LOVE, REASON, A BABY & A BIG LOSS FOR BRIDGET JONES

Today, The Morgans & The Grandma have visited an old friend of her, her beloved Bridget Jones.

Before the unforgettable visit, the family has studied some English grammar with Present Continuous.

More information: Present Continuous

Bridget Jones's Diary is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Sharon Maguire and written by Richard Curtis, Andrew Davies, and Helen Fielding.

It is based on Fielding's 1996 novel of the same name, which is a reinterpretation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The adaptation stars Renée Zellweger as Bridget; Colin Firth as Bridget's true love, Mark Darcy; and Hugh Grant as the caddish Daniel Cleaver. Production began in August 2000 and ended in November 2000, and took place largely on location in London and the Home Counties. The film premiered on 4 April 2001 in the United Kingdom and was released to theatres on 13 April 2001 simultaneously in the United Kingdom and in the United States.

Bridget Jones's Diary received positive reviews and was a commercial success, grossing over $280 million worldwide. Zellweger was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film.

A sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, was released in 2004, and another sequel, Bridget Jones's Baby, was released in 2016.

Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) is 32, single, engagingly imperfect, and worried about her weight. She works at a publishing company in London where her main focus is fantasizing about her boss, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant). At her parents' New Year party Bridget is introduced to Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), a childhood acquaintance and barrister, son of her parents' friends. Mark finds Bridget foolish and vulgar and Bridget thinks Mark arrogant and rude, and is disgusted by his novelty Christmas jumper. Overhearing Mark grumble to his mother about her attempt to set him up with a verbally incontinent spinster who smokes like a chimney, drinks like a fish and dresses like her mother, Bridget decides to turn her life around. She begins keeping a diary to chronicle her attempts to stop smoking, lose weight, and find her Mr. Right.

Bridget and Daniel begin to flirt heavily at work, ahead of an important book launch, at which Bridget bumps into Mark and his glamorous but haughty colleague Natasha (Embeth Davidtz). Bridget leaves with Daniel and they have dinner, despite Daniel's notorious reputation as a womaniser. Daniel tells Bridget that he and Mark were formerly friends but says Mark slept with Daniel's fiancée, for which they now hate each other. Bridget and Daniel start dating.

Bridget is invited to a family party, originally a Tarts & Vicars costume party which is tied into a mini break weekend with Daniel. They spend the day before the party at a country inn where Mark and Natasha are also staying. The morning of the party Daniel says he must return to London for work and leaves Bridget to endure the party alone. When she returns to London & drops in on Daniel, she discovers his American colleague, Lara en flagrante (Lisa Barbuscia), naked in his flat. Bridget cuts ties with him and immediately searches for a new career. She lands a new job in television, and when Daniel pleads with her to stay, she declares that she would rather have a job wiping Saddam Hussein's arse.

Bridget attends a friend's long-standing dinner party, where she is the only single person. Once again she crosses paths with Mark and Natasha. Mark privately confesses to Bridget that, despite her faults, he likes her just as you are. Some time later, as a well known barrister, he allows Bridget an exclusive TV interview in a landmark legal case which boosts her career and allows her to begin to see him in a different light.

Bridget begins to develop feelings for Mark, and when she misguidedly and somewhat disastrously, attempts to cook her own birthday dinner party, he comes to her rescue. A drunken Daniel arrives after a happy dinner celebration with Bridget's friends and Mark, and temporarily monopolizes Bridget's attention. Mark leaves, but returns to challenge Daniel and the two fight in the street, eventually smashing through a window of a Greek restaurant. They eventually call a draw only to have Daniel mutter wanker at Mark as he turns away and which only Mark can hear; Mark knocks Daniel down; shocked, Bridget chides Mark and he leaves, but after a self-serving appeal from Daniel, she rejects him as well.

Bridget's mother, Pamela (Gemma Jones) has left Bridget's father, Colin (Jim Broadbent) and begun an affair with perma-tanned shopping channel presenter Julian. When the affair ends, she returns to the Jones's family home with an unintentional revelation: Mark and Daniel's falling-out resulted from Daniel (then Mark's best friend at Cambridge University) sleeping with Mark's wife which Mark walked in on, not the other way around.

At the Darcys' ruby wedding anniversary party the same day, Bridget confesses her feelings for Mark, only to learn that he and Natasha have accepted jobs in New York and are on the verge of an engagement, according to Mark's father. Bridget interrupts the toast with an emotionally moving speech which peters out as she realizes the hopelessness of her position; her words clearly have an effect on Mark, but he still flies to New York. Bridget's friends rally to repair her broken heart with a surprise trip to Paris, but as they are about to leave, Mark appears at Bridget's flat.

Just as they are about to kiss for the first time, Bridget flies to her bedroom to change into sexier underwear. Mark peeks at her diary, finds her older unflattering opinions of him, and leaves. Bridget, realising what he has read and that she might lose him again, runs outside after him in the snow in her tiger skin-print underwear and a skimpy jumper, but is unable to find him. Disheartened, she is about to return home when Mark appears with a new diary for her to make a fresh start. They kiss in the snow-covered street, and Bridget remarks that nice boys don't kiss like that, to which Mark retorts Oh, yes, they fucking do.

More information: The Guardian

 

Well, better dash. I’ve got another party to go to.

It’s single people… mainly poofs. Bye!

Bridget Jones

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is a 2004 romantic comedy film directed by Beeban Kidron and written by Adam Brooks, Richard Curtis, Andrew Davies, and Helen Fielding, based on Fielding's 1999 novel of the same name. It stars Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones, Colin Firth as Mark Darcy, and Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver.

The sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), the film was released in the United Kingdom on 12 November 2004 and in the United States a week later on 19 November 2004 to generally negative reviews from film critics. Despite this, the film was a box office success, grossing over $260 million worldwide.

Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) is ecstatic about her new relationship with Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). However, Bridget's confidence is shattered when she meets Mark's assistant, the beautiful, slim, quick-witted Rebecca Gillies (Jacinda Barrett). At her job on TV morning show Sit-Up Britain, Bridget crosses paths with her ex, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), and is offered a position alongside Cleaver in a new travel series. Bridget initially refuses, declaring Daniel a deceitful, sexist, disgusting specimen of humanity, but eventually signs on, despite her friends' misgivings.

Bridget is delighted when Mark invites her to his Law Council Dinner, believing he will propose afterward. However, a series of fashion/cosmetic mishaps make the evening a debacle, culminating in the team trivia quiz: Bridget makes a critical error on a question about Madonna, which Rebecca Gillies wins, leaving Bridget thoroughly deflated.

After the dinner, Mark and Bridget argue and she leaves in a huff. Mark goes to Bridget's apartment, apologizes, and tells her he loves her for the first time. Later that night, Mark invites Bridget on a ski holiday to Lech, Austria. On the slopes, she learns Rebecca recommended the vacation spot and that she is there as well with a few other colleagues. Bridget suspects that she is pregnant since her period is late, but after an argument over the upbringing and education of their future children, the pregnancy test proves negative. Returning home, Bridget and Mark attend a lunch with their parents, where Bridget is hurt by Mark's dismissal of their prospective marriage.

Bridget overhears a suspicious message from Rebecca on Mark's answering machine and dissects it with her friends, who advise her to confront him; Bridget does, Mark refuses to dignify the question with an answer, and Bridget breaks up with him. She travels to Thailand with her friend, Shazzer (Sally Phillips) and Daniel Cleaver to film The Smooth Guide. Bridget and Daniel visit several exotic locations and flirtily reconnect, but Bridget's trust in Daniel is again demolished by the arrival of a prostitute he ordered, and she realizes he has not changed his boorish ways.

Shazzer has a fling with the much younger Jed (Paul Nicholls), who gives her an ivory tusk as a gift to take back to Britain, which winds up in Bridget's bag. When security dogs at the airport detect a large stash of cocaine inside the tusk, Bridget is arrested and sent to a Thai prison and locked in a cell with almost 50 other Thai female inmates. Feeling low and scared but glad at the friendliness of the inmates, Bridget shares relationship advice with the other inmates and teaches them to sing and dance to Madonna's Like a Virgin. Mark arrives to tell Bridget that her release has been put in motion. After confirming Jed as the true perpetrator and that Bridget spent the night with Daniel Cleaver, he declares that her sex life does not interest him; Bridget does not correct his presumption, and he departs, leaving Bridget certain he no longer loves her. Back in Britain, Mark confronts Daniel for abandoning Bridget in Thailand, and they fight outside an art gallery in Kensington Gardens. Daniel swears off Bridget for good and sarcastically suggests to Mark, Why don't you just marry her?

Bridget arrives at Heathrow Airport as an international human rights celebrity. She is greeted by her parents, who have been busy planning their vow renewal ceremony. At home, Bridget is surprised by her friends, who reveal that Mark personally tracked down the drug trafficker Jed, secured his custody and extradition, and forced him to admit Bridget's innocence. Hopeful that Mark still loves her, Bridget immediately runs to his house. She finds Rebecca there and assumes she is romantically involved with Mark, but Rebecca reveals that she is actually infatuated with Bridget and kisses her; though flattered, Bridget politely turns her down.

Bridget confronts Mark at his legal chambers and asks him to give her another chance. Mark proposes to Bridget and she accepts. The film ends with Bridget's parents renewing their vows and Bridget catching the bouquet.

More information: The Guardian

 

I truly believe that happiness is possible...

even when you're thirty-three and have a bottom

the size of two bowling balls.
 

Bridget Jones

Bridget Jones's Baby is a 2016 romantic comedy film directed by Sharon Maguire and written by Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer and Emma Thompson, based on the fictional columns by Fielding. It is the third film in the franchise and a sequel to 2004 film Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. The film stars Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones, who after becoming pregnant is unsure if Mark Darcy (Colin Firth, also reprising his role) or Jack Qwant (Patrick Dempsey) is the father.

Filming began on 2 October 2015 in London. The film was released theatrically on 16 September 2016 in the United Kingdom and United States and on 5 October in France. It received generally positive reviews and grossed over $211 million worldwide.

On her forty-third birthday, Bridget Jones attends the funeral of Daniel Cleaver, presumed dead after a plane crash. She sees her ex Mark Darcy with his new wife Camilla.

Bridget now works as a television producer and is close friends with anchor Miranda. After spending the night of her birthday alone, Bridget embraces her single life, accepting Miranda's offer to go to a music festival where she meets a man called Jack. Later that evening a drunk Bridget crawls into a yurt she thinks belongs to her and Miranda, but actually belongs to Jack. Despite the surprise, Jack invites her to stay and the two have a one-night stand. In the morning, finding the bed empty, Bridget leaves, unaware Jack is out getting breakfast for both of them.

Returning home, Bridget goes to the christening of Jude's youngest child, where she is the godmother and Mark has been asked to be the godfather at the last minute. Mark tells her that he and his wife are divorcing and Camilla was only at the funeral for moral support. Realising they are still in love, Bridget and Mark spend the night together. Mark says he is travelling for work early the next day, so Bridget exits before he wakes up, leaving behind a note telling him that reconnecting with him is too painful.

A few weeks later, Bridget realises she is pregnant. She decides that she wants to keep the baby despite being single, as it might be her last chance to have a child. After a visit to the clinic of Dr. Rawling, she realises that the father could be Mark or Jack. She is unable to contact Jack until Miranda spots him on an TV ad and they realise he is Jack Qwant, a billionaire inventor of a dating website.

Miranda conspires with Bridget to have Jack as a guest on their news show so that they can take DNA samples to work out if Jack is the father. Although Bridget tries to stay incognito, Jack recognises her and asks her why she left after their night together. She apologises and decides to tell him that she is pregnant and that he is the father, without mentioning Mark. Initially taken aback at the responsibility of having a child with a stranger, Jack throws himself into the role of being a father. Bridget also tells Mark the news who is so thrilled at the prospect that she cannot find the courage to tell him about Jack. Dr Rawlings tries to administer a DNA test, but Bridget decides not to go ahead with it while her child is still in the womb as she is terrified by the risk of miscarriage.

Bridget invites Jack to a work event, and is startled when Mark shows up as well. The two men meet, and the three go out to dinner, where Bridget finally admits that she is unsure who the father is. Although disappointed, Jack takes the news well, but Mark is upset and walks out though he eventually becomes supportive as well. Mark and Jack eventually become jealous of each other and when Jack implies that he and Bridget had sex without condoms Mark leaves and ignores Bridget's calls. Jack asks her to move in with him, but he eventually confesses to Bridget what he told Mark. Upset, Bridget rushes to talk to Mark, but sees his wife arriving at his house, so she walks away.

Nine months into her pregnancy Bridget finds herself locked out in the rain. Mark arrives and breaks into the flat for her. After Bridget asks him about his wife at his flat, he informs her that she was there to pick up the last of her things. Just as they are about to kiss, Bridget's water breaks. When his phone rings for work, Mark throws it out the window, which, although romantic, leaves them without a means to call help. They eventually make it to the hospital with some help from Jack. Later Jack apologises to Mark for his behaviour. Bridget gives birth to a boy, and her friends and parents come to visit them. Rawlings takes Mark and Jack away to perform the DNA test, and they genuinely wish each other luck.

A year later, Bridget is at church for her wedding to Mark. Jack Qwant attends as a guest and holds onto Bridget and Mark's son William.

Later a newspaper lying on a bench reveals that Daniel Cleaver has been found alive.

More information: The Guardian

 

Sometimes you love someone

because he is not the same as you.

And sometimes you love someone

because it feels like home.

Bridget Jones

 

 

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is a 2025 romantic comedy film directed by Michael Morris from a screenplay by Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer and Abi Morgan. The sequel to Bridget Jones's Baby (2016) and the fourth installment in the Bridget Jones film series, it is based on the 2013 novel by Fielding. 

 

Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth and Emma Thompson reprise their roles as Bridget Jones, Daniel Cleaver, Mark Darcy and Doctor Rawlings, respectively, from previous installments, with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Leo Woodall, Isla Fisher, Josette Simon, Nico Parker and Leila Farzad joining the cast.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy was first released in France on 12 February 2025, in the United States on the streaming service Peacock on 13 February 2025, and internationally in theaters by Universal Pictures on 14 February 2025.

 

More information: Mashable

 

 

I am brave, though I am alone.

 

Bridget Jones

THE ROYAL EXCHANGE, CENTER OF COMMERCE IN LONDON

Today, The Winsors & The Grandma have visited The Royal Exchange in London, centre of commerce for the City.

 

The family wants to invest in the city and buy some propierties, and they want to test commerce and business in the English capital before spending its money.

 

Before this visit, the family has studied some English grammar with Present Continuos in both aspects -present and future plans- and House Vocabulary.

 

 More information: Present Continuous

 

Download The House Vocabulary

 

Download Business Vocabulary (Not necessary for A2)

 

Download English Commerical Terms (Not necessary for A2)

 

Download English Commercial Acronyms & Abbreviations  

(Not necessary for A2)

 
The Royal Exchange in London was founded in the 16th century by the merchant Sir Thomas Gresham on the suggestion of his factor Richard Clough to act as a centre of commerce for the City of London.

The site was provided by the City of London Corporation and the Worshipful Company of Mercers, who still jointly own the freehold. It is trapezoidal in shape and is flanked by Cornhill and Threadneedle Street, which converge at Bank junction in the heart of the City. It lies in the ward of Cornhill.

The building's original design was inspired by a bourse Gresham had seen in Antwerp, the Antwerp bourse, and was Britain's first specialist commercial building.

It has twice been destroyed by fire and subsequently rebuilt. The present building was designed by Sir William Tite in the 1840s. The site was notably occupied by the Lloyd's insurance market for nearly 150 years. Today the Royal Exchange contains a Courtyard Grand Cafe, Threadneedle Cocktail Bar, Sauterelle Restaurant, luxury shops, and offices.

More information: The Royal Exchange

Traditionally, the steps of the Royal Exchange is the place where certain royal proclamations, such as the dissolution of parliament, are read out by either a herald or a crier. Following the death or abdication of a monarch and the confirmation of the next monarch's accession to the throne by the Accession Council, the Royal Exchange Building is one of the locations where a herald proclaims the new monarch's reign to the public.

Richard Clough initially suggested building the exchange in 1562, and oversaw the importing of some of the materials from Antwerp: stone, slate, wainscot and glass, for which he paid thousands of pounds himself.

The Royal Exchange was officially opened on 23 January 1571 by Queen Elizabeth I who awarded the building its royal title and a licence to sell alcohol and valuable goods. Only the exchange of goods took place until the 17th century.

Stockbrokers were not allowed into the Royal Exchange because of their rude manners, hence they had to operate from other establishments in the vicinity, such as Jonathan's Coffee-House. Gresham's original building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. 

A second complex was built on the site, designed by Edward Jarman and opened in 1669, but that also burned down, on 10 January 1838. It had been used by the Lloyd's insurance market, which was forced to move temporarily to South Sea House following the 1838 fire.

The third Royal Exchange building, which still stands today, was designed by Sir William Tite and adheres to the original layout -consisting of a four-sided structure surrounding a central courtyard where merchants and tradesmen could do business. The internal works, designed by Edward I'Anson in 1837, made use of concrete- an early example of this modern construction method. It features pediment sculptures by Richard Westmacott, the younger, and ornamental cast ironwork by Henry Grissell's Regent's Canal Ironworks.

It was opened by Queen Victoria on 28 October 1844 though trading did not commence until 1 January 1845.

In June 1844, just before the reopening of the Royal Exchange, a statue of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, was unveiled outside the building. The bronze used to cast it was sourced from enemy cannons captured during Wellington's continental campaigns.

Paul Julius Reuter established the Reuters news agency at No. 1, Royal Exchange Buildings, opposite and to the east of the Royal Exchange, in 1851. It later moved to Fleet Street.

More information: British History Online

The western end of the building consists of a portico of eight Corinthian columns topped by a pediment containing a tympanum with a sculptured frieze by Richard Westmacott, the younger. The central figure represents Commerce, above an inscription from the Bible: The Earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. The Latin inscription states that the Exchange was founded in the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth, and restored in the eighth of Queen Victoria.

Two statues stand in niches in the central courtyard. Charles II a copy of 1792 by John Spiller after Grinling Gibbons' statue in the centre of the C17 courtyard, and Queen Elizabeth I by M. L. Watson, 1844. The Charles II statue survived the fire of 1838 that destroyed the previous Exchange. The Elizabeth I statue was commissioned as she was the monarch who had conferred the status Royal on the Exchange.

In 1982 the Royal Exchange was in disrepair -particularly the glass roof was in danger of collapse. The newly-formed London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE) was the main tenant, using the courtyard for the trading floor, all done without touching the framework of the original building. Other tenants moved in later and as a result of LIFFE's presence, not only did the City experience growth in trading and greater efficiency in pricing, but also a boost to the area around the Royal Exchange which had hitherto been sleepy at best.

In 2001 the Royal Exchange, interiors and courtyard, was once again extensively remodelled, this time by architects Aukett Fitzroy Robinson. Reconstruction of the courtyard created new boutiques and restaurants to add to the existing retailers on the perimeter. The Royal Exchange is now a retail centre with shops, cafes and restaurants. The restaurants include Royal Exchange Grand Cafe, Threadneedle Cocktail Bar and Sauterelle Restaurant. Shops include Boodles, Hermès, Georg Jensen and Tiffany & Co. In 2003 the Grand Café and Bar was launched and completed the building.

In Royal Exchange Buildings, a lane by the eastern entrance to the Royal Exchange, stand two statues: one of Paul Julius Reuter who founded his news agency there, and one of George Peabody who founded the Peabody Trust and a business which became J.P. Morgan & Co.

In 2013, the Royal Exchange was sold by the Anglo Irish Private Bank to Oxford Properties, a Canadian property company. It had been announced that the site would be sold with a 104-year lease. Oxford Properties Group, a division of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, bought the retail centre for a reported £86.5 million.

More information: History

 

 

Enter into the Royal Exchange of London,

a place more respectable than many courts,

in which deputies from all nations assemble

for the advantage of mankind.

Voltaire

WINSTON CHURCHILL, RESILIENCE & WAR PROPAGANDA

Today, The Fosters and The Grandma have met, Winston Churchill, the British politician, statesman, army officer who has become one of the greatest figures in our recent history.

The family has been listening to some sad stories about Succession War, Spanish Civil War and WWII, and has discovered the great resilience of population under this kind of conflicts.

Before this, the family has been practising some English grammar with Present Continuous, and The Grandma has explained a popular Mallorcan legend named El Salt de la Bella Dona.

More information: Present Continuous

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (30 November 1874-24 January 1965) was a British politician, statesman, army officer, and writer, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.

As Prime Minister, Churchill led Britain to victory in the Second World War. Churchill represented five constituencies during his career as Member of Parliament (MP). Ideologically an economic liberal and British imperialist, he began and ended his parliamentary career as a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955, but for twenty years from 1904 he was a prominent member of the Liberal Party.

Winston Churchill, in addition to his careers of soldier and politician, was a prolific writer under the pen name Winston S. Churchill. After being commissioned into the 4th Queen's Own Hussars in 1895, Churchill gained permission to observe the Cuban War of Independence, and sent war reports to The Daily Graphic. He continued his war journalism in British India, at the Siege of Malakand, then in the Sudan during the Mahdist War and in southern Africa during the Second Boer War.

Churchill's fictional output included one novel and a short story, but his main output comprised non-fiction. After he was elected as an MP, over 130 of his speeches or parliamentary answers were also published in pamphlets or booklets; many were subsequently published in collected editions.

Churchill received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.

In 1895 Winston Churchill was commissioned cornet, second lieutenant, into the 4th Queen's Own Hussars. His annual pay was £300, and he calculated he needed an additional £500 to support a style of life equal to that of other officers of the regiment. To earn the required funds, he gained his colonel's agreement to observe the Cuban War of Independence; his mother, Lady Randolph Churchill, used her influence to secure a contract for her son to send war reports to The Daily Graphic.

More information: International Churchill Society

He was subsequently posted back to his regiment, then based in British India, where he took part in, and reported on the Siege of Malakand; the reports were published in The Pioneer and The Daily Telegraph. The reports formed the basis of his first book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force, which was published in 1898. To relax he also wrote his only novel, Savrola, which was published in 1898. That same year he was transferred to the Sudan to take part in the Mahdist War (1881–99), where he participated in the Battle of Omdurman in September 1898. He published his recollections in The River War (1899).

In 1899 Churchill resigned his commission and travelled to South Africa as the correspondent with The Morning Post, on a salary of £250 a month plus all expenses, to report on the Second Boer War. He was captured by the Boers in November that year, but managed to escape. He remained in the country and continued to send in his reports to the newspaper. He subsequently published his despatches in two works, London to Ladysmith via Pretoria and Ian Hamilton's March, both 1900. He returned to Britain in 1900 and was elected as the Member of parliament for the Oldham constituency at that year's general election.

As a serving MP he began publishing pamphlets containing his speeches or answers to key parliamentary questions. Beginning with Mr Winston Churchill on the Education Bill (1902), over 135 such tracts were published over his career. Many of these were subsequently compiled into collections, several of which were edited by his son, Randolph and others of which were edited by Charles Eade, the editor of the Sunday Dispatch.

In addition to his parliamentary duties, Churchill wrote a two-volume biography of his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, published in 1906, in which he presented his father as a tory with increasingly radical sympathies, according to the historian Paul Addison.

In the 1923 general election Churchill lost his parliamentary seat and moved to the south of France where he wrote The World Crisis, a six-volume history of the First World War, published between 1923 and 1931. The book was well-received, although the former Prime Minister Arthur Balfour dismissed the work as Winston's brilliant autobiography, disguised as world history. 

At the 1924 general election Churchill returned to the Commons. In 1930 he wrote his first autobiography, My Early Life, after which he began his researches for Marlborough: His Life and Times (1933–38), a four-volume biography of his ancestor, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. Before the final volume was published, Churchill wrote a series of biographical profiles for newspapers, which were later collected together and published as Great Contemporaries (1937).

In May 1940, eight months after the outbreak of the Second World War, Churchill became Prime Minister. He wrote no histories during his tenure, although several collections of his speeches were published. At the end of the war he was voted out of office at the 1945 election; he returned to writing and, with a research team headed by the historian William Deakin, produced a six-volume history, The Second World War (1948–53). The books became a best-seller in both the UK and US. 

Churchill served as Prime Minister for a second time between October 1951 and April 1955 before resigning the premiership; he continued to serve as an MP until 1964. His final major work was the four-volume work A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956–58).

More information: National Churchill Museum

 

Never, never, never give up.

 

Winston Churchill

CONEY ISLAND, WE ARE ENJOYING AN AMAZING DAY!

Today, The Grangers & The Grandma have visited Coney Island, an entertainment area in Brooklyn, New York City.

Before this visit, The Grangers have been preparing their Cambridge Exam. They have studied Present Continuous.

More information: Present Continuous

Coney Island is a peninsular neighbourhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

The neighbourhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to the north and includes the subsection of Sea Gate on its west.

More broadly, Coney Island or sometimes for clarity the Coney Island peninsula consists of Coney Island proper, Brighton Beach, and Manhattan Beach. This was formerly the westernmost of the Outer Barrier islands on the southern shore of Long Island, but in the early 20th century it became a peninsula, connected to the rest of Long Island by land fill.

The origin of Coney Island's name is disputed, but the area was originally part of the colonial town of Gravesend. By the mid-19th century it had become a seaside resort, and by the late 19th century, amusement parks had also been built at the location.

The attractions reached a historical peak during the first half of the 20th century. However, they declined in popularity after World War II and, following years of neglect, several structures were torn down.

Various redevelopment projects were proposed for Coney Island in the 1970s through the 2000s, though most of these were not carried out. The area was revitalized with the opening of MCU Park in 2001 and several amusement rides starting in the 2010s.

Coney Island had around 32,000 residents as of the 2010 United States Census. The neighbourhood is ethnically diverse, and the neighbourhood's poverty rate of 27% is slightly higher than that of the city as a whole.

The original Native American inhabitants of the region, the Lenape, called this area Narrioch, possibly meaning land without shadows or always in light in reference to its sunlit south-facing beaches. A second possible meaning is point or corner of land.

The island was originally several smaller historical islands, each being given a name by Dutch settlers, with the westernmost sand spit or point being given named Conyne Eylandt in early-17th-century Dutch maps, starting with the 1639 Manatus Map.

More information: Coney Island History

Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European explorer to sight the island of Narrioch during his expeditions to the area in 1527 and 1529. He was subsequently followed by Henry Hudson.  Anthony Janszoon van Salee was the first New Netherlands settler to acquire land adjacent to Coney Island, in 1639.

The Native American population in the area dwindled as the Dutch settlement grew and the entire southern tier of present-day Brooklyn, from Gowanus Creek to Coney Island to Gerritsen Creek, was purchased in 1645 from the Native Americans in exchange for goods. The goods were not recorded in the deed, but later accounts mention a gun, a blanket, and a kettle.

Between about 1880 and World War II, Coney Island was the largest amusement area in the United States, attracting several million visitors per year. Its development as an amusement area was concurrent with the erection of urban amusement parks elsewhere in the United States, which changed amusement from a passive to an active concept.

Coney Island has two amusement parks, Luna Park and Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, as well as several rides that are not incorporated into either amusement park. These are owned and managed by several different companies and operate independently of each other.

Coney Island also has several other visitor attractions such as skeeball and ball tossing, as well as a sideshow, that contains shooting, throwing, and tossing skills. The area hosts renowned events as well.

Coney Island's amusement area is one of a few in the United States that is not mostly owned by any one entity.

There is a broad public sand beach that starts at Sea Gate at West 37th Street, through the central Coney Island area and Brighton Beach, to the beginning of the community of Manhattan Beach, a distance of approximately 4.3 km.

The beach is continuous and is served for its entire length by the broad Riegelmann Boardwalk. Numerous amusements, as well as the aquarium and a variety of food shops and arcades, are directly accessible from the landward side of the boardwalk.

The boardwalk in Manhattan Beach, located within Manhattan Beach Park, is not connected with the Riegelmann Boardwalk.

More information: Ultimate History Project

I'd go to Coney Island to hang out,
and I saw a magician doing a rope trick
on the boardwalk. I was fascinated.
I guess that's how it started.

David Blaine

THE STONES ARE VISITING WOLVERHAMPTON, STAFFS.

Today, The Stones and The Grandma have travelled from Manchester to Wolverhampton. Some days ago, Pep Guardiola invited all the family to watch to the match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Manchester City.

They are very happy with this invitation and they have visited an interesting old city that has offered them lots of attractions and things to see.

During the travel to Wolverhampton, The Grandma has explained some new English grammar. She has chosen Present Continuous and 'The' Article. They have had enough time to read some pages of Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost and they have been talking about the origin of hazard name.

It has been another amazing day. Tomorrow, they are spending the last day in Manchester before preparing their new destination: Hawaii.

More information: Present Continuous & 'The' Article

Wolverhampton is a city, metropolitan borough, and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 249,470. Natives of the city are called Wulfrunians.

Historically part of Staffordshire, the city grew initially as a market town specialising in the wool trade. In the Industrial Revolution, it became a major centre for coal mining, steel production, lock making, and the manufacture of cars and motorcycles. The economy of the city is still based on engineering, including a large aerospace industry, as well as the service sector.

The city is named after Wulfrun, who founded the town in 985, from the Anglo-Saxon Wulfrūnehēantūn. Prior to the Norman Conquest, the area's name appears only as variants of Heantune or Hamtun, the prefix Wulfrun or similar appearing in 1070 and thereafter. Alternatively, the city may have earned its original name from Wulfereēantūn after the Mercian King, who according to tradition established an abbey in 659, though no evidence of an abbey has been found. The variation Wolveren Hampton is seen in medieval records in 1381.

A local tradition states that King Wulfhere of Mercia founded an abbey of St Mary at Wolverhampton in 659.

Wolverhampton is recorded as being the site of a decisive battle between the unified Mercian Angles and West Saxons against the raiding Danes in 910, although sources are unclear as to whether the battle itself took place in Wednesfield or Tettenhall.

In 985, King Ethelred the Unready granted lands at a place referred to as Heantun to Lady Wulfrun by royal charter, and hence founding the settlement.

Wolverhampton is recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 as being in the Hundred of Seisdon and the county of Staffordshire. The lords of the manor are listed as the canons of St Mary, the church's dedication was changed to St Peter after this date, with the tenant-in-chief being Samson, William the Conqueror's personal chaplain.

From the 16th century onwards, Wolverhampton became home to a number of metal industries including lock and key making and iron and brass working.

Wolverhampton suffered two Great Fires: the first in April 1590, and the second in September 1696. Both fires started in today's Salop Street. The first fire lasted for five days and left nearly 700 people homeless, whilst the second destroyed 60 homes in the first five hours. This second fire led to the purchase of the first fire engine within the city in September 1703.

More information: Wolverhampton

Wolverhampton had a prolific bicycle industry from 1868 to 1975, during which time a total of more than 200 bicycle manufacturing companies existed there, but today none exist at all.

Closures of other smaller cycle makers followed during the 1980s including such well-known hand-builders as Percy Stallard, the former professional cyclist, and Jack Hateley.

Wolverhampton High Level station, the current main railway station, opened in 1852, but the original station was demolished in 1965 and then rebuilt. Wolverhampton Low Level station opened on the Great Western Railway in 1855.

England's first automatic traffic lights could be seen in Princes Square, Wolverhampton in 1927. The modern traffic lights at this location have the traditional striped poles to commemorate this fact. Princes Square was also the location of the United Kingdom's first pedestrian safety barriers, which were erected in 1934.

On 2 November 1927, the A4123 New Road was opened by the then-Prince of Wales linking the city with Birmingham. The New Road was designed as an unemployment relief project and was the United Kingdom's first purpose-built intercity highway of the twentieth century.

Large numbers of black and Asian immigrants settled in Wolverhampton in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Wolverhampton is home to a large proportion of the Sikh community, who settled there during the period (1935–1975) from the Indian state of Punjab. Today, the Sikh community in Wolverhampton is roughly 9.1% of the city's population.

More information: Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club

 Hi-Ho Wolverhampton!
Everywhere you go there's aggro.
I see your boots are shining.
And I'll make a fuss about The Wanderers.

 Wolverhampton Anthem

THE JONES MEET ÉDITH PIAF, L'HYMNE À L'AMOUR

Memories of Merche Jones in Ponferrada, El Bierzo

Today, The Jones have revised some English Grammar like Future Simple, Present Simple vs. Continuous, Relative Pronouns, the Comparative and the Superlative. The family has talked about some women who were the best in their professions: Édith Piaf, the best French singer; Audrey Hepburn, the best Belgian actress and Mercè Rodoreda, the best Catalan writer.

More information: Future Simple vs. Future Continuous

Merche Jones has talked about Ponferrada and its wonderful Templar castle and The Grandma has taken profit to talk about the Templar Order and its influence in all the Mediterranean, from Malta to Aragon, from Rhodes to Jerusalem, from Catalonia to Syria, from Campania to Sicily firstly and other lands in the Atlantic like France, England or Scotland later.

More information: Present Simple vs. Present Continuous I, II & III

Templar Knights helped all the pilgrims who need protection to escape or to exile until Friday, October 13, 1307 when French Templars were simultaneously arrested by agents of King Philip, following the order of the Pope Clement, later to be tortured into admitting heresy and other sacrilegious offenses in the Order and killed. It has been a terrific story that has explained the origins of the legend of Friday, 13 as a day plenty of misfortune.

More information: Comparative vs. Superlative I & II

This afternoon, The Jones are going shopping in the best and the most luxurious Parisian shops in Avenue Montaigne before travelling to Euro Disney to spend this next weekend.

More information: Templar History & Real Mof History

In tough times, we all hope for knights in shining armor, 

or the cavalry, to show up and effect change. 

Dean Devlin

Édith Piaf (1915-1963), nee Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer, songwriter, cabaret performer and film actress noted as France's national chanteuse and one of the country's widely known international stars.

Piaf's music was often autobiographical and she specialized in chanson and torch ballads about love, loss and sorrow. Her most widely known songs include La Vie en rose, Non, je ne regrette rien, Hymne à l'amour, Milord, La Foule, L'Accordéoniste and Padam, padam.

Édith Piaf

Much of Piaf's life is unknown. She was born Édith Giovanna Gassion in Belleville, Paris. Legend has it that she was born on the pavement of Rue de Belleville 72, but her birth certificate cites that she was born on 19 December 1915 at the Hôpital Tenon, a hospital located at the 20th arrondissement.

She was named Édith after the World War I British nurse Edith Cavell, who was executed for helping French soldiers escape from German captivity. Piaf –slang for sparrow– was a nickname she received 20 years later.

In 1935, Piaf was discovered in the Pigalle area of Paris by nightclub owner Louis Leplée, whose club Le Gerny's off the Champs-Élysées was frequented by the upper and lower classes alike.

More information: Biography

Piaf's career and fame gained momentum during the German occupation of France. She performed in various nightclubs and brothels, which flourished during the 1940–1945 Années Erotiques. She lived above the L'Étoile de Kléber, a famous nightclub and bordello close to the Paris Gestapo headquarters.

Piaf was deemed to have been a traitor and collaboratrice. She had to testify before a purge panel, as there were plans to ban her from appearing on radio transmissions. However, her secretary Andrée Bigard, a member of the Résistance, spoke in her favour after the Liberation. Piaf was quickly back in the singing business and then, in December 1944, she went on stage for the Allied forces together with Montand in Marseille.

Edith Piaf's Homebirth

Although she was denied a funeral Mass by Cardinal Maurice Feltin because of her lifestyle, her funeral procession drew tens of thousands of mourners onto the streets of Paris and the ceremony at the cemetery was attended by more than 100,000 fans.  

Charles Aznavour recalled that Piaf's funeral procession was the only time since the end of World War II that he saw Parisian traffic come to a complete stop.

In 1973 the Association of the Friends of Édith Piaf was formed followed by the inauguration of the Place Édith Piaf in Belleville in 1981. Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina named a small planet, 3772 Piaf, in her honor.

In Paris, a two-room museum is dedicated to her, the Musée Édith Piaf. On 10 October 2013, fifty years after her death, the Roman Catholic Church gave her a memorial Mass in the St. Jean-Baptiste Church in Belleville the parish into which she was born.

More information: History Today

Singing is a way of escaping. It's another world. 

I'm no longer on earth. 

Édith Piaf

Mercè Rodoreda i Gurguí (1908-1983) was a Catalan novelist, who wrote in Catalan. She is considered by many to be the most important Catalan novelist of the postwar period. Her novel La plaça del diamant, translated as The Time of the Doves (1962) has become the most acclaimed Catalan novel of all time and has been translated into over 30 languages.

She was born at 340 carrer de Balmes, Barcelona, in 1908. In 1928, just 20 years old, she married her uncle Joan Gurguí, 14 years her senior, and in 1929 she had her only child, Jordi. 

Grandma's memories with Mercè Rodoreda

She began her writing career with short stories in magazines, as an escape from her unhappy marriage. 

She then wrote psychological novels, including Aloma which won the Crexells Prize, but even with the success this novel enjoyed, Rodoreda decided to remake and republish it some years later since she was not fully satisfied with this period of her life and her works at that time.

At the start of the Spanish Civil War, she worked for the Generalitat de Catalunya, the autonomous Government of Catalonia. She was exiled in France and later Switzerland, where in 1957 she broke her silence with the publication of her book Twenty-Two short stories, which earned her the Víctor Català Prize.

 More information: Fundació Mercè Rodoreda (IEC)

With El Carrer de les Camèlies (1966) she won several prizes. In the 1970s, she returned to Romanyà de la Selva in Catalonia and finished the novel Mirall trencat in 1974.

Amongst other works came Viatges i flors and Quanta, quanta guerra in 1980, which was also the year in which she won the Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes. During the last period of her lifetime, her works developed from her usual psychologic style to become more akin to symbolism in its more cryptic form.

In 1998 a literature prize was instituted in her name: the Mercè Rodoreda prize for short stories and narratives. She was made a Member of Honour of the Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana, the Association of Writers in Catalan Language. 

She died in Girona and interred in the cemetery of Romanyà de la Selva.

More information: Visat

I write because I like to write. If I did not look exaggerated 
I would say that I write to please me.

Mercè Rodoreda