Lawrence Durrell

Lawrence George Durrell (/ˈdʊərəl, ˈdʌr-/; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer.

For much of his life, Durrell resisted being identified solely as British, or as only affiliated with Britain, and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan. It has been suggested in recent years, since his death, that Durrell never had British citizenship, though more accurately, he became defined as a non-patrial in 1968, as a result of an amendment to the Commonwealth Immigrants Act. Hence, he was denied the normal citizenship right to enter or settle in Britain under the new laws, and had to apply for a visa for each entry.

His most famous work is the tetralogy The Alexandria Quartet, particularly the first of the quartet's four novels, Justine.

Life and work

Durrell was born in Jalandhar, British India, the eldest son of Indian-born British colonials Louisa and Lawrence Samuel Durrell. His first school was St. Joseph's College, North Point, Darjeeling. At the age of eleven, he was sent to England, where he briefly attended St. Olave's Grammar School before being sent to St. Edmund's School, Canterbury. His formal education was unsuccessful, and he failed his university entrance examinations, but he began seriously writing poetry at the age of fifteen, and his first collection of poetry, Quaint Fragments, was published in 1931.

Stiff upper lip

One who has a stiff upper lip displays fortitude in the face of adversity, or exercises great self-restraint in the expression of emotion. The phrase is most commonly heard as part of the idiom "keep a stiff upper lip", and has traditionally been used to describe an attribute of British people, who are sometimes perceived by other cultures as being unemotional. A sign of weakness is trembling of the upper lip, hence the saying keep a stiff upper lip. When a person's upper lip begins to tremble, it is one of the first signs that the person is scared or shaken by experiencing deep emotion.

It's perhaps surprising "that a phrase so strongly associated with the UK should have originated in America." One of the earliest known references to the phrase was in the Massachusetts Spy, June 1815: "I kept a stiff upper lip, and bought [a] license to sell my goods."

Poems that feature a memorable evocation of Victorian cold-bloodedness and a stiff upper lip include Rudyard Kipling's "If—" and W. E. Henley's "Invictus". The phrase became symbolic of the British people, and particularly of those who were products of the English public school system during the Victorian era. Such schools aimed to instill a code of discipline and devotion to duty in their students through competitive sports, corporal punishments and cold showers.

Stiff upper lip (disambiguation)

Stiff upper lip is a colloquial expression referring to fortitude in the face of adversity.

Stiff upper lip may also refer to:

See also

Stiff Upper Lip (album)

Stiff Upper Lip is an album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. It was the band's thirteenth internationally released studio album and the fourteenth to be released in Australia. The album was co-produced by George Young, older brother of Malcolm and Angus Young. The album was re-released in the US on 17 April 2007 as part of the AC/DC Remasters series. It was re-released in the UK in 2005.

Background

The Young brothers began writing songs for what would become Stiff Upper Lip in the summer of 1997 in London and the Netherlands with Malcolm on guitar and Angus on drums, and by February 1998 the songs were completed. The band had planned on recording a new album with Canadian Bruce Fairbairn, who had produced the enormously successful The Razors Edge and AC/DC Live, but Fairbairn died in May 1999. The Youngs turned to their older brother George, who had produced 1988's Blow Up Your Video as well as the band's early albums with Harry Vanda, and Mike Fraser, who had co-produced 1995's Ballbreaker, to complete Stiff Upper Lip.