Wigan Pier

Wigan Pier is the name given today to the area around the canal at the bottom of the Wigan flight of locks on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. It is a popular location for visitors and the local community in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, situated just a few hundred yards south-west of the town centre. The name "Wigan Pier" has humorous or ironic connotations since it conjures an image of a seaside pleasure pier, whereas Wigan is in fact an inland and traditionally industrial town.

History

The original "pier" at Wigan was a coal loading staithe, probably a wooden jetty, where wagons from a nearby colliery were unloaded into waiting barges on the canal. The original wooden pier is believed to have been demolished in 1929, with the iron from the tippler (a mechanism for tipping coal into the barges) being sold as scrap.

The Road to Wigan Pier

The Road to Wigan Pier is a book by the British writer George Orwell, first published in 1937. The first half of this work documents his sociological investigations of the bleak living conditions among the working class in Lancashire and Yorkshire in the industrial north of England before World War II. The second half is a long essay on his middle-class upbringing, and the development of his political conscience, questioning British attitudes towards socialism. Orwell states plainly that he himself is in favour of socialism; but feels it necessary to point out reasons why many people who would benefit from socialism, and should logically support it, are in practice likely to be strong opponents.

According to Orwell biographer Bernard Crick, publisher Victor Gollancz first tried to persuade Orwell's agent to allow the Left Book Club edition to consist solely of the descriptive first half of the book. When this was refused Gollancz wrote an introduction to the book. "Victor could not bear to reject it, even though his suggestion that the "repugnant" second half should be omitted from the Club edition was turned down. On this occasion Victor, albeit nervously, did overrule Communist Party objections in favour of his publishing instinct. His compromise was to publish the book with [an introduction] full of good criticism, unfair criticism, and half-truths."

The Road

The Road is a 2006 novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy. It is a post-apocalyptic tale of a journey of a father and his young son over a period of several months, across a landscape blasted by an unspecified cataclysm that has destroyed most of civilization and, in the intervening years, almost all life on Earth. The novel was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 2006.

The book was adapted to a film by the same name in 2009, directed by John Hillcoat.

Plot summary

An unnamed father and his young son journey across a grim post-apocalyptic landscape, some years after an unspecified disaster has caused another extinction event, destroying civilization and most life on Earth. The land is filled with ash and devoid of living animals and vegetation. Many of the remaining human survivors have resorted to cannibalism, scavenging the detritus of city and country alike for flesh. The boy's mother, pregnant with him at the time of the disaster, gave up hope and committed suicide some time before the story began, despite the father's pleas. Much of the book is written in the third person, with references to "the father" and "the son" or to "the man" and "the boy".

Poetry of the Deed

Poetry of the Deed is the third studio album by London-based singer-songwriter Frank Turner, released on 7 September 2009. The album was released on Xtra Mile Recordings in the UK and Epitaph Records worldwide.

Unlike Turner's previous solo albums, Poetry of the Deed was rehearsed, arranged and recorded with his full band. In the album's liner notes, Turner states: "this album has been more of a collaborative process than on previous efforts, so first and foremost thanks are due to Ben Lloyd, Matt Nasir, Tarrant Anderson and Nigel Powell."

Background

After extensive touring behind the release of Love, Ire & Song in 2008, Turner began writing new material, with a few songs ("Live Fast, Die Old" & "Dan's Song") appearing at gigs in late 2008.

Before recording the album, Turner and his band played four gigs in Oxford in order to road-test 14 new songs. Turner kept fans up to date during the writing and recording of the album via his blog.

The album was produced by Alex Newport. Recording took place at Leeders Farm in Norwich and the producer's own Future Shock Studio in Brooklyn, NYC.

The Road (Anand novel)

The Road is a 1961 English-language novel by Mulk Raj Anand. The main character Bhikhu bears many similarities to the character Bakha in Anand's earlier novel Untouchable.

References

Wigan (fabric)

Wigan is a cotton material coated with latex rubber. Its name is derived from Wigan, the name of a town in Greater Manchester, England.

References

Wigan (UK Parliament constituency)

Wigan is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Lisa Nandy, a member of the Labour Party.

History

Wigan was one of the important places called upon to send a representative (a 'burgess') to the Model Parliament of 1295 and to another in January 1307, however was not summoned during the remainder of the medieval period to send its representative to Westminster, instead waiting until Henry VIII's grant of two members to the town which is believed to have already been incorporated as a borough in 1246 following the issue of a charter by Henry III. After the end of the Middle Ages, in the Tudor period, Wigan was one of four boroughs in Lancashire possessing Royal Charters; the others were Lancaster, Liverpool and Preston.

The seat saw a reduction of the number of its members under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 which imposed single-member constituencies nationwide.

The death of Roger Stott in office in 1999 made him the fourth Wigan MP in the twentieth century to die in office (uniquely for a constituency in the United Kingdom): (the others being John Parkinson, Ronald Williams and William Foster).