Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of Joseph de Ca'th Lon, one of her closest friends. Joseph loves Archaeology, and they have been talking about Margaret Ursula Jones, the English archaeologist who died on a day like today in 2001.
Margaret Ursula Jones (16 May 1916-23 March 2001) was an English archaeologist, best known for directing major excavations at Mucking, Essex.
Born in Birkenhead, Jones first became involved in archaeology while studying at the University of Liverpool. After graduating she worked as a wartime postal censor and freelance photojournalist, whilst continuing to volunteer on archaeological excavations around Britain.
In 1956, Jones began working for the Ministry of Works as a freelancearchaeologist in the burgeoning field of rescue archaeology. She worked at a number of sites, but is best known for her excavations at Mucking, a major Anglo-Saxon settlement and associated cemetery, with finds ranging from the Stone Age to the Medieval period.
The Mucking excavation, which Jones directed from 1965 to 1978, became Britain's largest ever archaeological excavation.
It produced an unprecedented volume of material, although some academic archaeologists have criticized the fact that the results did not appear in print until decades after the excavation had ended. Jones' work at Mucking, as well as her role in founding the campaign group Rescue, was influential in the establishment of modern commercial archaeology in Britain.
Margaret Ursula Owen was born on 16 May 1916 to middle class parents in Birkenhead. She attended Calder High School for Girls in Liverpool before going on to read Geography at the University of Liverpool.
At Liverpool, Jones was taught by archaeologist W. J. Varley and volunteered on his excavations of hill forts in Cheshire in the late 1930s. On these excavations she met Tom Jones, another of Varley's assistant excavators, whom she married in June 1940.
Jones worked as a postal censor during the Second World War. Afterwards, she and her husband moved to Hereford and made a living as freelance photojournalists; Margaret wrote articles to accompany photographs taken by Tom.
While working as photojournalists, the Joneses continued to volunteer on archaeological excavations around Britain, and in 1956 Margaret began working as a freelance archaeologist for the Ministry of Works. At the time the Ministry was responsible for the upkeep of Ancient Monuments and, by extension, the large volume of rescue archaeology required to document archaeological sites before they were destroyed by the postwar construction boom. A small workforce of itinerant archaeologists were employed to excavate these sites in advance of development.
Between 1956 and 1965, Margaret Jones directed a number of such excavations in Buckinghamshire, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire including Old Sleaford.
In 1965, the Ministry of Works asked Jones to conduct an excavation at Linford, a gravel pit near the village of Mucking on the Thames Estuary. The site had been discovered in aerial photographs taken by Kenneth St Joseph and confirmed in a small field walking survey by the Thurrock Local History Society. These initial investigations resulted in the site being designated a Scheduled Monument under the Ancient Monuments Act 1931 and, since it was threatened by gravel extraction, prompted the Ministry to commission an exploratory excavation.
Jonesquickly concluded that the crop marks at Mucking represented an extensive site with Iron Age, Roman, Anglo-Saxon and early Medieval remains. On that basis, the Ministry extended her contract and initiated a full excavation of the site.
The Mucking excavation was to become the largest ever carried out in Britain. To keep ahead of its destruction by the gravel company that owned it, Jones, assisted by her husband Tom, directed work at the site continuously for 13 years. Unusually, they excavated all year round, living in a small caravan and employing a shifting workforce of freelance archaeologists and volunteers from around the world.
When it finally completed in 1978, the excavation covered 44 acres and had recorded 44,000 archaeological features, including Beaker burials; a Bronze Age Hillfort; an Iron Age settlement and cemetery; a Roman villa and cemetery; one of the most significant Anglo-Saxon settlements in Britain; two large Anglo-Saxon cemeteries; and a Medieval field system. It involved 5000 archaeologists and volunteers and recovered 1.7 million finds.
After completing the excavations at Mucking in 1978, the Joneses retired from field archaeology and returned to their cottage in Hereford.
Margaret became the patron of the Thurrock Local History Society, the source of many volunteers to the Mucking excavation, and sat on many other archaeology committees in Essex. In this role she regularly gave lectures, guided tours and talks to schoolchildren across the county.
Margaret Jones died on 23 March 2001. In her later years she had suffered from Parkinson's disease, and was predeceased by her husband Tom, who died following a stroke in 1993.
Archaeology can be overlooked as a discipline, I think, but it's incredibly important to have this other way of approaching the past -not just through historical documents, but through actual physical remains- objects, buildings and the layout of our towns.
Champions League Day. TheGrandma loves football and tomorrow is a special day for her because her two favourite teams are going to play one against the other. Napoli vs. Barcelona. The two cities she loves more and the most important ones in her life. It will be a great match full of emotion and memories.
To prepare this magic moment, The Grandma has been watching an amazing film, Escape to Victory, a 1981 American sports war film directed by John Huston and starring Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, Max von Sydow and Pelé. The film is about Allied prisoners of war who are interned in a German prison camp during the Second World War who play an exhibition match of football against a German team.
The film received great attention upon its theatrical release, as it also starred professional footballers Bobby Moore, Osvaldo Ardiles, Kazimierz Deyna, Paul Van Himst, Mike Summerbee, Hallvar Thoresen, Werner Roth and Pelé. Numerous Ipswich Town players were also in the film, including John Wark, Russell Osman, Laurie Sivell, Robin Turner and Kevin O'Callaghan.
Bobby Moore, the English football player considered one of the best defenders of the history of football, is one of the main characters of this film. TheGrandma wants to talk about him to remember him and his legacy 27 years after her premature death. Football is a sport for gentlemen and Bobby Moore was one of them.
Robert Frederick Chelsea
Moore (12 April 1941-24 February 1993) was an English professional
footballer. He most notably played for West Ham United, captaining the
club for more than ten years, and was the captain of the England
national team that won the 1966 FIFA World Cup. He is widely regarded as
one of the greatest defenders of all time, and was cited by Pelé as the
greatest defender that he had ever played against.
Widely
regarded as West Ham's greatest ever player, Moore played over 600 games
for the club during a 16 year tenure, winning the FA Cup in 1963–64 and
the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1964–65. During his time at the club he
won the FWA Footballer of the Year in 1964 and the West Ham Player Of
The Year in 1961, 1963, 1968 and 1970. In August 2008, West Ham United
officially retired his number 6 shirt, 15 years after his death.
Bobby Moore in Escape to Victory
Moore was made captain of England in 1964, at age 23, going on to lift the WorldCuptrophy in 1966. He won a total of 108 caps for his country, which at the time of his international retirement in 1973 was a national record. This record was later broken by Peter Shilton.
Moore'stotal of 108 caps continued as a record for an outfield player until 28 March 2009, when David Beckham gained his 109th cap.
Moore is a member of the World Team of the 20th Century. A national team icon, a bronze statue of Moore is positioned at the entrance to WembleyStadium.
A composed central defender, Moore was best known for his reading of the game and ability to anticipate opposition movements, thereby distancing himself from the image of the hard-tackling, high-jumping defender. Receiving the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1966, he was the first footballer to win the award and he remained the only one for a further 24 years.
Moore was given an OBE in the New Year Honours List. He was made an inaugural inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 in recognition of his impact on the English game as a player and in the same year he was named in the BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons.
Moore was born in
Barking, Essex. He attended Westbury Primary School Barking, and Tom
Hood School, Leytonstone, playing football for both schools.
In 1956, Moore joined West Ham United as a player and, after advancing through their youth set-up, he played his first game on 8 September 1958 against Manchester United. In putting on the number six shirt, he replaced his mentor Malcolm Allison, who was suffering from tuberculosis.
Allison never played another first team game for West Ham nor indeed any other First Division game as Moore became a regular. A composed central defender, Moore was admired for his reading of the game and ability to anticipate opposition movements, thereby distancing himself from the image of the hard-tackling, high-jumping defender. Indeed, Moore's ability to head the ball or keep up with the pace was average at best, but the way he read the game, marshalled his team and timed his tackles marked him out as world class.
Moore was sent off once over the course of his West Ham career, for a foul on Dave Wagstaffe in the final moment of a match against Manchester City in November 1961. The referee had simultaneously blown his whistle for the offence and for full time. As red cards were not issued at that time, the dismissal didn't become apparent until after the match.
England won the World Cup in Wembley, 1966
Moore also played cricket for the Essex youth team alongside fellow West Hamplayer Geoff Hurst.
In 1960, Moore earned a call up to the England Under-23 squad. His form and impact on West Ham as a whole earned him a late call-up to the full England squad by Walter Winterbottom and The Football Association selection committee in 1962, when final preparations were being made for the summer's World Cup finals in Chile.
Moore was uncapped as he flew to South America with the rest of the squad, but made his debut on 20 May 1962 in England's final pre-tournament friendly a 4–0 win over Peru in Lima. Also debuting that day was Tottenham Hotspur defender Maurice Norman. Both proved so impressive that they stayed in the team for the whole of England's participation in the World Cup, which ended in defeat by eventual winners Brazil in the quarter finals at Viña del Mar.
On the verge of his greatest triumph, details were released to the press in early 1966 that Moore wanted to leave West Ham. Moore had let his contract slip to termination, and only after the intervention of Sir Alf Ramsey and realisation he was technically ineligible to play, did he re-sign with West Ham to allow him to captain the England team of 1966.
Ramsey had summoned West Ham manager Ron Greenwood to England's hotel and told the two of them to resolve their differences and get a contract signed up. Moore was the leader of the World Cup winning side and established himself as a world-class player and sporting icon.
With all their games at
Wembley, England had got through their group with little trouble, they
then beat Argentina in their quarter final and a Eusébio-led Portugal
team in the semi-finals. West Germany awaited in the final.
In
the final, England went 1–0 down through Helmut Haller, but Moore'sawareness and quick-thinking helped England to a swift equaliser. He was
fouled by Wolfgang Overath midway inside the German half and, rather
than remonstrate or head back into defence, he picked himself up quickly
while looking ahead and delivered an instant free kick on to Hurst's
head, in a movement practised at West Ham. Hurst scored.
The West Ham connection
to England's biggest day became stronger when Peters scored to take
England 2–1 up, but the Germans equalised in the final minute of normal
time through Wolfgang Weber, as Moore appealed unsuccessfully for a
handball decision, to take the match into extra time.
Bobby Moore
Ramsey was convinced the Germans were exhausted, and after Hurst scored a controversial and heavily debated goal, the game looked over.
With seconds remaining, and England underthe pressure of another German attack, the ball broke to Moore on the edge of his own penalty area. Teammates shouted at Moore to just get rid of the ball, but he calmly picked out the feet of Hurst 40 m upfield, who scored to bring the score to 4–2.
Of many memorable images from that day, one is of Moore wiping his hands clean of mud and sweat on the velvet tablecloth before shaking the hand of Queen Elizabeth II as she presented him with the Jules Rimet trophy (World Cup). The Guardian wrote Moore is the calmest person in the stadium as he leads the England players up to the Royal Box.
Moore became a national icon as a consequence of England's success, with him and the other two West Ham players taking the World Cup around the grounds which West Ham visited during the following domestic season. He was awarded the coveted BBC Sports Personality of the Year title at the end of 1966, the first footballer to do so, and remaining the only one for a further 24 years. He was also given an OBE in the New Year Honours List.
Moore surpassed West Ham's appearances record in 1973 when he played for the club for the 509th time.
Moore played his last game for West Ham in an FA Cup tie against Hereford United in January 1974. He was injured in the match.
On 14 March the same year, he was allowed to leave West Ham after more than 15 years, taking with him the club record for appearances, since overtaken by Billy Bonds, and the most international caps for an outfield player.
Moore's first brush with cancer was in 1964, two years before the historic World Cup win. On 14 February 1993, he publicly announced he was suffering from cancer. Three days later, he commentated on an England match against San Marino at Wembley, alongside his friend Jonathan Pearce. That was to be his final public appearance; seven days later on 24 February, at 6:36 am, he died at the age of 51.
The Bobby Moore Fund is a charity in the United Kingdom, formed in 1993 by Stephanie Moore, and Cancer Research UK (CRUK) in memory of her late husband to raise money for research into bowel cancer and also public awareness of the disease. A campaign, Make Bobby Proud was initiated in 2013 to fundraise. As of February 2013 the Bobby Moore Fund had raised £18.8m towards bowel cancer research.
Today, The Grandma is resting at home.
Christmas holiday can be very exhausted and she needs to relax and take new
forces for the rest of the year. She has been watching some movies on TV with
Maggie Smith'sappearances. She loves this English actress who was born on a day like today in 1934. The Grandma likes
watching her films, some of them part of the history of Literature and Cinema,
especially HarryPotter's saga, DowntownAbbey series and WilliamShakespeare'splays.
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (born 28 December 1934) is an English actress.She has had an extensive, varied career on stage, film, and television, spanning over 68 years. Smith has appeared in more than 60 films, and is one of Britain's most recognisable actresses. She was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990 for contributions to the performing arts, and a Companion of Honour in 2014 for services to drama.
Smith began her career on stage as a student, performing at the Oxford Playhouse in 1952, and made her professional debut on Broadway in New Faces of '56. For her work on the London stage, she has won a record six Best Actress Evening Standard Awards: for The Private Ear, and The Public Eye (both 1962), Hedda Gabler (1970), Virginia (1981), The Way of the World (1984), Three Tall Women (1994) and A German Life (2019). She received Tony Award nominations for Private Lives (1975) and Night and Day (1979), before winning the 1990 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Lettice and Lovage. She appeared in Stratford Shakespeare Festival productions of Antony and Cleopatra (1976) and Macbeth (1978), and West End productions of A Delicate Balance (1997) and The Breath of Life (2002). She received the Society of London Theatre Special Award in 2010.
On screen, Smith first drew praise for the crime film Nowhere to Go (1958), for which she received her first British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award nomination. She has won two Academy Awards, winning Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978). She is one of only six actresses to have won in both categories. She has won a record four BAFTA Awards for Best Actress,including for A Private Function (1984) and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1988), a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for Tea with Mussolini (1999), and three Golden Globe Awards. She received four other Oscar nominations that were for Othello (1965), Travels with My Aunt (1972), A Room with a View (1986), and Gosford Park (2001).
Smith played Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series (2001–2011). Other notable films include Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (1973), Death on the Nile (1978), Clash of the Titans (1981), Evil Under the Sun (1982), Hook (1991), Sister Act (1992), Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), The Secret Garden (1993), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), and The Lady in the Van (2015).
She won an Emmy Award in 2003 for My House in Umbria, to become one of the few actresses to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting, and starred as Lady Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, on Downton Abbey(2010–2015), for which she won three Emmys,
her first non-ensemble Screen Actors Guild Award, and her third Golden
Globe.
Her honorary film awards include the BAFTA Special Award in 1993
and the BAFTA Fellowship in 1996. She received the Stratford Shakespeare
Festival's Legacy Award in 2012, and the Bodley Medal by the University
of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries in 2016.
Minerva McGonagall, Harry Potter, 2001-2011
Margaret Natalie Smith was born in Ilford, Essex, on 28 December 1934. Her mother, Margaret Hutton was a Scottish secretary from Glasgow, and father, Nathaniel Smith (1902–1991), was a public health pathologist from Newcastle upon Tyne who worked at the University of Oxford.
During her childhood, Smith's parents told her the romantic story of how they had met on the train from Glasgow to London via Newcastle. She moved with her family to Oxford when she was four years old. She had older twin brothers, Alistair and Ian. The latter went to architecture school. Smith attended Oxford High School until age 16, when she left to study acting at the Oxford Playhouse.
In 1952, aged 17, under the auspices of the Oxford University Dramatic Society, Smith began her career as Viola in Twelfth Night at the Oxford Playhouse. In 1954, she appeared in the television programme Oxford Accents produced by Ned Sherrin. She appeared in her first film in 1956, in an uncredited role in Child in the House, and made her Broadway debut the same year playing several roles in the review New Faces of '56, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre from June to December 1956. In 1957, she starred opposite Kenneth Williams in the musical comedy Share My Lettuce, written by Bamber Gascoigne. In 1959, she received the first of her 18 BAFTA Film and TV nominations for her role in the film Nowhere to Go.
In 1962, Smith won the first of a record five Best Actress Evening Standard Awards for her roles in Peter Shaffer's plays The Private Ear and The Public Eye, again opposite Kenneth Williams. She became a fixture at the Royal National Theatre in the 1960s, most notably for playing Desdemona in Othello opposite Laurence Olivier and earning her first Oscar nomination for her performance in the 1965 film version. She appeared opposite Olivier in Ibsen's The Master Builder, and played comedic roles in The Recruiting Officer and Much Ado About Nothing. Her other films at this time included Go to Blazes (1962), The V.I.P.s (1963), The Pumpkin Eater (1964), Young Cassidy (1965), HotMillions (1968), and Oh! What A Lovely War (1969).
Smith won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the title role of the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Vanessa Redgrave had originated the role on stage in London, and Zoe Caldwell won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, when she played the role in New York. The role also wonSmith her first BAFTA Award.
Dowager Countess, Downton Abbey, 2010-2015
In 1970, she played the title role in Ingmar Bergman's London production of the Ibsen play Hedda Gabler, winning her second Evening Standard award for Best Actress. She received her third Academy Award nomination for the 1972 film Travels with My Aunt. She also appeared in the film Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (1973). In the mid-1970s, she made several guest appearances on The Carol Burnett Show.
From 1976 to 1980, she appeared in numerous productions at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, to acclaim; her roles included Queen Elizabeth in Richard III, Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth, Virginia Woolf in Virginia, and opposite Brian Bedford in the Noël Coward comedy Private Lives. Also during this time, she starred on Broadway in Private Lives in 1975 and Night and Day in 1979, receiving Tony Award nominations for both.
Smith received the 1978 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Diana Barrie in California Suite. For this role, she also won her first Golden Globe Award. Afterward, upon hearing that Michael Palin was about to embark on the film The Missionary (1982) with Smith, her co-star Michael Caine is supposed to have humorously telephoned Palin, warning him that she would steal the film. Her other films at this time include Murder by Death (1976) and Death on the Nile (1978).
In 1981, Smith played the goddess Thetis in Clash of the Titans. For her role on television as Mrs Silly, she received the first of her four Best Actress BAFTA TV Award nominations. On stage, she won her third and fourth Evening Standard awards for Best Actress, for Virginia in 1981 and The Way of the World in 1984.
She won three more Best Actress BAFTA Awards for her roles as Joyce Chilvers in the 1984 black comedy A Private Function, Charlotte Bartlett in the 1986 Merchant Ivory production of A Room with a View, and the title role in the 1987 film The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne. For A Room With a View, she also received her fifth Academy Award nomination, and won her second Golden Globe Award.
In 1987, she starred in A Bed Among the Lentils, part of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads series, receiving a second BAFTA TV nomination. She starred in the 1987 London production of Lettice and Lovage
alongside Margaret Tyzack, receiving an Olivier Award nomination, and
reprised the role in 1990, when it transferred to Broadway, and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. The play was written specifically for her by the playwright Peter Shaffer.
Muriel Donnelly, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, 2012
In the 1990s, Smith appeared as Wendy Darling in the 1991 hit movie Hook, and also appeared in the hit comedy films Sister Act in 1992 and The First Wives Club in 1996. She also received a third BAFTA TV nomination for the 1992 TV film Memento Mori, and her first Emmy nomination for her role in the 1993 TV film Suddenly, Last Summer.
She won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini, in which she played Lady Hester. She also appeared in the films The Secret Garden (1993), Richard III (1995), and Washington Square (1997). Her 1990s stage roles included Three Tall Women in 1994, which won her a fifth Evening Standard award, Claire in A Delicate Balance opposite Eileen Atkins in 1997, and The Lady in the Van in 1999.
Due to the international success of the Harry Potter movies, she is widely known for playing Professor Minerva McGonagall, opposite Daniel Radcliffe in the title role. She has appeared in seven of the eight films in the series from 2001 to 2011. She and Radcliffe had worked together previously in the 1999 BBC television adaptation of David Copperfield, in which she played Betsey Trotwood and received a BAFTA TV Award nomination.
She received her sixth Academy Award nomination for the 2001 film Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman, and won her first Emmy Award for the 2003 TV film My House in Umbria. On stage, she starred as Madeleine Palmer, opposite Judi Dench, in the David Hare play The Breath of Life in 2002, toured Australia in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads in 2004, and starred in The Lady from Dubuque in 2007.
Beginning in 2010, Smith appeared as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the British period drama Downton Abbey. This role won her a Golden Globe Award and two Emmy Awards. In 2014, the role also won her a Screen Actors Guild Award.
In 2012, she played Muriel in the British comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and starred as Jean Horton in Quartet, based on Ronald Harwood's play, directed by actor Dustin Hoffman.
In a March 2015 interview with Joe Utichi in The Sunday Times, Smith announced that the sixth season of Downton Abbey would be her last, it was in fact the last to be produced. On 30 October 2015, Smith appeared on BBC's The Graham Norton Show, her first appearance on a chat show in 42 years. During the show, Smith discussed her appearance in the comedy-drama film The Lady in the Van,which was directed by Nicholas Hytner.
In February 2019, it was announced that Smith would return to the London stage for the first time in twelve years in A German Life. The new play by Christopher Hampton was drawn from the life and testimony of Brunhilde Pomsel (1911–2017), in which Smith was alone on stage, performing a 100-minute-long monologue to the audience. Jonathan Kent took the directorial role.
Today, The Grandma, who is still in Venice, wants to talk about one of her
favourite novels: Herman Melville’s Moby
Dick.
Moby Dick,
aka The
Whale was published in October,
18 1851 during the period of the American Renaissance.
Sailor Ishmael tells
the story of the obsessive quest of Ahab,
captain of the whaler the Pequod,
for revenge on Moby Dick, the white whale which on the previous whaling voyage
destroyed his ship and severed his leg at the knee.
Melville’s
literary inspirations were Shakespeare
and the Bible. The white whale is modeled on the notoriously hard to
catch actual albino whale Mocha Dick, and the ending is based
on the sinking of the whaler Essex
by a whale.
The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and of
extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse
crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and
the existence of God.
In addition to narrative prose, Melville uses styles and
literary devices ranging from songs, poetry, and catalogs to Shakespearean
stage directions, soliloquies, and asides.
The novel
was a commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author's death in
1891, but during the 20th century, its reputation as a Great American Novel was
established.
A scene of Moby Dick
Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. His best known works include Typee (1846), a romantic account of his experiences in Polynesian life, and his whaling novel Moby Dick (1851).
His work was almost forgotten during his last thirty years. His writing draws on his experience at sea as a common sailor, exploration of literature and philosophy, and engagement in the contradictions of American society in a period of rapid change. He developed a complex, baroque style: the vocabulary is rich and original, a strong sense of rhythm infuses the elaborate sentences, the imagery is often mystical or ironic, and the abundance of allusion extends to Scripture, myth, philosophy, literature, and the visual arts.
