Country	England
Region	London
Official name	Wapping
Static image
Static image caption	The Prospect of Whitby is a Wapping landmark.
Latitude	51.5073
Longitude	-0.0610
Os grid reference	TQ345805
Post town	LONDON
Postcode area	E
Postcode district	E1W
London borough	Tower Hamlets
Dial code	020
Constituency westminster	Poplar and Limehouse }}

Wapping ( ) is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets which forms part of the Docklands to the east of the City of London. It is situated between the north bank of the River Thames and the ancient thoroughfare simply called The Highway. Wapping's proximity to the river has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through its riverside public houses and steps, such as the Prospect of Whitby and Wapping Stairs.

Many of the original buildings were demolished during the construction of the London Docks and Wapping was further seriously damaged during the Blitz. As the London Docklands declined after the Second World War, the area became run down, with the great warehouses left empty. The area's fortunes were transformed during the 1980s by the London Docklands Development Corporation when the warehouses started to be converted into luxury flats.

Rupert Murdoch moved his News International printing and publishing works into Wapping in 1986, resulting in a trade union dispute that became known as the "Battle of Wapping".

History

Origins

The area was first settled by Saxons, from whom it takes its name (meaning literally "[the place of] Wæppa's people"). It developed along the embankment of the Thames, hemmed in by the river to the south and the now-drained Wapping Marsh to the north. This gave it a peculiarly narrow and constricted shape, consisting of little more than the axis of Wapping High Street and some north-south side streets. John Stow, the 16th century historian, described it as a "continual street, or a filthy strait passage, with alleys of small tenements or cottages, built, inhabited by sailors' victuallers".

Wapping's proximity to the river gave it a strong maritime character for centuries, well into the 20th century. It was inhabited by sailors, mastmakers, boat-builders, blockmakers, instrument-makers, victuallers and representatives of all the other trades that supported the seafarer. Wapping was also the site of 'Execution Dock', where pirates and other water-borne criminals faced execution by hanging from a gibbet constructed close to the low water mark. Their bodies would be left dangling until they had been submerged three times by the tide.

The Bell Inn, by execution dock was run by Samuel Batts. His daughter, Elizabeth, married James Cook in 1762 at Barking, after the Royal Navy captain had stayed at the Inn. The couple initially settled in Shadwell, attending St Paul's church, but later moved to Mile End. Although they had six children together, much of their married life was spent apart, with Cook absent on his voyages and, after his murder in 1779 at Kealakekua Bay, she survived until 1835.

Dockland area

Said to be England's first, the Marine Police Force was formed in 1798 by magistrate Patrick Colquhoun and a Master Mariner, John Harriott, to tackle theft and looting from ships anchored in the Pool of London and the lower reaches of the river. Its base was (and remains) in Wapping High Street and it is now known as the Marine Support Unit. The Thames Police Museum, dedicated to the history of the Marine Police Force, is currently housed within the headquarters of the Marine Support Unit, and is open to the public by appointment.

In 1811, the horrific Ratcliff Highway murders took place nearby at The Highway and Wapping Lane.

The area's strong maritime associations changed radically in the 19th century when the London Docks were built to the north and west of the High Street. Wapping's population plummeted by nearly 60% during that century, with many houses destroyed by the construction of the docks and giant warehouses along the riverfront. Squeezed between the high walls of the docks and warehouses, the district became isolated from the rest of London, although some relief was provided by Brunel's Thames Tunnel to Rotherhithe. The opening of Wapping tube station on the East London Line in 1869 provided a direct rail link to the rest of London.

Modern times

Wapping was devastated by German bombing in World War II and by the post-war closure of the docks. It remained a run-down and derelict area into the 1980s, when the area was transferred to the management of the London Docklands Development Corporation, a government quango with the task of redeveloping the Docklands. The London Docks were largely filled in and redeveloped with a variety of commercial, light industrial and residential properties.

In 1986, Rupert Murdoch's News International built a new £80m printing and publishing works in the north of Wapping. This became the scene of violent protests after News International's UK operation moved from Fleet Street to Wapping, with over 5,000 print workers being sacked when new technology was introduced.

Wapping dispute

The "Wapping dispute" or "Battle of Wapping" was, along with the miners' strike of 1984-85, a significant turning point in the history of the trade union movement and of UK industrial relations. It started on 24 January 1986 when some 6,000 newspaper workers went on strike after protracted negotiation with their employer, News International (parent of Times Newspapers and News Group Newspapers, and chaired by Rupert Murdoch). News International had built and clandestinely equipped a new printing plant for all its titles in Wapping, and when the print unions announced a strike it activated this new plant with the assistance of the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union (EETPU).

The plant was nicknamed "Fortress Wapping" when the sacked print workers effectively besieged it, mounting round-the-clock pickets and blockades in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to thwart the move. In 2005, News International announced the intention to move the print works to regional presses based in Broxbourne (the world's largest printing plant, opened March 2008), Liverpool and Glasgow. The editorial staff were to remain, however, and there was talk of redeveloping the sizeable plot that makes up the printing works.

Landmarks

Perhaps Wapping's greatest attraction is the Thames foreshore itself, and the venerable public houses that face onto it. A number of the old 'stairs', such as Wapping Old Stairs and Pelican Stairs (by the Prospect of Whitby) give public access to a littoral zone (for the Thames is tidal at this point) littered with flotsam, jetsam and fragments of old dock installations. Understandably it is popular with amateur archaeologists and treasure hunters - it is surprisingly easy for even a casual visitor to pick up a centuries-old shard of pottery here.

St George in the East

St George in the East on Cannon Street Road is one of six Hawksmoor churches in London, built from 1714 to 1729, with funding from the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches.

When the church was hit by a bomb during the Blitz the original interior was destroyed by the fire, but the walls and distinctive "pepper-pot" towers stayed up. In 1964 a modern church interior was constructed inside the existing walls for the active congregation, and a new flat built under each corner tower.

Behind the church lies St George's Gardens, the original cemetery, which was passed to Stepney Council to maintain as a public park in mid-Victorian times.

At the outbreak of the World War II the crypt of the church was used as a public air raid shelter and was fully occupied when the aforementioned bomb struck. There were no casualties and everyone was evacuated safely (thanks to the air raid wardens and fire brigade).

Execution Dock

The "Execution Dock" was located on the Thames. It was used by the Admiralty for over 400 years (as late as 1830) to hang pirates that had been convicted and sentenced to death by the Admiralty court.

The Admiralty only had jurisdiction over crimes on the sea, so the dock was located within their jurisdiction by being located far enough offshore as to be beyond the low-tide mark. It was used to kill the notorious Captain Kidd. Many prisoners would be executed together as a public event in front of a crowd of onlookers after being paraded from the Marshalsea Prison across London Bridge and past the Tower of London to the dock.

Public houses

Three venerable public houses are located near Stairs. By Pelican Stairs is the Prospect of Whitby, which has a much-disputed claim to be the oldest Thames-side public house still in existence. Be that as it may, there has been an inn on the site since the reign of Henry VIII, and it is certainly one of the most famous public houses in London. It is named after a then-famous collier that used to dock regularly at Wapping. A replica of the old Execution Dock gibbet is maintained on the adjacent foreshore, although the actual site of Execution Dock was nearer to the ''Town of Ramsgate''. This also is on the site of a 16th century inn and is located next to Wapping Old Stairs to the west of the ''Prospect''; by Wapping Pier Head — the former local headquarters of the Customs and Excise.

Situated half way between the two is the ''Captain Kidd'', named after the Scottish privateer William Kidd. He was hanged on the Wapping foreshore in 1701 after being found guilty of murder and piracy. Although the pub occupies a 17th century building, it was established only in the 1980s.

Literary and cultural references

Wapping has been used as the setting for a number of works of fiction, including ''The Long Good Friday''; the ''Doctor Who'' episode "The Talons of Weng-Chiang"; the ''Ruby In The Smoke'' novel in the Sally Lockhart series by Phillip Pullman; the BBC sitcom ''Till Death Us Do Part'', in which the central character, Alf Garnett, shares his name with Garnet Street in Wapping; and the brothel in ''The Threepenny Opera'', in which Mack the Knife is betrayed by Jenny Diver. ''The Darlings of Wapping Wharf Launderette'' is a compilation album by East End group the Small Faces.

Fictional residents also include Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe, an officer in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars; and Dr. Lemuel Gulliver, the title character of Johnathan Swift's ''Gulliver's Travels'' who, in the novel, lived in Wapping before going to sea.

In the best-selling PlayStation 2 game ''Stuntman'' the first 'film' the player takes part in is entitled 'Toothless in Wapping.'

Notable people

Among the people born in Wapping are W.W. Jacobs, author of ''The Monkey's Paw''. The American painter James McNeill Whistler, well known for his Thames views, painted ''Wapping'' when he lived at Wapping between October 1860 and 1864. The painting is permanently displayed at the National Gallery of Art Washington

John Newton, Anglican clergyman and author of many hymns including ''Amazing Grace'' was born here.

During the 1990s, Wapping was home to American entertainer Cher. TV presenter Graham Norton, currently (as of 2010) lives in the locality.

Education

Transport

;Nearby areas

Bermondsey

Whitechapel

Rotherhithe

Shadwell

Stepney

Bethnal Green

Ratcliffe

Opened in June 2010, the nearest London Overground station is Wapping railway station.

See also

London Docks

Shadwell Basin

Tobacco Dock

Wapping Hydraulic Power Station

Stepney Historical Trust

References

Notes

Bibliography

Martha Leigh, ''Memories of Wapping 1900-1960: Couldn't Afford the Eels'', The History Press Ltd (4 July 2008), ISBN 0-7524-4709-2

Madge Darby, ''Waeppa's People: History of Wapping'', Connor & Butler (Dec 1988), ISBN 0-947699-10-4

National Council for Civil Liberties, ''No Way in Wapping: Effect of the Policing of the News International Dispute on Wapping Residents'', Civil Liberties Trust (May 1986), ISBN 0-946088-27-6

External links

Local government site

ExploringEastLondon - Wapping

Thames Police Museum website

What's in Wapping - Local community website

Category:Districts of Tower Hamlets Category:Districts of London Category:Districts of London on the River Thames Category:Port of London

ga:Wapping hi:वैपिंग it:Wapping he:וופינג nl:Wapping no:Wapping pl:Wapping (osiedle)

name	Charles Dickens
alt	Charles Dickens
birth name	Charles John Huffam Dickens
birth date	February 07, 1812
birth place	Landport, Portsmouth, England
death date	June 09, 1870
death place	Gad's Hill Place, Higham, Kent, England
death cause	Stroke
resting place	Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey
resting place coordinates
ethnicity	English
citizenship	UK
other names	Boz
notableworks	''The Pickwick Papers'', ''Oliver Twist'', ''A Christmas Carol'', ''David Copperfield'', ''Bleak House'', ''Hard Times'', ''A Tale of Two Cities'', ''Great Expectations''
occupation	Writer
years active	1833–1870
spouse	Catherine Thomson Hogarth
children	Charles Dickens, Jr., Mary Dickens, Kate Perugini, Walter Landor Dickens, Francis Dickens, Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens, Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens, Henry Fielding Dickens, Dora Annie Dickens, and Edward Dickens
parents	John DickensElizabeth Dickens
signature	Charles Dickens Signature.svg
footnotes	}}

Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic who is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period and the creator of some of the world's most memorable fictional characters. During his lifetime Dickens' works enjoyed unprecedented popularity and fame, but it was in the twentieth century that his literary genius was fully recognized by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to enjoy an enduring popularity among the general reading public.

Born in Portsmouth, England, Dickens left school to work in a factory after his father was thrown into debtors' prison. Though he had little formal education, his early impoverishment drove him to succeed. He edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels and hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.

Dickens rocketed to fame with the 1836 serial publication of ''The Pickwick Papers''. Within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, celebrated for his humour, satire, and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication. The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience's reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development based on such feedback. For example, when his wife's chiropodist expressed distress at the way Miss Mowcher in ''David Copperfield'' seemed to reflect her disabilities, Dickens went on to improve the character with positive lineaments. Fagin in Oliver Twist apparently mirrors the famous fence, Ikey Solomon; His caricature of Leigh Hunt in the figure of Mr Skimpole in ''Bleak House'' was likewise toned down on advice from some of his friends, as they read episodes: In the same novel, both Lawrence Boythorne and Mooney the beadle are drawn from real life – Boythorne from Walter Savage Landor) and Mooney from a certain 'Looney', a beadle at Salisbury Square. Though his plots were carefully constructed, Dickens would often weave in elements harvested from topical events into his narratives. Masses of the illiterate poor chipped in ha'pennies to have each new monthly episode read to them, opening up and inspiring a new class of readers.

Dickens was regarded as the 'literary colossus' of his age. His 1843 novella, ''A Christmas Carol'', is one of the most influential works ever written, and it remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. His creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to G. K. Chesterton and George Orwell—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand Oscar Wilde, Henry James and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism.

Life

Early years

Charles Dickens was born on 7 February 1812, at Landport in Portsea, the second of eight children to John and Elizabeth Dickens. His father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office and was temporarily on duty in the district. Very soon after the birth of Charles the family moved to Norfolk Street, Bloomsbury, and then, when he was four, to Chatham, Kent, where he spent his formative years until the age of 11. His early years seem to have been idyllic, though he thought himself a "very small and not-over-particularly-taken-care-of boy".

Charles spent time outdoors, but also read voraciously, especially the picaresque novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding. He retained poignant memories of childhood, helped by a near-photographic memory of the people and events, which he used in his writing. His father's brief period as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office afforded him a few years of private education, first at a dame-school, and then at a school run by William Giles, a dissenter, in Chatham.

This period came to an abrupt end when, because of financial difficulties, the Dickens family moved from Kent to Camden Town in London in 1822. Prone to living beyond his means, John Dickens was eventually imprisoned in the Marshalsea debtors' prison in Southwark London in 1824. Shortly afterwards, his wife and the youngest children joined him there, as was the practice at the time. Charles, then 12 years old, was boarded with Elizabeth Roylance, a family friend, in Camden Town. Mrs. Roylance was "a reduced [impoverished] old lady, long known to our family", whom Dickens later immortalised, "with a few alterations and embellishments", as "Mrs. Pipchin", in ''Dombey and Son''. Later, he lived in a back-attic in the house of an agent for the Insolvent Court, Archibald Russell, "a fat, good-natured, kind old gentleman ... with a quiet old wife" and lame son, in Lant Street in The Borough. They provided the inspiration for the Garlands in ''The Old Curiosity Shop''.

On Sundays—with his sister Frances, free from her studies at the Royal Academy of Music—he spent the day at the Marshalsea. Dickens would later use the prison as a setting in ''Little Dorrit''. To pay for his board and to help his family, Dickens was forced to leave school and work ten-hour days at Warren's Blacking Warehouse, on Hungerford Stairs, near the present Charing Cross railway station, where he earned six shillings a week pasting labels on pots of boot blacking. The strenuous and often cruel working conditions deeply impressed Dickens and later influenced his fiction and essays, becoming the foundation of his interest in the reform of socio-economic and labour conditions, the rigors of which he believed were unfairly borne by the poor. He would later write that he wondered "how I could have been so easily cast away at such an age". As he recalled to John Forster (from ''The Life of Charles Dickens''):

The blacking-warehouse was the last house on the left-hand side of the way, at old Hungerford Stairs. It was a crazy, tumble-down old house, abutting of course on the river, and literally overrun with rats. Its wainscoted rooms, and its rotten floors and staircase, and the old grey rats swarming down in the cellars, and the sound of their squeaking and scuffling coming up the stairs at all times, and the dirt and decay of the place, rise up visibly before me, as if I were there again. The counting-house was on the first floor, looking over the coal-barges and the river. There was a recess in it, in which I was to sit and work. My work was to cover the pots of paste-blacking; first with a piece of oil-paper, and then with a piece of blue paper; to tie them round with a string; and then to clip the paper close and neat, all round, until it looked as smart as a pot of ointment from an apothecary's shop. When a certain number of grosses of pots had attained this pitch of perfection, I was to paste on each a printed label, and then go on again with more pots. Two or three other boys were kept at similar duty down-stairs on similar wages. One of them came up, in a ragged apron and a paper cap, on the first Monday morning, to show me the trick of using the string and tying the knot. His name was Bob Fagin; and I took the liberty of using his name, long afterwards, in Oliver Twist.

After only a few months in Marshalsea, John Dickens's paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Dickens, died and bequeathed him the sum of £450. On the expectation of this legacy, Dickens was granted release from prison. Under the Insolvent Debtors Act, Dickens arranged for payment of his creditors, and he and his family left Marshalsea, for the home of Mrs. Roylance.

Although Dickens eventually attended the Wellington House Academy in North London, his mother Elizabeth Dickens did not immediately remove him from the boot-blacking factory. The incident may have done much to confirm Dickens's view that a father should rule the family, a mother find her proper sphere inside the home. "I never afterwards forgot, I never shall forget, I never can forget, that my mother was warm for my being sent back". His mother's failure to request his return was no doubt a factor in his dissatisfied attitude towards women.

Righteous anger stemming from his own situation and the conditions under which working-class people lived became major themes of his works, and it was this unhappy period in his youth to which he alluded in his favourite, and most autobiographical, novel, ''David Copperfield'': "I had no advice, no counsel, no encouragement, no consolation, no assistance, no support, of any kind, from anyone, that I can call to mind, as I hope to go to heaven!" The Wellington House Academy was not a good school. "Much of the haphazard, desultory teaching, poor discipline punctuated by the headmaster's sadistic brutality, the seedy ushers and general run-down atmosphere, are embodied in Mr. Creakle's Establishment in ''David Copperfield''."

Dickens worked at the law office of Ellis and Blackmore, attorneys, of Holborn Court, Gray's Inn, as a junior clerk from May 1827 to November 1828. Then, having learned Gurney's system of shorthand in his spare time, he left to become a freelance reporter. A distant relative, Thomas Charlton, was a freelance reporter at Doctors' Commons, and Dickens was able to share his box there to report the legal proceedings for nearly four years. This education was to inform works such as ''Nicholas Nickleby'', ''Dombey and Son'', and especially ''Bleak House''—whose vivid portrayal of the machinations and bureaucracy of the legal system did much to enlighten the general public and served as a vehicle for dissemination of Dickens's own views regarding, particularly, the heavy burden on the poor who were forced by circumstances to "go to law".

In 1830, Dickens met his first love, Maria Beadnell, thought to have been the model for the character Dora in ''David Copperfield''. Maria's parents disapproved of the courtship and effectively ended the relationship by sending her to school in Paris.

Journalism and early novels

In 1832, at age 20, Dickens was energetic, full of good humour, enjoyed mimicry and popular entertainment, and lacked a clear sense of what he wanted to become, yet knowing he wanted to be famous. He was drawn to the theatre and landed an acting audition a Covent Garden, for which he prepared meticulously but which he missed because of a cold, ending his aspirations for a career on the stage. A year later he submitted his first story, ''A Dinner at Poplar Walk'' to the London periodical, ''Monthly Magazine''. He rented rooms at Furnival's Inn becoming a political journalist, reporting on parliamentary debate and travelling across Britain to cover election campaigns for the ''Morning Chronicle''. His journalism, in the form of sketches in periodicals, formed his first collection of pieces ''Sketches by Boz''—Boz being a family nickname he employed as a pseudonym for some years—published in 1836..|group="nb"}} He continued to contribute to and edit journals throughout his literary career. In 1836 as he finished the last instalments of ''The Pickwick Papers'' he began writing the beginning instalments of ''Oliver Twist''—writing as many as 90 pages a month—while continuing work on ''Bentley's'', writing four plays, the production of which he oversaw. ''Oliver Twist,'' published in 1838, became one of Dicken's better known stories, with dialogue that transferred well to the stage (most likely because he was writing stage plays at the same time) and more importantly, it was the first Victorian with a child protagonist.

On 2 April 1836, after a one year engagement during which he wrote ''The Pickwick Papers'', he married Catherine Thomson Hogarth (1816–1879), the daughter of George Hogarth, editor of the ''Evening Chronicle''. After a brief honeymoon in Chalk, Kent, they returned to lodgings at Furnival's Inn. The first of ten children, Charley, was born in January 1837, and a few months later the family set up home in Bloomsbury at 48 Doughty Street, London, (on which Charles had a three year lease at £80 a year) from 25 March 1837 until December 1839. Dickens's younger brother Frederick and Catherine's 17-year-old sister Mary moved in with them. Dickens became very attached to Mary, and she died in his arms after a brief illness in 1837. Dickens idealised her and is thought to have drawn on memories of her for his later descriptions of Rose Maylie, Little Nell and Florence Dombey. He grief was so great that he was unable to make the deadline for the June instalment of ''Pickwick Papers'' and had to cancel the ''Oliver Twist'' instalment that month as well.

At the same time, his success as a novelist continued, ''Nicholas Nickleby'' (1838–39), ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' and, finally, ''Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty'' as part of the ''Master Humphrey's Clock'' series (1840–41)—all published in monthly instalments before being made into books.

First visit to the United States

In 1842, Dickens and his wife made his first trip to the United States and Canada. At this time Georgina Hogarth, another sister of Catherine, joined the Dickens household, now living at Devonshire Terrace, Marylebone, to care for the young family they had left behind. She remained with them as housekeeper, organiser, adviser and friend until Dickens's death in 1870.

He described his impressions in a travelogue entitled ''American Notes for General Circulation''. Some of the episodes in ''Martin Chuzzlewit'' (1843–44) also drew on these first-hand experiences. Dickens includes in ''Notes'' a powerful condemnation of slavery, which he had attacked as early as ''The Pickwick Papers'', correlating the emancipation of the poor in England with the abolition of slavery abroad. During his visit, Dickens spent a month in New York City, giving lectures and raising the question of international copyright laws and the pirating of his work in America. He persuaded twenty five writers, headed by Washington Irving to sign a petition for him to take to congress, but the press were generally hostile to this saying that he should be grateful for his popularity and that it was mercenary to complain about his work being pirated.

In the early 1840s Dickens showed an interest in Unitarian Christianity, although he never strayed from his attachment to popular lay Anglicanism. Soon after his return to England, Dickens began work on the first of his Christmas stories, ''A Christmas Carol'', written in 1843, which was followed by ''The Chimes'' in 1844 and ''The Cricket on the Hearth'' in 1845. Of these ''A Christmas Carol'' was most popular and, tapping in to an old tradition, did much promote a renewed enthusiasm for the joys of Christmas in Britain and America. The seeds for the story were planted in Dickens's mind during a trip to Manchester to witness conditions of the manufacturing workers there. This, along with scenes he had recently witnessed at the Field Lane Ragged School, caused Dickens to resolve to "strike a sledge hammer blow" for the poor. As the idea for the story took shape and the writing began in earnest, Dickens became engrossed in the book. He wrote that as the tale unfolded he "wept and laughed, and wept again" as he "walked about the black streets of London fifteen or twenty miles many a night when all sober folks had gone to bed."

After living briefly abroad in Italy (1844) Dickens travelled to Switzerland (1846); it was here he began work on ''Dombey and Son'' (1846–48). This and ''David Copperfield'' (1849–50) mark a significant artistic break in Dickens's career as his novels became more serious in theme and more carefully planned than his early works.

Philanthropy

In May 1846 Angela Burdett Coutts, heir to the Coutts banking fortune, approached Dickens about setting up a home for the redemption of fallen women from the working class. Coutts envisioned a home that would replace the punitive regimes of existing institutions with a reformative environment conducive to education and proficiency in domestic household chores. After initially resisting, Dickens eventually founded the home, named "Urania Cottage", in the Lime Grove section of Shepherds Bush, which he was to manage for ten years, setting the house rules and reviewing the accounts and interviewing prospective residents. Emigration and marriage were central to Dickens' agenda for the women on leaving Urania Cottage, from which it is estimated that about 100 women graduated between 1847 and 1859.

Middle years

In late November 1851, Dickens moved into Tavistock House where he would write ''Bleak House'' (1852–53), ''Hard Times'' (1854) and ''Little Dorrit'' (1857). It was here he indulged in the amateur theatricals which are described in Forster's "Life". In 1856, the income he was earning from his writing allowed him to buy Gad's Hill Place in Higham, Kent. As a child, Dickens had walked past the house and dreamed of living in it. The area was also the scene of some of the events of Shakespeare's ''Henry IV, Part 1'' and this literary connection pleased him.

In 1857, Dickens hired professional actresses for the play ''The Frozen Deep'', which he and his protégé Wilkie Collins had written. Dickens fell deeply in love with one of the actresses, Ellen Ternan, which was to last the rest of his life. Dickens was 45 and Ternan 18 when he made the decision, which went strongly against Victorian convention, to separate from his wife, Catherine, in 1858—divorce was still unthinkable for someone as famous as he was. When Catherine left, never to see her husband again, she took with her one child, leaving the other children to be raised by her sister Georgina who chose to stay at Gad's Hill.

During this period, whilst pondering about giving public readings for his own profit, Dickens was approached by Great Ormond Street Hospital to help it survive its first major financial crisis through a charitable appeal. His 'Drooping Buds’ essay in Household Words earlier in 3 April 1852 was considered by the hospital’s founders to have been the catalyst for the hospital’s success. Dickens, whose philanthropy was well-known, was asked by his friend, the hospital's founder Charles West, to preside and he threw himself into the task, heart and soul. Dickens' public readings secured sufficient funds for an endowment to put the hospital on a sound financial footing — one of February 9, 1858 alone raised £3,000.

After separating from Catherine, Dickens undertook a series of hugely popular and remunerative reading tours which, together with his journalism, were to absorb most of his creative energies for the next decade, in which he was to write only two more novels. His first reading tour, lasting from April 1858 to February 1859, consisted of 129 appearances in 49 different towns throughout England, Scotland and Ireland. Dickens' continued fascination with the theatrical world was written into the theatre scenes in ''Nicholas Nickleby'', but more importantly he found an outlet in public readings. In 1866, he undertook a series of public readings in England and Scotland, with more the following year in England and Ireland.

Major works, ''A Tale of Two Cities'' (1859); and ''Great Expectations'' (1861) soon followed and would prove resounding successes. During this time he was also the publisher and editor of, and a major contributor to, the journals ''Household Words'' (1850–1859) and ''All the Year Round'' (1858–1870).

In early September 1860, in a field behind Gad's Hill, Dickens made a great bonfire of almost his entire correspondence—only those letters on business matters were spared. Since Ellen Ternan also destroyed all of his letters to her, the extent of the affair between the two remains speculative. In the 1930s, Thomas Wright recounted that Ternan had unburdened herself with a Canon Benham, and gave currency to rumours they had been lovers. That the two had a son who died in infancy was alleged by Dickens' daughter, Kate Perugini, whom Gladys Storey had interviewed before her death in 1929, and published her account in ''Dickens and Daughter'', although no contemporary evidence exists. On his death, Dickens settled an annuity on Ternan which made her a financially independent woman. Claire Tomalin's book, ''The Invisible Woman'', argues that Ternan lived with Dickens secretly for the last 13 years of his life. The book was subsequently turned into a play, ''Little Nell'', by Simon Gray.

In the same period, Dickens furthered his interest in the paranormal, becoming one of the early members of The Ghost Club.

Last years

On 9 June 1865, while returning from Paris with Ternan, Dickens was involved in the Staplehurst rail crash. The first seven carriages of the train plunged off a cast iron bridge under repair. The only first-class carriage to remain on the track was the one in which Dickens was travelling. Before rescuers arrived, Dickens tended and comforted the wounded and the dying with a flask of brandy and a hat refreshed with water and saved some lives. Before leaving, he remembered the unfinished manuscript for ''Our Mutual Friend'', and he returned to his carriage to retrieve it. Dickens later used this experience as material for his short ghost story, "The Signal-Man", in which the central character has a premonition of his own death in a rail crash. He also based the story on several previous rail accidents, such as the Clayton Tunnel rail crash of 1861.

Dickens managed to avoid an appearance at the inquest to avoid disclosing that he had been travelling with Ternan and her mother, which would have caused a scandal. Although physically unharmed, Dickens never really recovered from the trauma of the Staplehurst crash, and his normally prolific writing shrank to completing ''Our Mutual Friend'' and starting the unfinished ''The Mystery of Edwin Drood''.

Second visit to the United States

On 9 November 1867, Dickens sailed from Liverpool for his second American reading tour. Landing at Boston, he devoted the rest of the month to a round of dinners with such notables as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his American publisher James Thomas Fields. In early December, the readings began—he was to 76 readings, netting £19,000, from December 1867 to April 1868—and Dickens spent the month shuttling between Boston and New York, where alone he gave 22 readings at Steinway Hall for this period. Although he had started to suffer from what he called the "true American catarrh", he kept to a schedule that would have challenged a much younger man, even managing to squeeze in some sleighing in Central Park. thumb|left|upright|Poster promoting a reading by Dickens in Nottingham dated 4 February 1869, two months before he suffered a mild stroke.

During his travels, he saw a significant change in the people and the circumstances of America. His final appearance was at a banquet the American Press held in his honour at Delmonico's on 18 April, when he promised never to denounce America again. By the end of the tour, the author could hardly manage solid food, subsisting on champagne and eggs beaten in sherry. On 23 April, he boarded his ship to return to Britain, barely escaping a Federal Tax Lien against the proceeds of his lecture tour.

Farewell readings

Between 1868 and 1869, Dickens gave a series of "farewell readings" in England, Scotland, and Ireland, beginning on the 6th October. He managed, of a contracted 100 readings, to deliver 75 in the provinces, with a further 12 in London. As he pressed on he was affected by giddiness and fits of paralysis and collapsed on 22 April 1869, at Preston in Lancashire, and on doctor's advice, the tour was cancelled. After further provincial readings were cancelled, he began work on his final novel, ''The Mystery of Edwin Drood''. It was fashionable in the 1860s to 'do the slums' and, in company, Dickens visited opium dens in Shadwell, where he witnessed an elderly addict known as "Laskar Sal", who formed the model for the "Opium Sal" subsequently featured in his mystery novel, ''Edwin Drood''.

When he had regained sufficient strength, Dickens arranged, with medical approval, for a final series of readings at least partially to make up to his sponsors what they had lost due to his illness. There were to be 12 performances, running between 11 January and 15 March 1870, the last taking place at 8:00 pm at St. James's Hall in London. Although in grave health by this time, he read ''A Christmas Carol'' and ''The Trial from Pickwick''. On 2 May, he made his last public appearance at a Royal Academy Banquet in the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, paying a special tribute to the passing of his friend, illustrator Daniel Maclise.

Death

On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home, after a full day's work on ''Edwin Drood''. He never regained consciousness, and the next day, on 9 June, five years to the day after the Staplehurst rail crash (9 June 1865), he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his daughter Georgina's request that he lie down..|group="nb"}}

On Sunday, 19 June 1870, five days after Dickens was buried in the Abbey, Dean Arthur Penrhyn Stanley delivered a memorial elegy, lauding "the genial and loving humorist whom we now mourn", for showing by his own example "that even in dealing with the darkest scenes and the most degraded characters, genius could still be clean, and mirth could be innocent." Pointing to the fresh flowers that adorned the novelist's grave, Stanley assured those present that "the spot would thenceforth be a sacred one with both the New World and the Old, as that of the representative of literature, not of this island only, but of all who speak our English tongue."

Literary style

Dickens loved the style of the 18th century picaresque novels which he found in abundance on his father's shelves. According to Ackroyd, other than these, perhaps the most important literary influence on him was derived from the fables of ''The Arabian Nights''.

His writing style is marked by a profuse linguistic creativity. Satire, flourishing in his gift for caricature is his forte. An early reviewer compared him to Hogarth for his keen practical sense of the ludicrous side of life, though his acclaimed mastery of varieties of class idiom may in fact mirror the conventions of contemporary popular theatre. Dickens worked intensively on developing arresting names for his characters that would reverberate with associations for his readers, and assist the development of motifs in the storyline, giving what one critic calls an "allegorical impetus" to the novels' meanings. To cite one of numerous examples, the name Mr. Murdstone in ''David Copperfield'' conjures up twin allusions to "murder" and stony coldness. His literary style is also a mixture of fantasy and realism. His satires of British aristocratic snobbery—he calls one character the "Noble Refrigerator"—are often popular. Comparing orphans to stocks and shares, people to tug boats, or dinner-party guests to furniture are just some of Dickens's acclaimed flights of fancy.

The author worked closely with his illustrators, supplying them with a summary of the work at the outset and thus ensuring that his characters and settings were exactly how he envisioned them. He would brief the illustrator on plans for each month's instalment so that work could begin before he wrote them. Marcus Stone, illustrator of ''Our Mutual Friend'', recalled that the author was always "ready to describe down to the minutest details the personal characteristics, and ... life-history of the creations of his fancy."

Characters

Dickens's biographer Claire Tomalin regards him as the greatest creator of character in English fiction after Shakespeare. Dickensian characters, especially so because of their typically whimsical names, are amongst the most memorable in English literature. The likes of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit, Oliver Twist, The Artful Dodger, Fagin, Bill Sikes, Pip, Miss Havisham, Charles Darnay, David Copperfield, Mr. Micawber, Abel Magwitch, Daniel Quilp, Samuel Pickwick, Wackford Squeers, Uriah Heep are so well known as to be part and parcel of British culture, and in some cases have passed into ordinary language: a ''scrooge'', for example, is a miser.

His characters were often so memorable that they took on a life of their own outside his books. Gamp became a slang expression for an umbrella from the character Mrs. Gamp and Pickwickian, Pecksniffian, and Gradgrind all entered dictionaries due to Dickens's original portraits of such characters who were quixotic, hypocritical, or vapidly factual. Many were drawn from real life: Mrs Nickleby is based on his mother, though she didn't recognize herself in the portrait, just as Mr Micawber is constructed from aspects of his father's 'rhetorical exuberance': Harold Skimpole in ''Bleak House'', is based on James Henry Leigh Hunt: his wife's dwarfish chiropodist recognized herself in Miss Mowcher in ''David Copperfield''. Perhaps Dickens' impressions on his meeting with Hans Christian Andersen informed the delineation of Uriah Heep.

Virginia Woolf maintained that "we remodel our psychological geography when we read Dickens" as he produces "characters who exist not in detail, not accurately or exactly, but abundantly in a cluster of wild yet extraordinarily revealing remarks."

One "character" vividly drawn throughout his novels is London itself. From the coaching inns on the outskirts of the city to the lower reaches of the Thames, all aspects of the capital are described over the course of his body of work.

Autobiographical elements

Authors frequently draw their portraits of characters from people they've known in real life. ''David Copperfield'' is regarded as strongly autobiographical. The scenes in ''Bleak House'' of interminable court cases and legal arguments reflect Dickens's experiences as law clerk and court reporter, and in particular his direct experience of the law's procedural delay during 1844 when he sued publishers in Chancery for breach of copyright. Dickens's own father was sent to prison for debt, and this became a common theme in many of his books, with the detailed depiction of life in the Marshalsea prison in ''Little Dorrit'' resulting from Dickens's own experiences of the institution. Lucy Stroughill, a childhood sweetheart may have affected several of Dickens' portraits of girls such as Little Em'ly in ''David Copperfield'' and Lucie Manette in ''A Tale of Two Cities.'' Dickens may have drawn on his childhood experiences, but he was also ashamed of them and would not reveal that this was where he gathered his realistic accounts of squalor. Very few knew the details of his early life until six years after his death when John Forster published a biography on which Dickens had collaborated. Even figures based on real people can, at the same time, represent at the same time elements of the writer's own personality. Though Skimpole brutally sends up Leigh Hunt, some critics have detected in his portrait features of Dickens' own character, which he sought to exorcise by self-parody.

Episodic writing

Most of Dickens's major novels were first written in monthly or weekly instalments in journals such as ''Master Humphrey's Clock'' and ''Household Words'', later reprinted in book form. These instalments made the stories cheap, accessible and the series of regular cliff-hangers made each new episode widely anticipated. When ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' was being serialized, American fans even waited at the docks in New York, shouting out to the crew of an incoming ship, "Is little Nell dead?" Part of Dickens's great talent was to incorporate this episodic writing style but still end up with a coherent novel at the end.

Another important impact of Dickens's episodic writing style resulted from his exposure to the opinions of his readers and friends. His friend Forster had a significant hand, reviewing his drafts, that went beyond matters of punctation. He toned down melodramatic and sensationalist exaggerations, cut long passages, (such as the episode of Quilp's drowning in ''The Old Curiosity Shop''), and made suggestions about plot and character. It was he who suggested that Charley Bates should be redeemed in ''Oliver Twist''. Dickens had not thought of killing Little Nell, and it was Forster who advised him to entertain this possibility as necessary to his conception of the heroine.

Social commentary

Dickens's novels were, among other things, works of social commentary. He was a fierce critic of the poverty and social stratification of Victorian society. In a New York address, he expressed his belief that, "Virtue shows quite as well in rags and patches as she does in purple and fine linen". Dickens's second novel, ''Oliver Twist'' (1839), shocked readers with its images of poverty and crime: it destroyed middle class polemics about criminals, making any pretence to ignorance about what poverty entailed impossible. spurred the clearing of the actual London slum, Jacob's Island, that was the basis of the story. In addition, with the character of the tragic prostitute, Nancy, Dickens "humanised" such women for the reading public; women who were regarded as "unfortunates", inherently immoral casualties of the Victorian class/economic system. ''Bleak House'' and ''Little Dorrit'' elaborated expansive critiques of the Victorian institutional apparatus: the interminable lawsuits of the Court of Chancery that destroyed people's lives in ''Bleak House'' and a dual attack in ''Little Dorrit'' on inefficient, corrupt patent offices and unregulated market speculation.

Literary techniques

Dickens is often described as using 'idealised' characters and highly sentimental scenes to contrast with his caricatures and the ugly social truths he reveals. The story of Nell Trent in ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' (1841) was received as extraordinarily moving by contemporary readers but viewed as ludicrously sentimental by Oscar Wilde. "You would need to have a heart of stone", he declared in one of his famous witticisms, "not to laugh at the death of little Nell." G. K. Chesterton, stating that "It is not the death of little Nell, but the life of little Nell, that I object to", argued that the maudlin effect of his description of her life owed much to the gregarious nature of Dickens' grief, his 'despotic' use of pedople's feelings to move them to tears in works like this.

In ''Oliver Twist'' Dickens provides readers with an idealised portrait of a boy so inherently and unrealistically 'good' that his values are never subverted by either brutal orphanages or coerced involvement in a gang of young pickpockets. While later novels also centre on idealised characters (Esther Summerson in ''Bleak House'' and Amy Dorrit in ''Little Dorrit''), this idealism serves only to highlight Dickens's goal of poignant social commentary. Many of his novels are concerned with social realism, focusing on mechanisms of social control that direct people's lives (for instance, factory networks in ''Hard Times'' and hypocritical exclusionary class codes in ''Our Mutual Friend''). Dickens' fiction, reflecting what he believed to be true of his own life, scintillates with coincidences. Oliver Twist turns out to be the lost nephew of the upper class family that randomly rescues him from the dangers of the pickpocket group). Such coincidences are a staple of 18th-century picaresque novels, such as Henry Fielding's ''Tom Jones'' that Dickens enjoyed reading as a youth.

Reception

Dickens was the most popular novelist of his time, and remains one of the best known and most read of English authors. His works have never gone out of print. and have been adapted continuously for the screen since the invention of cinema, with at least 200 motion pictures and TV adaptations based on Dickens's works documented. Many of his works were adapted for the stage during his own lifetime and as early as 1913, a silent film of ''The Pickwick Papers'' was made.

Among fellow writers, Dickens has been both lionized and mocked. Leo Tolstoy, G. K. Chesterton and George Orwell praised his realism, comic voice, prose fluency, and genius for satiric caricature, as well as his passionate advocacy on behalf of children and the poor. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde generally disparaged his depiction of character, while admiring his gift for caricature; Henry James denied him a premier position, calling him, "the greatest of superficial novelists": Dickens failed to endow his characters with psychological depth and the novels, "loose baggy monsters" betrayed a "cavalier organisation"; Virginia Woolf had a love-hate relationship with his works, finding his novels "mesmerizing" while reproving him for his sentimentalism and a commonplace style.

It is likely that ''A Christmas Carol'' stands as his best-known story, with frequent new adaptations. It is also the most-filmed of Dickens's stories, with many versions dating from the early years of cinema. According to the historian Ronald Hutton, the current state of the observance of Christmas is largely the result of a mid-Victorian revival of the holiday spearheaded by ''A Christmas Carol''. Dickens catalysed the emerging Christmas as a family-centred festival of generosity, in contrast to the dwindling community-based and church-centred observations, as new middle-class expectations arose. Its archetypal figures (Scrooge, Tiny Tim, the Christmas ghosts) entered into Western cultural consciousness. A prominent phrase from the tale, '''Merry Christmas''', was popularised following the appearance of the story. The term Scrooge became a synonym for miser, and his dismissive put-down exclamation '''Bah! Humbug!''' likewise gained currency as an idiom. Novelist William Makepeace Thackeray called the book "a national benefit, and to every man and woman who reads it a personal kindness".

At a time when Britain was the major economic and political power of the world, Dickens highlighted the life of the forgotten poor and disadvantaged within society. Through his journalism he campaigned on specific issues—such as sanitation and the workhouse—but his fiction probably demonstrated its greatest prowess in changing public opinion in regard to class inequalities. He often depicted the exploitation and oppression of the poor and condemned the public officials and institutions that not only allowed such abuses to exist, but flourished as a result. His most strident indictment of this condition is in ''Hard Times'' (1854), Dickens's only novel-length treatment of the industrial working class. In this work, he uses both vitriol and satire to illustrate how this marginalised social stratum was termed "Hands" by the factory owners; that is, not really "people" but rather only appendages of the machines that they operated. His writings inspired others, in particular journalists and political figures, to address such problems of class oppression. For example, the prison scenes in ''The Pickwick Papers'' are claimed to have been influential in having the Fleet Prison shut down. Karl Marx asserted that Dickens" ... issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together". George Bernard Shaw even remarked that ''Great Expectations'' was more seditious than Marx's own ''Das Kapital''. The exceptional popularity of his novels, even those with socially oppositional themes (''Bleak House'', 1853; ''Little Dorrit'', 1857; ''Our Mutual Friend'', 1865) underscored not only his almost preternatural ability to create compelling storylines and unforgettable characters, but also ensured that the Victorian public confronted issues of social justice that had commonly been ignored. It has been argued that his technique of flooding his narratives with an 'unruly superfluity of material' that, in the gradual dénouement, yields up an unsuspected order, influenced the organisation of Charles Darwin's The Origin of the Species.

His fiction, with often vivid descriptions of life in 19th-century England, has inaccurately and anachronistically come to symbolise on a global level Victorian society (1837 – 1901) as uniformly "Dickensian", when in fact, his novels' time scope spanned from the 1770s to the 1860s. In the decade following his death in 1870, a more intense degree of socially and philosophically pessimistic perspectives invested British fiction; such themes stood in marked contrast to the religious faith that ultimately held together even the bleakest of Dickens's novels. Dickens clearly influenced later Victorian novelists such as Thomas Hardy and George Gissing; their works display a greater willingness to confront and challenge the Victorian institution of religion. They also portray characters caught up by social forces (primarily via lower-class conditions), but they usually steered them to tragic ends beyond their control.

Influence and legacy

Museums and festivals celebrating Dickens's life and works exist in many places with which Dickens was associated, such as the Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum in Portsmouth, the house in which he was born. The original manuscripts of many of his novels, as well as printers' proofs, first editions, and illustrations from the collection of Dickens' friend John Forster are held at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Dickens's will stipulated that no memorial be erected in his honour. The only life-size bronze statue of Dickens, cast in 1891 by Francis Edwin Elwell, can be found in Clark Park in the Spruce Hill neighbourhood of Philadelphia.

Dickens was commemorated on the Series E £10 note issued by the Bank of England that was in circulation in the UK between 1992 and 2003. His portrait appeared on the reverse of the note accompanied by a scene from ''The Pickwick Papers''. A theme park, Dickens World, standing in part on the site of the former naval dockyard where Dickens's father once worked in the Navy Pay Office, opened in Chatham in 2007, and to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens in 2012, the Museum of London will the UK's first major exhibition on the author in 40 years. In the UK survey entitled ''The Big Read'' carried out by the BBC in 2003, five of Dickens's books were named in the Top 100.

Notable works

Charles Dickens published over a dozen major novels, a large number of short stories (including a number of Christmas-themed stories), a handful of plays, and several non-fiction books. Dickens's novels were initially serialised in weekly and monthly magazines, then reprinted in standard book formats.

Novels

{| |- | valign="top" | ''The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'' (Monthly serial, April 1836 to November 1837)

''The Adventures of Oliver Twist'' (Monthly serial in ''Bentley's Miscellany'', February 1837 to April 1839)

''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby'' (Monthly serial, April 1838 to October 1839)

''The Old Curiosity Shop'' (Weekly serial in ''Master Humphrey's Clock'', 25 April 1840, to 6 February 1841)

''Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty'' (Weekly serial in ''Master Humphrey's Clock'', 13 February 1841, to 27 November 1841)

The Christmas books:

* ''A Christmas Carol'' (1843)

* ''The Chimes'' (1844)

* ''The Cricket on the Hearth'' (1845)

* ''The Battle of Life'' (1846)

* ''The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain'' (1848)

''The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit'' (Monthly serial, January 1843 to July 1844)

| valign="top" |

''Dombey and Son'' (Monthly serial, October 1846 to April 1848)

''David Copperfield'' (Monthly serial, May 1849 to November 1850)

''Bleak House'' (Monthly serial, March 1852 to September 1853)

''Hard Times: For These Times'' (Weekly serial in ''Household Words'', 1 April 1854, to 12 August 1854)

''Little Dorrit'' (Monthly serial, December 1855 to June 1857)

''A Tale of Two Cities'' (Weekly serial in ''All the Year Round'', 30 April 1859, to 26 November 1859)

''Great Expectations'' (Weekly serial in ''All the Year Round'', 1 December 1860 to 3 August 1861)

''Our Mutual Friend'' (Monthly serial, May 1864 to November 1865)

''The Mystery of Edwin Drood'' (Monthly serial, April 1870 to September 1870. Only six of twelve planned numbers completed)

|}

Short story collections

''Sketches by Boz'' (1836)

''The Mudfog Papers'' (1837) in ''Bentley's Miscellany'' magazine

''Reprinted Pieces'' (1861)

''The Uncommercial Traveller'' (1860–1869)

{| |- | valign="top" | Christmas numbers of ''Household Words'' magazine:

''What Christmas Is, as We Grow Older'' (1851)

''A Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire'' (1852)

''Another Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire'' (1853)

''The Seven Poor Travellers'' (1854)

''The Holly-Tree Inn'' (1855)

''The Wreck of the "Golden Mary"'' (1856)

''The Perils of Certain English Prisoners'' (1857)

''A House to Let'' (1858)

| valign="top" | Christmas numbers of ''All the Year Round'' magazine:

''The Haunted House'' (1859)

''A Message from the Sea'' (1860)

''Tom Tiddler's Ground'' (1861)

''Somebody's Luggage'' (1862)

''Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings'' (1863)

''Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy'' (1864)

''Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions'' (1865)

''Mugby Junction'' (1866)

''No Thoroughfare'' (1867)

|}

Selected non-fiction, poetry, and plays

{| |- | valign="top" |

''The Village Coquettes'' (Plays, 1836)

''The Fine Old English Gentleman'' (poetry, 1841)

''Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi'' (1838)

''American Notes: For General Circulation'' (1842)

''Pictures from Italy'' (1846)

| valign="top" |

''The Life of Our Lord: As written for his children'' (1849)

''A Child's History of England'' (1853)

''The Frozen Deep'' (play, 1857)

''Speeches, Letters and Sayings'' (1870)

|}

See also

Dickens Family

Portraits

References

Footnotes Notes

Bibliography

Further reading

Douglas-Fairhurst, Robert, "Becoming Dickens 'The Invention of a Novelist'", London: Harvard University Press, 2011

Johnson, Edgar, ''Charles Dickens: his tragedy and triumph'', New York: Simon and Schuster, 1952. In two volumes.

Manning, Mick & Granström, Brita, ''Charles Dickens: Scenes From An Extraordinary Life'', Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2011.

External links

Works

(HTML and plain text)

Works by or about Charles Dickens at Internet Archive and Google Books (scanned books)

Works by Charles Dickens at EveryAuthor (HTML)

Works by Charles Dickens at Dickens Literature (HTML)

Works by Charles Dickens at Penn State University Electronic Classics Series (PDF)

Organizations and portals

The Dickens Fellowship, an international society dedicated to the study of Dickens and his Writings

David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page

A Dickens web page, portal.

Museums

Dickens Museum Situated in a former Dickens House, 48 Doughty Street, London, WC1

Dickens Birthplace Museum Old Commercial Road, Portsmouth

Victoria and Albert Museum The V&A;'s collections relating to Dickens

Other

G. K. Chesterton's appreciative and analytical article on Dickens in the 14th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (1929)

A Charles Dickens Journal Timeline of Dickens's Life

Category:1812 births Category:1870 deaths Category:19th-century English people Category:19th-century novelists Category:British newspaper founders Category:Burials at Westminster Abbey Category:English Anglicans Category:English historical novelists Category:English journalists Category:English novelists Category:English prisoners and detainees Category:English short story writers Category:People associated with the Royal Society of Arts Category:People from Camden Town Category:People from Chatham, Kent Category:People from Portsmouth Category:Writers from London Category:Victorian novelists

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:''For the rugby league footballer of the same name, see Ken Gill (rugby league)''

Ken Gill (30 August 1927 - 23 May 2009) was a British trade unionist leader. He was the General Secretary of the Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Section (TASS), from 1974 to 1988, when it merged with ASTMS to form the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union (MSF). He was General Secretary of the MSF, 1988 - 1992, initially jointly with Clive Jenkins. A committed Communist, he was elected to the TUC General Council in 1974, and was a prominent figure in the militant industrial relations of the 1970s. From 1981 to 1987 he was a member of the Commission for Racial Equality.

Background

Ken Gill was born in Melksham, Wiltshire, in 1927. Gill was politicised when young, having experienced poverty in his childhood during the Great Depression. He attended a grammar school and was offered officer training during the Second World War, but refused this owing to a political opposition to the officer class. In 1943, aged 15, he became an apprentice draughtsman. During the war his family took in a lodger, a cobbler and communist who convinced the young Gill of the cause of socialism. In 1945 he was a prominent campaigner for the local Labour candidate, who was elected as the first local Labour MP.

In 1949, at the end of his apprenticeship, he moved to London. As a young communist at the height of the Cold War, he travelled to East Germany for the 1951 World Youth Festival, and was briefly arrested while journeying there by the US military police. By his early thirties Gill had become a director of a successful small engineering firm.

Trade union career

In 1962 Gill stood for office in the Draughtsmen’s and Allied Technicians Association (DATA), being elected a regional official. The militancy of his Merseyside and Northern Ireland region saw Gill leading workers in a series of industrial battles over pay and conditions. As a result of his success in this, he was elected as deputy general secretary of the union in 1968, bringing him back to London. ''"As former colleagues attest, Ken was widely respected as a leader, winning people by persuasion rather than using his authority."'' DATA's successor, the Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Section (TASS), became part of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers (AUEW) in 1971, although it remained quasi-autonomous. During the merger talks MI5 broke into Gill's South London home in order to bug discussions going on there.

Gill became the General Secretary of TASS in 1974, and that same year was the third communist to be elected on to the TUC General Council, with over 7 million votes. With the support of other left-wingers on the Council he helped lead a militant broad left grouping, which played a key role in the ideological and economic battles of the time. He was a leading member of the 'awkward squad' of trade union leaders which made the industrial relations of the nineteen seventies so difficult for successive governments, not least by consistently opposing an enforced incomes policy. He was a leading figure in union opposition to Barbara Castle's contentious 1969 bill on industrial relations, ''In Place of Strife''.

From the mid-1970s Gill used his position on the TUC Council to push for more radical policies in support of equal opportunities. In 1976 he "famously told the TUC Woman’s Conference ... that Britain was still a 'socially backward' country," since despite the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act women would still need a 50 per cent pay increase to achieve parity with men. In 1982 he warned against racial prejudice within trade unions, saying that black workers would form their own trade unions if prejudice prevented them from being elected to union posts. Gill was also an internationalist, pushing within the TUC for more progressive positions internationally. Gill and his union were among the earliest active supporters of the fight against South Africa's apartheid. On Gill's initiative, the union guaranteed the deposit for the 1988 stadium concert that celebrated Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday. When Mandela later visited the UK after his release from Robben Island, he chose the union's conference hall to meet and thank African National Congress exiles and activists.

In 1984 Gill became chairman of the People's Press Printing Society, the cooperative which publishes ''The Morning Star''. Gill, along with a group of so-called "Tankie" members, was later expelled from the Communist Party of Great Britain when the paper's editor refused to follow the new Eurocommunist party line. In 1985/86 Gill became the only communist ever to become President of the Trades Union Congress, although by then, following the defeat of the 1984 miners' strike, militancy was in retreat.

TASS demerged from the AUEW in 1985, and in 1988 merged with ASTMS to form the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union (MSF), then Britain's fifth-largest union, with 600,000 members. Gill was General Secretary of the MSF, 1988 - 1992, initially jointly with Clive Jenkins. Gill retired as a full-time trade union official in 1992. ''"Despite being among the most prominent communists in the country, Gill always saw himself first of all as a trade unionist."'' In 1993 he was voted the "Trade Unionists’ Trade Unionist" in a survey carried out by ''The Observer'' newspaper. "Ken never fitted the cliché image of a communist. While he could be forceful and committed, he was never dogmatic or unnecessarily aggressive." He believed that the Labour Party was central to radical social change.

Retirement

After his retirement, Gill continued campaigning, including against the 2003 Iraq war. He also played a key role in the 1993 founding of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign in the UK, becoming its first chair, only stepping down in 2008.

Gill was also known for his caricatures of fellow trade unionists, and often made on scraps of paper during meetings and conferences. An exhibition of his work was held at Congress House in 2007, and a book of his caricatures was published in April 2009.

Books

Ken Gill (Author), John Green and Michal Boncza (Editors), 2009 - ''Hung, Drawn and Quartered'', Artery Publications, ISBN 978-0-9558228-2-7. The book is a selection of Gill's caricatures.

The Ken Gill Memorial Fund

A non-charitable trust was established in 2010 by Ken's family and close friends to commemorate Ken's life and to continue his life's work. Among its key objectives are supporting the Morning Star newspaper, supporting the trade union movement and workers' rights through co-operation with the Institute of Employment Rights and to support solidarity with Cuba, working alongside the Cuba Solidarity Campaign. Trustees include Rodney Bickerstaffe, former general secretary of Unison, the UK's largest public services union. More information about the Fund and Ken's life is available at www.kengillmemorial.org

References

External links

The Ken Gill Memorial Fund

Category:1927 births Category:2009 deaths Category:British caricaturists Category:British trade unionists Category:Communist Party of Great Britain members Category:Communist Party of Britain members Category:Leaders of British trade unions Category:People from Melksham Category:British communists Category:Members of the General Council of the TUC

name	Rupert Murdoch
birth date	March 11, 1931
birth name	Keith Rupert Murdoch
birth place	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
nationality	United States
citizenship	United States (naturalised 1985)
occupation	Chairman and CEO ofNews Corporation
networth	US$8.3 billion (2011)
spouse	(divorced) (divorced)
children	Prudence Murdoch (b. 1958)Elisabeth Murdoch (b. 1968)Lachlan Murdoch (b. 1971)James Murdoch (b. 1972)Grace Murdoch (b. 2001)Chloe Murdoch (b. 2003)
parents	Keith Murdoch (1885–1952)Elisabeth Joy (née Greene, b. 1909)
relatives	Matthew Freud (son-in-law)Sarah Murdoch (daughter-in-law)
awards	Companion of the Order of Australia (1984).
footnotes	Australian citizenship lost in 1985 (under S17 of Australian Citizenship Act 1948) with acquisition of US nationality }}

Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG (born 11 March 1931) is an Australian American media mogul. He is the founder, Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate.

Born and raised in Australia, Murdoch became managing director of News Limited, inherited from his father, in 1952. In the 1950s and '60s, he acquired various newspapers in Australia and New Zealand, before expanding into the United Kingdom in 1969, taking over the ''News of the World'' followed closely by ''The Sun''. He moved to New York in 1974 to expand into the US market and became a naturalised US citizen in 1985. In 1981, he bought ''The Times'', his first British broadsheet.

In 1986, keen to adopt newer electronic publishing technologies, he consolidated his UK printing operations in Wapping, causing bitter industrial disputes. His News Corporation acquired Twentieth Century Fox (1985), HarperCollins (1989) and ''The Wall Street Journal'' (2007). He formed BSkyB in 1990 and during the 1990s expanded into Asian networks and South American television. By 2000 Murdoch's News Corporation owned over 800 companies in more than 50 countries with a net worth of over $5 billion.

In July 2011 Murdoch faced allegations that his companies, including the ''News of the World'', owned by News Corporation, had been regularly hacking the phones of celebrities, royalty and public citizens. He faces police and government investigations into bribery and corruption by the British government and FBI investigations in the US.

Early life

Murdoch was born in Melbourne, the only son of Sir Keith Murdoch (1885–1952) and Elisabeth Greene (born 1909). He has English, Irish and Scottish ancestry. His parents were both born in Melbourne. Keith Murdoch was a renowned war correspondent and later a regional newspaper magnate. He asked for a rendezvous after seeing her debutante photograph in one of his own newspapers and they married in 1928, when she was aged 19 and he 23 years her senior. In addition to Rupert, the couple had three daughters: Janet Calvert-Jones, Anne Kantor and Helen Handbury (1929–2004).

Murdoch attended Geelong Grammar School, where he had his first experience of editing a publication, being co-editor of the school's official journal ''The Corian'' and editor of the student journal ''If Revived''. He also took his School's cricket team to the National Junior Finals. He worked part time at the ''Melbourne Herald'' and was groomed by his father from an early age to take over the family business. Murdoch read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Worcester College, Oxford University in England, where he supported the Labour Party and managed Oxford Student Publications Limited, the publishing house of Cherwell Newspaper. After her husband's death from cancer in 1952, Elisabeth Murdoch went on to invest herself in charity work, as life governor of the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne and establishing the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. At 102 (in 2011) she had 74 descendants. Murdoch completed an MA before working as a sub-editor with the ''Daily Express'' for two years.

Activities in Australia and New Zealand

Following his father's death, when he was 21, Murdoch returned from Oxford to take charge of the family business News Limited, which had been established in 1923. Rupert Murdoch turned its newspaper, ''Adelaide News'', its main asset, into a major success. He began to direct his attention to acquisition and expansion, buying the troubled ''Sunday Times'' in Perth, Western Australia (1956) and over the next few years acquiring suburban and provincial newspapers in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory, including the Sydney afternoon tabloid, ''The Daily Mirror'' (1960). ''The Economist'' describes Murdoch as "inventing the modern tabloid", as he developed a pattern for his newspapers, increasing sports and scandal coverage and adopting eye-catching headlines.

Murdoch's first foray outside Australia involved the purchase of a controlling interest in the New Zealand daily ''The Dominion''. In January 1964, while touring New Zealand with friends in a rented Morris Minor after sailing across the Tasman, Murdoch read of a takeover bid for the Wellington paper by the British-based Canadian newspaper magnate, Lord Thomson of Fleet. On the spur of the moment, he launched a counter-bid. A four-way battle for control ensued in which the 32-year-old Murdoch was ultimately successful. Later in 1964, Murdoch launched ''The Australian'', Australia's first national daily newspaper, and its first broadsheet, which was based first in Canberra and later in Sydney. In 1972, Murdoch acquired the Sydney morning tabloid ''The Daily Telegraph'' from Australian media mogul Sir Frank Packer, who later regretted selling it to him. In 1984, Murdoch was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for services to publishing.

In 1999, Murdoch significantly expanded his music holdings in Australia by acquiring the controlling share in a leading Australian independent label, Michael Gudinski's Mushroom Records; he merged that with Festival Records, and the result was Festival Mushroom Records (FMR). Both Festival and FMR were managed by Murdoch's son James Murdoch for several years.

Political activities in Australia

Murdoch found a political ally in John McEwen, leader of the Australian Country Party (now known as the National Party of Australia), who was governing in coalition with the larger Menzies-Holt Liberal Party. From the very first issue of ''The Australian'' Murdoch began taking McEwen's side in every issue that divided the long-serving coalition partners. (The Australian, 15 July 1964, first edition, front page: "Strain in Cabinet, Liberal-CP row flares.") It was an issue that threatened to split the coalition government and open the way for the stronger Australian Labor Party to dominate Australian politics. It was the beginning of a long campaign that served McEwen well.

After McEwen and Menzies retired, Murdoch threw his growing power behind the Australian Labor Party under the leadership of Gough Whitlam and duly saw it elected on a social platform that included universal free health care, free education for all Australians to tertiary level, recognition of the People's Republic of China, and public ownership of Australia's oil, gas and mineral resources. Rupert Murdoch's backing of Whitlam turned out to be brief. Murdoch had already started his short-lived ''National Star'' newspaper in America, and was seeking to strengthen his political contacts there.

Asked about the Australian federal election, 2007 at News Corporation's annual general meeting in New York on 19 October 2007, its chairman Rupert Murdoch said, "I am not commenting on anything to do with Australian politics. I'm sorry. I always get into trouble when I do that." Pressed as to whether he believed Prime Minister John Howard should be re-elected, he said: "I have nothing further to say. I'm sorry. Read our editorials in the papers. It'll be the journalists who decide that – the editors." In 2009, in response to accusations by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that News Limited was running vendettas against him and his government, Murdoch opined that Rudd was "oversensitive" Murdoch described Howard's successor, Labor Party Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, as "...more ambitious to lead the world [in tackling climate change] than to lead Australia..." and criticised Rudd's expansionary fiscal policies in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 as unnecessary. Although News Limited's interests are extensive, also including the ''Daily Telegraph'', the ''Courier-Mail'' and the ''Adelaide Advertiser'', it was suggested by the commentator Mungo MacCallum in ''The Monthly'' that "the anti-Rudd push, if coordinated at all, was almost certainly locally driven" as opposed to being directed by Murdoch, who also took a different position from local editors on such matters as climate change and stimulus packages to combat the financial crisis.

Activities in Britain

Business activities in Britain

In 1968 Murdoch entered the UK newspaper market with his acquisition of the populist ''News of the World'', followed in 1969 with the purchase of the struggling daily broadsheet ''The Sun'' from IPC. Murdoch turned ''The Sun'' into a tabloid format and reduced costs by using the same printing press for both newspapers. In 1997 ''The Sun'' attracted 10 million daily readers. In 1981, Murdoch acquired the struggling ''Times'' and ''Sunday Times'' from Canadian newspaper publisher Lord Thomson of Fleet. Ownership of ''The Times'' came to him through his relationship with Lord Thomson, who had grown tired of losing money on it as a result of much industrial action that stopped publication. In the light of success and expansion at ''The Sun'' the owners believed that Murdoch could turn the papers around. Harold Evans, Editor of the ''Sunday Times'' from 1967, was made head of the daily ''Times'', though he stayed only a year amid editorial conflict with Murdoch.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Murdoch's publications were generally supportive of Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. At the end of the Thatcher/Major era, Murdoch switched his support to the Labour Party and its leader, Tony Blair. The closeness of his relationship with Blair and their secret meetings to discuss national policies was to become a political issue in Britain. Though this later started to change, with ''The Sun'' publicly renouncing the ruling Labour government and lending its support to David Cameron's Conservative Party in the English editions, which soon after came to form a coalition government. In Scotland, where the Tories had yet to recover from their complete annihilation in 1997, the paper began to endorse the Scottish National Party (though not yet its flagship policy of independence), which soon after came to form the first ever outright majority in the proportionally elected Scottish Parliament. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's official spokesman said in November 2009 that Brown and Murdoch "were in regular communication" and that "there is nothing unusual in the prime minister talking to Rupert Murdoch".

In 1986, Murdoch introduced electronic production processes to his newspapers in Australia, Britain and the United States. The greater degree of automation led to significant reductions in the number of employees involved in the printing process. In England, the move roused the anger of the print unions, resulting in a long and often violent dispute that played out in Wapping, one of London's docklands areas, where Murdoch had installed the very latest electronic newspaper purpose-built publishing facility in an old warehouse. The bitter dispute at Wapping started with the dismissal of 6,000 employees who had gone on strike and resulted in street battles and demonstrations. Many on the political left in Britain alleged the collusion of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government with Murdoch in the Wapping affair, as a way of damaging the British trade union movement. In 1987, the dismissed workers accepted a settlement of £60 million.

Murdoch's British-based satellite network, Sky Television, incurred massive losses in its early years of operation. As with many of his other business interests, Sky was heavily subsidised by the profits generated by his other holdings, but convinced rival satellite operator British Satellite Broadcasting to accept a merger on his terms in 1990. They were quick to see the advantages of direct to home (DTH) satellite broadcasting that did not require costly cable networks and the merged company, BSkyB, has dominated the British pay-TV market ever since. By 1996, BSkyB had more than 3.6 million subscribers, triple the number of cable customers in the UK. British financier Lord Jacob Rothschild, a close Murdoch friend since the 1960's, served as deputy chairman of Murdoch's BSkyB corporation from 2003–2007, and Murdoch jointly invested with Rothschild in a 5.5 percent stake in Genie Oil and Gas, which did shale gas and oil exploration in Israel.

In response to print media's decline and the increasing influence of online journalism during the 2000s, Murdoch proclaimed his support of the micropayments model for obtaining revenue from on-line news, although this has been criticised by some.

News Corporation has subsidiaries in the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands and the Virgin Islands. From 1986, News Corporation's annual tax bill averaged around seven percent of its profits.

Political activities in Britain

In Britain, in the 1980s, Murdoch formed a close alliance with Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and ''The Sun'' credited itself with helping her successor John Major to win an unexpected election victory in the 1992 general election, which had been expected to end in a hung parliament or a narrow win for Neil Kinnock's Labour. In the general elections of 1997, 2001 and 2005, Murdoch's papers were either neutral or supported Labour under Tony Blair. This has led some critics to argue that Murdoch simply supports the incumbent parties (or those who seem most likely to win an upcoming election) in the hope of influencing government decisions that may affect his businesses.

The Labour Party, from when Tony Blair became leader in 1994, had moved from the Left to a more central position on many economic issues prior to 1997. Murdoch identifies himself as a libertarian, saying "What does libertarian mean? As much individual responsibility as possible, as little government as possible, as few rules as possible. But I'm not saying it should be taken to the absolute limit."

In a speech delivered in New York, Rupert Murdoch said that the British Prime Minister Tony Blair described the BBC coverage of the Hurricane Katrina disaster as being full of hatred of America.

In 1998, Rupert Murdoch made an attempt to buy the football club Manchester United F.C., with an offer of £625 million, but this failed. It was the largest amount ever offered for a sports club. It was blocked by the United Kingdom's Competition Commission, which stated that the acquisition would have "hurt competition in the broadcast industry and the quality of British football".

On 28 June 2006 the BBC reported that Murdoch and News Corporation were considering backing new Conservative leader David Cameron at the next General Election – still up to four years away. In a later interview in July 2006, when he was asked what he thought of the Conservative leader, Murdoch replied "Not much". In a 2009 blog, it was suggested that in the aftermath of the News of the World phone hacking scandal which is still ongoing in 2012 and might yet have Transatlantic implications Murdoch and News Corporation might have decided to back Cameron. Despite this, there had already been a convergence of interests between the two men over the muting of Britain's communications regulator Ofcom.

In 2006, Britain's ''Independent'' newspaper reported that Murdoch would offer Tony Blair a senior role in his global media company News Corporation when the prime minister stood down from office.

He is accused by former Solidarity MSP Tommy Sheridan of having a personal vendetta against him and of conspiring with MI5 to produce a video of him confessing to having affairs – allegations over which Sheridan had previously sued News International and won. On being arrested for perjury following the case, Sheridan claimed that the charges were "orchestrated and influenced by the powerful reach of the Murdoch empire".

In August 2008, British Conservative leader and future Prime Minister David Cameron accepted free flights to hold private talks and attend private parties with Murdoch on his yacht, the ''Rosehearty''. Cameron has declared in the Commons register of interests he accepted a private plane provided by Murdoch's son-in-law, public relations guru Matthew Freud; Cameron has not revealed his talks with Murdoch. The gift of travel in Freud's Gulfstream IV private jet was valued at around £30,000. Other guests attending the "social events" included the then EU trade commissioner Lord Mandelson, the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and co-chairman of NBC Universal Ben Silverman. The Conservatives have not disclosed what was discussed.

In July 2011 it emerged that Cameron met key executives of Murdoch's News Corporation 26 times during the 14 months that Cameron had served as Prime Minister. It was also reported that Murdoch had given Cameron a personal guarantee that there would be no risk attached to hiring Andy Coulson, the former editor of ''News of the World'', as the Conservative Party's communication director in 2007. This was in spite of Coulson having resigned as editor over phone hacking by a reporter. Cameron chose to take Murdoch's advice, despite warnings from Nick Clegg, Lord Ashdown and ''The Guardian''. Coulson resigned his post in 2011 and was later arrested and questioned on allegations of further criminal activity at The ''News of the World'', specifically the News International phone hacking scandal.

News International phone hacking scandal

In July 2011 Rupert Murdoch along with his son James gave testimony before a British parliamentary committee regarding phone hacking. In the U.K his media empire remains under fire as investigators continue to probe reports of other phone hacking.

On 14 July, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons served a summons on Murdoch, his son James, and his former CEO Rebekah Brooks to testify before a committee on 19 July. After an initial refusal, the Murdochs confirmed they would attend after the committee issued them a summons to Parliament. The day before the committee, the website of the News Corporation publication ''The Sun'' was hacked, and a false story was posted on the front page claiming that Murdoch had died. Murdoch described the day of the committee "the most humble day of my life". He argued that since he ran a global business of 53,000 employees and that the ''News of the World'' was "just 1%" of this, he was not ultimately responsible for what went on at the tabloid. He added that he had not considered resigning, and that he and the other top executives had been completely unaware of the hacking.

On 15 July Rupert Murdoch attended a private meeting in London with the family of Milly Dowler, where he personally apologised for the hacking of their murdered daughter's voicemail by a company he owns. On 16 and 17 July, News International published two full-page apologies in many of Britain's national newspapers. The first apology took the form of a letter, signed by Rupert Murdoch, in which he said sorry for the "serious wrongdoing" that occurred. The second was titled "Putting right what's gone wrong", and gave more detail about the steps News International was taking to address the public's concerns. In the wake of the allegations Murdoch accepted the resignations of Rebekah Brooks, head of Murdoch's British operations, and Les Hinton, head of Dow Jones who was chairman of Murdoch's British newspaper division when some of the abuses happened. They both deny any knowledge of any wrong-doing under their command.

On 27 February 2012, the following day after Murdoch's controversial release of the Sun on Sunday, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers informed the Leveson Inquiry that Police are investigating a "network of corrupt officials" as part of their inquiries into phone hacking and police corruption. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers told the Leveson Inquiry that evidence suggested a "culture of illegal payments" at the Sun newspaper and that these payments allegedly made by the Sun were authorised at a senior level.

In testimony on 25 April 2012, Murdoch did not deny the quote attributed to him by his former editor of ''The Sunday Times'', Harold Evans: "I give instructions to my editors all round the world, why shouldn't I in London?" On 1 May 2012, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee issued a report stating that Murdoch was "not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company".

Activities in the United States

Murdoch made his first acquisition in the United States in 1973, when he purchased the ''San Antonio Express-News''. Soon afterwards, he founded ''Star'', a supermarket tabloid, and in 1976, he purchased the ''New York Post''. On 4 September 1985, Murdoch became a naturalised citizen to satisfy the legal requirement that only US citizens were permitted to own American television stations. This resulted in Murdoch losing his Australian citizenship.

Marvin Davis sold Marc Rich's interest in 20th Century Fox to Murdoch for $250 million in March 1984. Davis later backed out of a deal with Murdoch to purchase John Kluge's Metromedia television stations. Murdoch went alone and bought the stations, and later bought out Davis' remaining stake in Fox for $325 million. The six television stations owned by Metromedia would form the nucleus of the Fox Broadcasting Company, founded on 9 October 1986, which would go on to have great success with programmes such as ''The Simpsons'' and ''The X-Files''.

In 1987 in Australia, he bought The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd, the company that his father had once managed. By 1990 News Corporation had built up debts of $7 billion (much from Sky TV in the UK). forcing Murdoch to sell many of the American magazine interests he had acquired in the mid-1980s. In 1993, it took exclusive coverage of the National Football League (NFL) from CBS and increased programming to seven days a week. In 1995, Murdoch's Fox Network became the object of scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), when it was alleged that News Ltd.'s Australian base made Murdoch's ownership of Fox illegal. However, the FCC ruled in Murdoch's favour, stating that his ownership of Fox was in the best interests of the public. That same year, Murdoch announced a deal with MCI Communications to develop a major news website and magazine, ''The Weekly Standard''. Also that year, News Corporation launched the Foxtel pay television network in Australia in partnership with Telstra. In 1996, Murdoch decided to enter the cable news market with the Fox News Channel, a 24-hour cable news station. Ratings studies released in 2009 showed that the network was responsible for nine of the top ten programs in the "Cable News" category at that time. Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner (founder and former owner of CNN) are long-standing rivals. In late 2003, Murdoch acquired a 34 percent stake in Hughes Electronics, the operator of the largest American satellite TV system, DirecTV, from General Motors for $6 billion (USD). His Fox movie studio would go on to have global hits with ''Titanic'' and ''Avatar''.

In 2004, Murdoch announced that he was moving News Corporation headquarters from Adelaide, Australia to the United States. Choosing a US domicile was designed to ensure that American fund managers could purchase shares in the company, since many were deciding not to buy shares in non-US companies. Some analysts believed that News Corporation's Australian domicile was leading to the company being undervalued compared with its peers.

On 20 July 2005, News Corporation bought Intermix Media Inc., which held Myspace, Imagine Games Network and other social networking-themed websites, for $580 million USD, making Murdoch a major player in online media concerns. In June 2011, it sold off Myspace for US$35 million. On 11 September 2005, News Corporation announced that it would buy IGN Entertainment for $650 million (USD).

In May 2007, Murdoch made a $5 billion offer to purchase Dow Jones. At the time, the Bancroft family, who had owned the Dow Jones for 105 years and controlled 64% of the shares at the time, firmly declined the offer, opposing Murdoch's much-used strategy of slashing employee numbers and gutting existing systems. Later, the Bancroft family confirmed a willingness to consider a sale. Besides Murdoch, the Associated Press reported that supermarket magnate Ron Burkle and Internet entrepreneur Brad Greenspan were among the other interested parties. In 2007, Murdoch acquired Dow Jones, which gave him such publications as ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''Barron's Magazine'', the ''Far Eastern Economic Review'' (based in Hong Kong) and ''SmartMoney''.

Political activities in the United States

McNight (2010) identifies four characteristics of his media operations: free market ideology; unified positions on matters of public policy; global editorial meetings; and opposition to a perceived liberal bias in other public media.

On 8 May 2006, the ''Financial Times'' reported that Murdoch would be hosting a fund-raiser for Senator Hillary Clinton's (D-New York) Senate re-election campaign. In a 2008 interview with Walt Mossberg, Murdoch was asked whether he had "anything to do with the ''New York Post'''s endorsement of Barack Obama in the democratic primaries." Without hesitating, Murdoch replied, "Yeah. He is a rock star. It's fantastic. I love what he is saying about education. I don't think he will win Florida... but he will win in Ohio and the election. I am anxious to meet him. I want to see if he will walk the walk." Murdoch is a strong supporter of Israel and its domestic policies.

In 2010 News Corporation gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association and $1 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Murdoch also served on the board of directors of the libertarian Cato Institute. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Murdoch is also a supporter of the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act.

Murdoch is a supporter of more open immigration policies in western nations generally. In the United States, Murdoch and chief executives from several major corporations including Hewlett-Packard, Boeing and Disney joined New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to form the Partnership for a New American Economy to advocate "for immigration reform – including a path to legal status for all undocumented immigrants now in the United States." The coalition, reflecting Murdoch and Bloomberg's own views, also advocates significant increases in legal immigration to the United States as a means of boosting America's sluggish economny and lowering unemployment. The Partnership for a New American Economy's immigration policy prescriptions are notably similar to those favoured by the libertarian Cato Institute and the Chamber of Commerce-both of which Murdoch has supported in the past. The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page as well has long advocated increased legal immigration to the United States both before and after News Corporation's acquisition of the paper in 2007. This contrasts with the staunch anti-immigration stance of Murdoch's British newspaper, ''The Sun''.

On 5 September 2010, Murdoch testified before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law Membership on the “Role of Immigration in Strengthening America’s Economy.” In his testimony, Murdoch called for ending mass deportations and endorsed a "comprehensive immigration reform" plan that would include a pathway to citizenship for all illegal immigrants.

Activities in Europe

Murdoch owns controlling interest in ''Sky Italia'', a satellite television provider in Italy. Murdoch's business interests in Italy have been a source of contention since they began. In 2010 Murdoch won a media dispute with then Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. A judge ruled the then Prime Minister's media arm Mediaset prevented News Corporation's Italian unit, Sky Italia, from buying advertisements on its television networks.

Activities in Asia

In 1993, Murdoch acquired Star TV, a Hong Kong company founded by Richard Li for $1 billion (Souchou, 2000:28), and subsequently set up offices for it throughout Asia. The deal enables News International to broadcast from Hong Kong to India, China, Japan and over thirty other countries in Asia, becoming one of the biggest satellite TV networks in the east. However, the deal did not work out as Murdoch had planned, because the Chinese government placed restrictions on it that prevented it from reaching most of China.

Family

Marriages

In 1956 Murdoch married Patricia Booker, a former shop assistant and flight attendant from Melbourne and they had their first child, Prudence, in 1958. Rupert and Patricia Murdoch divorced in 1967. In 1967 Murdoch married Anna Maria Torv (Tõrv), a Scottish-born cadet journalist working for his Sydney newspaper ''The Daily Telegraph'' (not to be mistaken for the actress Anna Torv of ''Fringe'' who is the elder Torv's niece). During his marriage to Torv, a Roman Catholic, Murdoch was made a Knight of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great (KSG), a papal honour awarded by Pope John Paul II. Torv and Murdoch had three children: Elisabeth Murdoch (born in Sydney, Australia on 22 August 1968), Lachlan Murdoch (born in London, UK on 8 September 1971), and James Murdoch, (born in London on 13 December 1972). Murdoch's companies published two novels by his then wife: ''Family Business'' (1988) and ''Coming to Terms'' (1991), both widely regarded as vanity publications. They divorced in June 1999. Anna Murdoch received a settlement of US$ 1.2 billion in assets.

On 25 June 1999, 17 days after divorcing his second wife, Murdoch, then aged 68, married Chinese-born Deng Wendi (Wendi Deng). She was 30, a recent Yale School of Management graduate, and a newly appointed vice-president of his STAR TV. Murdoch has two children with her.

Children

Murdoch has six children. His eldest child, Prudence MacLeod, was appointed on 28 January 2011 to the board of Times Newspapers Ltd, part of News International, which publishes ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times''. Murdoch's eldest son Lachlan, formerly the deputy chief operating officer at the News Corporation and the publisher of the ''New York Post'', was Murdoch's heir apparent before resigning from his executive posts at the global media company at the end of July 2005. Lachlan's departure left James Murdoch chief executive of the satellite television service British Sky Broadcasting since November 2003, as the only Murdoch son still directly involved with the company's operations, though Lachlan has agreed to remain on the News Corporation's board.

After graduating from Vassar College and marrying classmate Elkin Kwesi Pianim (the son of Ghanaian financial and political mogul Kwame Pianim) in 1993, Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth, along with her husband, purchased a pair of NBC-affiliate television stations in California, KSBW and KSBY, with a $35 million loan provided by her father. By quickly re-organising and re-selling them at a $12 million profit in 1995, Elisabeth emerged as an unexpected rival to her brothers for the eventual leadership of the publishing dynasty's empire. But after divorcing her first husband in 1998 and quarrelling publicly with her assigned mentor Sam Chisholm at BSkyB, she struck out on her own as a television and film producer in London. She has since enjoyed independent success, in conjunction with her second husband, Matthew Freud, the great-grandson of Sigmund Freud (the founder of psychoanalysis) whom she met in 1997 and married in 2001.

It is not known how long Murdoch will remain as News Corporation's CEO. For a while the American cable television entrepreneur John Malone was the second-largest voting shareholder in News Corporation after Murdoch himself, potentially undermining the family's control. In 2007, the company announced that it would sell certain assets and give cash to Malone's company in exchange for its stock. In 2007, the company issued Murdoch's older children voting stock.

Rupert Murdoch has two children with Wendi Deng: Grace (b. New York, 19 November 2001) and Chloe (b. New York, 17 July 2003). It was revealed in September 2011 that Tony Blair is Grace's godfather. There is reported to be tension between Murdoch and his oldest children over the terms of a trust holding the family's 28.5 percent stake in News Corporation, estimated in 2005 to be worth about $6.1 billion. Under the trust, his children by Wendi Deng share in the proceeds of the stock but have no voting privileges or control of the stock. Voting rights in the stock are divided 50/50 between Murdoch on the one side and his children of his first two marriages. Murdoch's voting privileges are not transferable but will expire upon his death and the stock will then be controlled solely by his children from the prior marriages, although their half-siblings will continue to derive their share of income from it. It is Murdoch's stated desire to have his children by Deng given a measure of control over the stock proportional to their financial interest in it (which would mean, if Murdoch dies while at least one of the children is a minor, that Deng would exercise that control). It does not appear that he has any strong legal grounds to contest the present arrangement, and both ex-wife Anna and their three children are said to be strongly resistant to any such change.

Portrayal on television, in film, books and music

Murdoch and rival newspaper and publishing magnate Robert Maxwell are thinly fictionalised as "Keith Townsend" and "Richard Armstrong" in ''The Fourth Estate'' by British novelist and former MP Jeffrey Archer.

Murdoch has been portrayed by Barry Humphries in the 1991 mini-series ''Selling Hitler'', Hugh Laurie in a parody of ''It's a Wonderful Life'' in the television show ''A Bit of Fry & Laurie'', Ben Mendelsohn in the film ''Black and White'', Paul Elder in ''The Late Shift'' and by himself on ''The Simpsons'', first in "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday" and later in "Judge Me Tender".

It has been speculated that the character of Elliot Carver, the global media magnate and main villain in the 1997 James Bond movie ''Tomorrow Never Dies'', is based on Murdoch. The writer of the film, Bruce Feirstein, has stated that Carver was actually inspired by British press magnate Robert Maxwell, who was one of Murdoch's rivals.

Since both Rupert Murdoch and Robert Maxwell had the same initials they were often confused by the public. This confusion was exploited by the writers of the British situation comedy 'Drop the Dead Donkey' which was set in a TV newsroom who chose to name the fictional proprietor Sir Roysten Merchant (initials RM). The writers state on their DVD commentares that it was "fortunate" for them that the two men shared the same initials.

In the 1997 film ''Fierce Creatures'', the head of Octopus Inc. Rod McCain (initials R.M.) character is likely modelled after Murdoch.

In 1999, the Ted Turner owned TBS aired an original sitcom, ''The Chimp Channel''. This featured an all-simian cast and the role of an Australian TV veteran named Harry Waller. The character is described as "a self-made gazillionaire with business interests in all sorts of fields. He owns newspapers, hotel chains, sports franchises and genetic technologies, as well as everyone's favourite cable TV channel, The Chimp Channel." Waller is thought to be a parody of Murdoch, a long-time rival of Turner's.

In 2004, the movie ''Outfoxed'' included many interviews accusing Fox News of pressuring reporters to report only one side of news stories, in order to influence viewers' political opinions.

In 2012, the satirical show ''Hacks'', broadcast on UK-based Channel 4, made obvious comparisons with Rupert Murdoch using the fictional character 'Stanhope Feast', as well as other central figures in the phone hacking scandal

Influence and wealth

According to the 2011 list of Forbes richest Americans, Murdoch is the 38th richest person in the US and the 106th-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $8.3 billion.

Murdoch has been listed three times in the ''Time'' 100 as among the most influential people in the world. He is ranked 13th most powerful person in the world in the 2010 ''Forbes''' The World's Most Powerful People list.

See also

List of assets owned by News Corporation

References

Notes

Dover, Bruce. ''Rupert's Adventures in China: How Murdoch Lost A Fortune And Found A Wife'' (Mainstream Publishing).

Ellison, Sarah. ''War at the Wall Street Journal: Inside the Struggle To Control an American Business Empire'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. ISBN 9780547152431 (Also published as: ''War at The Wall Street Journal: How Rupert Murdoch Bought an American Icon'', Melbourne, Text Publishing, 2010.)

Evans, Harold. ''Good Times, Bad Times'', London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1983

McKnight, David. "Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation: A Media Institution with A Mission," ''Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television,'' Sept 2010, Vol. 30 Issue 3, pp 303–316

External links

Profile at ''Forbes''

Murdoch, Rupert (1931–) resources from Trove at the National Library of Australia

Bill Moyers on Rupert Murdoch, 29 June 2007

Arsenault, A & Castells, M. (2008) Rupert Murdoch and the Global Business of Media Politics. International Sociology. 23(4)

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Gives Big To GOP – audio report by ''NPR''

Review of Bruce Page's "The Murdoch Archipelago", by Godfrey Hodgson. ''New Statesman''

Category:Living people Category:1931 births Category:Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford Category:American billionaires Category:American mass media owners Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:Australian billionaires Category:Australian emigrants to the United States Category:Australian mass media owners Category:Australian newspaper publishers (people) Category:Australian people of English descent Category:Australian people of Irish descent Category:Australian people of Scottish descent Category:Businesspeople from Melbourne Category:Companions of the Order of Australia Category:Company founders Category:Council on Foreign Relations Category:Critics of the European Union Category:Fox Broadcasting Company executives Category:Los Angeles Dodgers owners Category:Major League Baseball executives Category:Major League Baseball owners Category:Murdoch family Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:New York Post people Category:News Corporation people Category:News International phone hacking scandal Category:People educated at Geelong Grammar School Category:People from Adelaide

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name	Ronnie Lane
landscape	yes
background	solo_singer
birth name	Ronald Frederick Lane
alias	Plonk, Three-Piece
born	April 01, 1946
birth place	Plaistow, London, England, UK
died	June 04, 1997
death place	Trinidad, Colorado, USA
instrument	Bass, guitar, vocals
genre	Rock, rhythm and blues, psychedelic rock, folk rock
occupation	Musician, songwriter, producer
years active	1965–1992
label	A&M;, Atlantic, Immediate, Island
associated acts	Faces, Small Faces, Slim Chance, Ronnie Lane and the 7 Samurai, Pete Townshend, Ron Wood
notable instruments	Zemaitis Bass, Harmony H22 Bass, Fender Jazz Bass }}

Ronald Frederick "Ronnie" Lane (1 April 1946, Plaistow Maternity Hospital, Plaistow, East London – 4 June 1997) was an English musician, songwriter, and producer who is best known as the bass guitarist and founding member of two prominent English rock and roll bands; the Small Faces where he was nicknamed "Plonk", (1965–69) – and, after losing the band's frontman, Faces, with two new members added to the line up, (from The Jeff Beck Group), who dubbed him "Three-Piece" (1969–73). It was for his work in both the Small Faces and the Faces that Lane was inducted posthumously into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2012.

Subsequently Lane collaborated with other musicians, leading his own bands as well as pursuing a solo career while remaining close to his former bandmates. In the late 1970s he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and, despite charity projects and financial support from friends, former bandmates and fans, Lane, after suffering from the disease for 21 years, died at 51.

Early life

Lane was born in Forest Gate, a working class area in the East End of London, to Elsie Lane and Stanley Lane, a lorry driver, who Lane later described as a "saint", who would work a long work day, and then return home to nurse his wife and two sons, all of whom were diagnosed with M.S. at differing points in their lives. As a child, the doctors assured Lane that the destructive disease was not necessarily inherited, although he found out otherwise later in his life. After leaving school at the age of sixteen, Lane met Kenney Jones at a local pub and they formed a group they named The Outcasts. Initially playing lead guitar, Lane quickly switched to bass. When shopping for a Harmony bass guitar Lane visited the J60 Music Bar in Manor Park, London where he met Steve Marriott who was working there. Lane bought his bass and went to Marriott's house after work where Marriott introduced him to his Motown and Stax collection. Lane and Marriott set out to form a band, recruiting friends Kenney Jones and Jimmy Winston, who switched from guitar to organ. Marriott was chosen to be the frontman and singer.

Small Faces

The Small Faces were Lane on bass guitar, Marriott as guitarist and lead vocalist, Kenney Jones as drummer, and Winston on keyboards, They made their debut in 1965, Ian McLagan replacing Winston in November 1965. Lane and Marriott began writing hit songs consistently, including "Itchycoo Park" and "All or Nothing". At least a dozen successful songs credit Lane, and the 1968 concept album ''Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake'' features songs co-written by Lane with one exception. The album made it to #1 on the UK Albums Chart for six weeks. The band disbanded in 1969 as Marriott left the group. The group reformed during the late 1970s but Lane did not join them.

Faces

Lane formed The Faces with McLagan, Jones, Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart in 1969. He shared primary songwriting duties in Faces with Rod Stewart, composing, or co-composing, many of their best-loved pieces and taking a central role during the recording of their fourth and final album, ''Ooh La La'', particularly, as the band's front man, Rod Stewart focused on his own solo career. Unhappy due to poor reviews of the album and Stewart's lack of commitment, Lane quit in 1973, making his last appearance at the Sundown Theatre in Edmonton, London on 4 June. He was replaced by Tetsu Yamauchi but the group split in 1975.

Slim Chance and later career

After leaving the Faces Lane formed his own band Slim Chance, who recorded the hit singles "How Come" (UK No. 11) and "The Poacher" (UK No. 36) and the album ''Anymore for Anymore'', showcasing a blend of British rock music, folk and country music.

After initial success he commenced a tour called "The Passing Show", touring the UK as a carnival complete with tents and barkers. Viv Stanshall, from the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, was a short-lived ringmaster (of sorts). Lane moved to Island Records and issued ''Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance'' and ''One for the Road''. In late 1976 he joined a short-lived reformation of Small Faces but quit after two rehearsals, to be replaced by Rick Wills (who later played alongside former Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones in The Jones Gang). However, Lane had signed a contract with Atlantic Records as part of the Small Faces, and was informed that he owed the company an album. His ensuing album with Pete Townshend, ''Rough Mix'', produced by Glyn Johns, which was released in 1977, was lauded as contender for best album of the year by many critics, but the label did not promote it and sales were lacklustre.

During the recording of ''Rough Mix'', Lane's multiple sclerosis was diagnosed. Nonetheless he toured, wrote and recorded (with Eric Clapton among others) and released another album, ''See Me'', which features several songs written by Lane and Clapton. Around this time Lane travelled the highways and byways of England and lived a 'passing show' modern nomadic life in full Gypsy Traveller costume and accommodation.

In 1983 his girlfriend Boo Oldfield contacted Glyn Johns with a view to organizing a concert to help fund Action for Research into Multiple Sclerosis. Johns was already arranging Clapton's Command Performance for Prince Charles so they decided to book the Royal Albert Hall for another couple of nights and host a benefit concert. The resulting A.R.M.S. concerts featured Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Kenney Jones, Andy Fairweather-Low and others. With the addition of Joe Cocker and Paul Rodgers they toured the U.S.

Move to Texas and death

Lane moved to Texas in 1984, where he continued playing, writing, and recording. He formed an American version of Slim Chance, which was, as always, a loose-knit conglomeration of available musicians. For much of the time, membership included Alejandro Escovedo. For close to a decade Lane enjoyed "rock royalty" status in the Austin area. He toured Japan but his health continued to decline. His last performance was in 1992 at a Ronnie Wood gig alongside Ian McLagan. In 1994 Ronnie and his wife Susan moved to the small town of Trinidad, Colorado. Jimmy Page, Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood continued to fund his medical care because no royalties from The Small Faces' work was forthcoming until Kenney Jones and Ian McLagan were eventually able to secure payments, by which time Steve Marriott had died in a house fire and Lane had also died. Lane succumbed to pneumonia, in the final stages of his progressive multiple sclerosis, on 4 June 1997. An album of live BBC recordings was about to be released to raise money for his care when Lane died.

Tributes

The Ocean Colour Scene song "Travellers Tune" on their 1997 studio album ''Marchin' Already'' was inspired by and written in the memory of Ronnie Lane, a strong influence on the group, which appeared at the tribute concert for Ronnie Lane. Likewise Lane had been such a source of inspiration to the members of Poi Dog Pondering that they created a tribute page for him and in 1995 band member Susan Voelz covered Lane's song, "Glad and Sorry" on her 1995 album, ''Summer Crashing'', "out of her respect and affection for Ronnie Lane". In 2000, Paul Weller recorded "He's the Keeper", a song dedicated to Lane's memory. An album of live and in-studio recordings from Lane's Austin days was later culled, and released as ''Live in Austin''. Plaistow (his birthplace in East London) named a street "Ronnie Lane" after him in 2001. In January 2006 BBC Four broadcast an extensive documentary about Lane, ''The Passing Show'' that had been in preparation since 2000 and aired vintage concerts by Faces and Slim Chance. In October 2006 the documentary was also shown on BBC Two.

Discography

Small Faces

;Studio albums

''Small Faces'' (1966)

''Small Faces'' (1967)

''Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake'' (1968)

''Playmates'' (1977)

''78 in the Shade'' (1978)

Faces

;Studio albums

''First Step'' (1970)

''Long Player'' (1971)

''A Nod Is as Good as a Wink... to a Blind Horse'' (1971)

''Ooh La La'' (1973)

''Coast to Coast: Overture and Beginners'' (1974)

According to the Wikipedia page for "The Faces", Ronnie Lane left the group before the 1974 tour, and hence was not featured on the album "Coast to Coast", neither are any of the songs performed on that album Lane compositions.

Solo discography

''Anymore for Anymore''

''Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance''

''One for the Road''

''Mahoney's Last Stand'' (Album with Ron Wood)

''See Me (album)''

''You Never Can Tell (The BBC Sessions)''

''Kuschty Rye (The Singles 1973-1980)''

''Tin and Tambourine'' (compilation)

''Rocket 69'' (Live on German TV)

''Live in Austin''

''April Fool'' (compilation 1999)

''How Come'' (compilation 2001)

''Ain't No One Like'' (compilation 2003)

''Just For a Moment'' (compilation 2006)

Collaborations

''Happy Birthday'' (with Pete Townshend) (1970)

''I Am'' (with Pete Townshend) (1972)

''Mahoney's Last Stand'' (with Ronnie Wood) (September, 1976) Atlantic

''With Love'' (with Pete Townshend) (1976)

''Rough Mix'' (with Pete Townshend) (1977) US #45

''The Legendary Majik Mijits'' (with Steve Marriott) (1980)

''Victory Gardens'' (1991) (with folk duo John & Mary)

References

External links

Slim-chance.co.uk The band have reformed

Video tribute to Ronnie Lane

Small Faces on Room for Ravers

fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid;=6531278 Article on

Category:1946 births Category:1997 deaths Category:English rock bass guitarists Category:English songwriters Category:English male singers Category:English expatriates in the United States Category:Followers of Meher Baba Category:Small Faces members Category:People from Plaistow, Newham Category:People with multiple sclerosis Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:A&M; Records artists Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:Island Records artists Category:British rhythm and blues boom musicians Category:British folk rock musicians

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