Curated category
Knights Bachelor
- J. J. ThomsonJ. J. Thomson, born on the 18th of December 1856 in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, grew up in a household shaped by antiquarian books and a mother rooted in the…
- James ChadwickIn February 1932, after only about two weeks at the laboratory bench, James Chadwick sent a letter to the journal Nature with a deliberately tentative title…
- Andrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber walked into Her Majesty's Theatre on the 11th of February 2012 to mark a milestone that no Broadway show had ever reached: the 10,000th…
- Elton JohnElton John performed "Candle in the Wind 1997" live exactly once: on the 6th of September 1997, at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in Westminster…
- Ian McKellenIan McKellen was nine years old when his main Christmas present arrived: a fold-away wood and bakelite Victorian theatre from Pollocks Toy Theatres, complete…
- Christopher NolanChristopher Nolan does not own a smartphone, and he has no email address. He hand-delivers his scripts to the actors he wants, and his wife handles the rest…
- Michael CaineMaurice Joseph Micklewhite was born on the 14th of March 1933 at St Olave's Hospital in Rotherhithe, a working-class district of London, the son of a fish…
- John GielgudOn the evening of the 20th of October 1953, John Gielgud was arrested in Chelsea for cruising for sex in a public lavatory, an act that was then a crime in…
- George Boleyn, Viscount RochfordGeorge Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, stepped onto Tower Hill on the morning of the 17th of May 1536 to face the axe. The crowd watching was, by all accounts…
- John Dudley, 1st Duke of NorthumberlandJohn Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, died on the 22nd of August 1553 with a curious phrase on his lips: "I have deserved a thousand deaths." He had just…
- Paul McCartneyPaul McCartney wrote his first song, "I Lost My Little Girl", on a £15 Framus Zenith acoustic guitar he had traded for a nickel-plated trumpet his father…
- Arthur Conan DoyleArthur Conan Doyle arrived in Portsmouth in June 1882 with less than ten pounds to his name and no patients waiting for him.
- Edward ElgarEdward Elgar told a friend that he had a tune that would "knock 'em - will knock 'em flat." The tune became the trio of his first Pomp and Circumstance March.
- Ernest RutherfordErnest Rutherford was born on the 30th of August 1871 in Brightwater, New Zealand, the fourth of twelve children, and he died with a burial spot beside Isaac…
- Salman RushdieSalman Rushdie was born on the 19th of June 1947 in Bombay, in British India, into a world on the verge of shattering and remaking itself.
- Ralph Warren (Lord Mayor)Sir Ralph Warren holds a distinction that only a handful of men in the history of London have ever achieved: he served as Lord Mayor of the city not once…
- Kenneth BranaghKenneth Branagh was nine years old when his family packed up and left Belfast, fleeing the early violence of the Troubles.
- Christopher John DewhurstSir Christopher John Dewhurst entered the world on the 2nd of July 1920 in England. He grew up during a time when medical care for women and children was…
- Ernest ShackletonErnest Shackleton died at 2:50 a.m. on the 5th of January 1922, in a cabin aboard his ship, moored off the island of South Georgia.
- Laurence OlivierLaurence Kerr Olivier was born on the 22nd of May 1907 in Dorking, Surrey, the youngest child of a nomadic Church of England clergyman who never quite found…
- Francis DrakeTo the Spanish, Sir Francis Drake was El Draque, the Dragon, a pirate to be feared. To the English, he was a hero. He was the man who, between 1577 and 1580…
- Rabindranath TagoreRabindranath Tagore was eight years old when he wrote his first poetry. At sixteen, he released substantial poems under the pseudonym Bhanusimha, meaning Sun…
- Isaac NewtonSir Isaac Newton said his mother told him he was so small at birth that he could have fit inside a quart mug. He was born prematurely on Christmas Day, the…
- Allen LaneAllen Lane was born in Bristol on the 21st of September 1902, and by the time he died in 1970, he had changed what it meant to buy a book.
- Daniel Day-LewisDaniel Day-Lewis was born on the 29th of April 1957 in Kensington, London, to a poet and an actress. Before most people had ever heard his name, he was…
- Jonathan PryceJonathan Pryce was born John Price on the 1st of June 1947 in Carmel, Flintshire, the son of a former coal miner who ran a small grocery shop.
- Arthur C. ClarkeIn February 1945, a young radar officer named Arthur C. Clarke sent a letter to the editor of Wireless World. He suggested that stations placed in…
- William Smith (lexicographer)William Smith spent his spare hours as a young legal clerk teaching himself ancient Greek and Latin from scratch. By the time he walked into University…
- Charles Villiers StanfordCharles Villiers Stanford was born in Dublin on the 30th of September 1852, into a family where music was not a hobby but a way of life.
- Marc Isambard BrunelMarc Isambard Brunel arrived into the world on the 25th of April 1769. He was born on a family farm in Hacqueville, Normandy.
- Antony BeevorAntony Beevor was born in Kensington, London, on the 14th of December 1946, into a family with writing in its blood going back generations.
- Ringo StarrRingo Starr was born on the 7th of July 1940 at 9 Madryn Street in Dingle, one of the oldest and poorest inner-city districts in Liverpool.
- Lew GradeLev Isaakovich Winogradsky was born in Tokmak, a town within the Berdyansky Uyezd of the Russian Empire. His family fled pogroms in 1912 when he was five…
- Alec GuinnessAlec Guinness walked onto a stage for the first time on his 20th birthday, the 2nd of April 1934, earning a single pound a week and permitted to utter just…
- Richard ArkwrightRichard Arkwright was born on the 23rd of December 1732 in Preston, Lancashire, the youngest of seven surviving children in a family that could not afford to…
- Geoffrey BoleynGeoffrey Boleyn was a hatter's apprentice from Norfolk who died as one of the wealthiest merchants in London, a knighted Lord Mayor who had purchased two of…
- Francis BaconFrancis Bacon dictated his last letter from a borrowed bed in Highgate, his fingers, he wrote, so disjointed with sickness that he could not steadily hold a…
- Nicholas Carew (courtier)Nicholas Carew entered the household of the future King Henry VIII at six years old. He shared his education with the boy who would become England's most…
- David LeanDavid Lean spent fourteen years in silence after one of the most brutal critical encounters in cinema history. At a lunch in the Algonquin Hotel in New York…
- John Boardman (art historian)John Boardman arrived in the world on the 20th of August 1927 within the town of Ilford, Essex. His early years unfolded at Chigwell School between 1938 and…
- Ridley ScottRidley Scott was born on the 30th of November 1937 in South Shields, a port town on the northeast coast of England, to a father who would serve as a Colonel…
- Angus DeatonAngus Deaton was born on the 19th of October 1945 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and he grew up to become one of the economists whose work most fundamentally…
- Joseph BazalgetteJoseph Bazalgette built something most Londoners have never seen, yet walk over every day. In the summer of 1858, the River Thames had become so foul that…
- George MartinGeorge Martin stood at a mixing desk on the 26th of November 1962, listening to the Beatles run through "Please Please Me" for a third time.
- Walter RaleighWalter Raleigh spent the final morning of his life handling the axe that was about to kill him. "This is a sharp Medicine," he reportedly said, "but it is a…
- John Hawkins (author)Sir John Hawkins began his life as an architect, following the footsteps of his father. He worked in that field until he was nearly thirty years old.
- Ben KingsleyBen Kingsley was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji on the 31st of December 1943, in Snainton, North Riding of Yorkshire. He carries within him a world of…
- Idris ElbaIdris Elba was born Idrissa Akuna Elba on the 6th of September 1972 in the London Borough of Hackney, the only child of a Sierra Leonean father who worked at…
- Patrick StewartPatrick Stewart grew a moustache for the role of Macbeth, and when he looked in the mirror just before going on stage, he saw his father's face staring…
- Stanley Unwin (publisher)Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen and Sons on the 1st of January 1914. This transaction transformed his career from an employee…