Coordinates: 54°03′50″N 2°52′43″W / 54.0640°N 2.8786°W / 54.0640; -2.8786
Morecambe ( /ˈmɔrkəm/) is a resort town and civil parish within the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England. As of 2001 it has a resident population of 38,917. It is situated on Morecambe Bay. Morecambe and the nearby village of Heysham have a combined population of 51,400.
In 1846, the Morecambe Harbour and Railway Company was formed to build a harbour on Morecambe Bay, close to the fishing village of Poulton-le-Sands, and a connecting railway. By 1850, the railway linked to Skipton, Keighley and Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and a settlement began to grow around the harbour and railway, to service the port and as a seaside resort. The settlement expanded to absorb Poulton, and the villages of Bare and Torrisholme. The settlement started to be referred to as "Morecambe", possibly after the harbour and railway. In 1889 the new name was officially adopted.
Morecambe was a thriving seaside resort in the mid-20th century. While the resort of Blackpool attracted holiday-makers predominantly from the Lancashire mill towns, Morecambe had more visitors from Yorkshire (due to its railway connection) and Scotland. Between 1956 and 1989 it was the home of the Miss Great Britain beauty contest.
Glenda May Jackson, CBE (born 9 May 1936) is a British Labour Party politician and former actress. She has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1992, and currently represents Hampstead and Kilburn. She previously served as MP for Hampstead and Highgate. After constituency changes for the 2010 general election, her majority of 42 votes was one of the closest results of the entire election.
As an actress, she won two Academy Awards for Best Actress: for Women in Love (1969) and A Touch of Class (1973).
Jackson was born in Birkenhead on the Wirral, Cheshire (now Merseyside) where her father was a bricklayer. Jackson was educated at the West Kirby County Grammar School for Girls, then worked for two years in a Boots chemist shop, before studying at RADA in Bloomsbury.
Having studied acting at RADA, Jackson made her professional stage debut in Terence Rattigan's Separate Tables in 1957, and her film debut in This Sporting Life in 1963. Subsequently a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company for four years, she worked for director Peter Brook in several productions, including of Peter Weiss' Marat/Sade as Charlotte Corday. Jackson also appeared in the film version.
Plot
In 1956, aspiring American poet 'Sylvia Plath' (qv) meets fellow poet Edward 'Ted Hughes (I)' (qv) at Cambridge, where she is studying. Enthralled with the genius of his writing, Sylvia falls in love with him even before meeting him, and he quickly falls in love with her. They eventually marry. Sylvia quickly learns that others are also enthralled with her husband, for a combination of his good looks, charisma, fame and success. Sylvia lives in her husband's professional shadow as she tries to eke out her own writing career, which doesn't come as naturally to her as it does to Ted. She also suspects him of chronic infidelity. Both issues affect Sylvia's already fragile emotional state, she who once tried to commit suicide earlier in her life. Through her pain and her anger, she does gain minor success as a writer, with a completed semi-autobiographical novel and a few well received collection of poems. Following, she tries to regain some happiness in her life with Ted, but has an alternate plan if that does not work out as she wants.
Keywords: 1950s, 1960s, adultery, american-abroad, artist, author, autobiographical, baby, baby-nudity, baking
Life was too small to contain her...
Professor Thomas: The government cut the electricity.::Sylvia: Why?::Professor Thomas: To build national character!
Ted: I'm sorry...::Sylvia: What for?::Ted: I don't know yet...
Sylvia: I am thinking of taking a lover.::Al Alvarez: Who?::Sylvia: [Sylvia stares at Al, half-smiling]
Sylvia: Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through.::[from her poetry]
[on the phone to the BBC]::Sylvia: Don't take such tone of voice with me!
[about the cows on the river bank]::Sylvia: How do you think they prefer Milton or Chaucer?::Ted: Chaucer obviously!
Sylvia: You probably just think I'm some ghastly American bitch, don't you?::Professor Thomas: God no, I thought you were Canadian.
Sylvia: Sometimes I feel like I'm not... solid. I'm hollow. There's nothing behind my eyes. I'm a negative of a person. It's as if I never - -I never thought anything. I never wrote anything. I never felt anything.
Sylvia: [to Ted, after making love] We're not even two people. Even before we met, we were just these two halves, walking around with big gaping holes in the shape like the other person. And when we found each other we were finally whole. And then it was as if we couldn't stand being happy so we ripped ourselves in half again.
[first lines]::Sylvia: Sometimes I dream the tree, and the tree is my life. One branch is the man I shall marry, and the leaves my children. Another branch is my future as a writer, and each leaf is a poem. Another branch is a good academic career. But as I sit there trying to choose, the leaves bring to turn brown and blow away, until the tree is absolutely bare.