesty Blaise, Modesty Blaise - Premise, Modesty Blaise - The comic strip, Modesty Blaise - Reprints, Modesty Blaise - Story list, Modesty Blaise - The movies, Modesty Blaise - The books, Modesty Blaise - In comic books, Modesty Blaise - Other adaptations, Modesty Blaise - Future of the character, Modesty Blaise - Trivia

Read more here: » Modesty Blaise: Encyclopedia II - Modesty Blaise - Future of the character

The hanging of Edith Thompson shocked British society. It was unthinkable that a young, attractive, middle class woman could be executed, and many of her supporters argued that she had been hanged for no more than adultery. An autopsy on Percy Thompson had failed to reveal any evidence that he’d been fed ground glass or any type of detectable poison. Grave concerns that Thompson’s letters were the work of a bored, imaginative and immature housewife who fantasised about a life without her husband, without ever intending him harm, had been ...

See also:

Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - Early life and events leading to the murder, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - The murder, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - The trial, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - Imprisonment and execution, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - Reactions to the executions, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - The case in popular culture

Read more here: » Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters: Encyclopedia II - Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - Reactions to the executions

After initial popularity, a movie loosely based on the comic strip was filmed in 1966 as a comedy thriller, directed by Joseph Losey and starring Monica Vitti as Modesty, Terence Stamp as Willie Garvin, and Dirk Bogarde as Gabriel. The movie was not very successful. Peter O'Donnell's original screenplay went through a large number of rewrites by other people, and he often later commented that the finished movie retained only one line of his original dialogue. A scene in which Willie kills a thug in an alley after the death of a female character is also played out more or less the way it appears i ...

See also:

Modesty Blaise, Modesty Blaise - Premise, Modesty Blaise - The comic strip, Modesty Blaise - Reprints, Modesty Blaise - Story list, Modesty Blaise - The movies, Modesty Blaise - The books, Modesty Blaise - In comic books, Modesty Blaise - Other adaptations, Modesty Blaise - Future of the character, Modesty Blaise - Trivia

Read more here: » Modesty Blaise: Encyclopedia II - Modesty Blaise - The movies

There were 96 storylines produced by the Modesty Blaise comic strip, all written by Peter O'Donnell. The strips were drawn by Jim Holdaway, John Burns, Pat Wright, Neville Colvin, and Enrique Romero. The artist is listed next to each episode, and reprints are listed, using the following abbreviations: T = Titan, K = Ken Pierce, CR = Comics Revue, MB = Modesty Blaise Quarterly, MP= Manuscript Press, S= Star Books 1. La Machine, Holdaway, T 2. The Long Lever, Holdaway, T 3. The Gabriel Set-Up, Holda ...

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Modesty Blaise, Modesty Blaise - Premise, Modesty Blaise - The comic strip, Modesty Blaise - Reprints, Modesty Blaise - Story list, Modesty Blaise - The movies, Modesty Blaise - The books, Modesty Blaise - In comic books, Modesty Blaise - Other adaptations, Modesty Blaise - Future of the character, Modesty Blaise - Trivia

Read more here: » Modesty Blaise: Encyclopedia II - Modesty Blaise - Story list

Lord Peter Wimsey - Novels. with year of first publication Whose Body?, 1923 Clouds of Witness, 1926 (Carmichael tv movie) Unnatural Death, 1927 The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, 1928 (Carmichael tv movie) Strong Poison, 1931 (Petherbridge tv movie) The Five Red Herrings, 1931 (Carmichael tv movie) Have His Carcase, 1932 (Petherbridge tv movie) Murder Must Advertise, 1933 (Carm ...

See also:

Lord Peter Wimsey, Lord Peter Wimsey - Biography, Lord Peter Wimsey - Bibliography, Lord Peter Wimsey - Novels, Lord Peter Wimsey - Short story collections, Lord Peter Wimsey - Stage moviestelevision and radio, Lord Peter Wimsey - Books about Lord Peter by other authors

Read more here: » Lord Peter Wimsey: Encyclopedia II - Lord Peter Wimsey - Bibliography

On October 3, 1922 the Thompsons attended a performance at the Criterion Theatre in London’s Piccadilly Circus and were returning home, when a man jumped out from behind some bushes near their home, and attacked Percy. After a violent struggle, during which Edith Thompson was also brutally knocked to the ground, Percy was stabbed. Mortally wounded, he died before Edith could summon help. The attacker fled. Neighbours later reported hearing a woman screaming hysterically, and shouting “no don’t” several times, and by the time police a ...

See also:

Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - Early life and events leading to the murder, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - The murder, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - The trial, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - Imprisonment and execution, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - Reactions to the executions, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - The case in popular culture

Read more here: » Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters: Encyclopedia II - Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - The murder

The trial began on December 6, 1922 at the Old Bailey. Bywaters co-operated completely. He had led police to the murder weapon he had concealed after the murder, and consistently maintained that he had acted without Edith’s knowledge. The love letters were produced as evidence. In these Edith Thompson passionately declared her love for Bywaters, and her desire to be free of Percy. She said on one occasion she had ground a glass light bulb to shards and had fed them to Percy mixed into mashed potato, and on another occasion had fed him poison. Not only had he failed to die, he had failed to become ...

See also:

Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - Early life and events leading to the murder, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - The murder, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - The trial, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - Imprisonment and execution, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - Reactions to the executions, Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - The case in popular culture

Read more here: » Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters: Encyclopedia II - Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters - The trial

The novel Busman's Honeymoon was originally a stage play by Sayers and her friend Muriel St. Clare Byrne. Some of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels were made into two very successful television series by the BBC. Lord Peter Wimsey was played by Ian Carmichael during the 1970s, in a series that ran from 1972 to 1975 and adapted five novels, and by Edward Petherbridge in the later series, which dramatized the three major Wimsey/Vane novels, and in which Harriet was played by Harriet Walter. The BBC was unable to secure the rights to turn Busman's Honeymoon into the fourth p ...

See also:

Lord Peter Wimsey, Lord Peter Wimsey - Biography, Lord Peter Wimsey - Bibliography, Lord Peter Wimsey - Novels, Lord Peter Wimsey - Short story collections, Lord Peter Wimsey - Stage moviestelevision and radio, Lord Peter Wimsey - Books about Lord Peter by other authors

Read more here: » Lord Peter Wimsey: Encyclopedia II - Lord Peter Wimsey - Stage moviestelevision and radio