Gerard Hoffnung

Gerard Hoffnung (22 March 1925 – 28 September 1959) was an artist and musician, best known for his humorous works.

Raised in Germany, Hoffnung was brought to London as a boy, to escape the Nazis. Over the next two decades in England, he became known as a cartoonist, tuba player, impresario, broadcaster and public speaker.

After training at two art colleges, Hoffnung taught for a few years, and then turned to drawing, on the staff of English and American publications, and later as a freelance. He published a series of cartoons on musical themes, and illustrated the works of novelists and poets.

In 1956 Hoffnung mounted the first of his "Hoffnung Festivals" in London, at which classical music was spoofed for comic effect, with contributions from many eminent musicians. As a broadcaster he appeared on BBC panel games, where he honed the material for one of his best-known performances, his speech at the Oxford Union in 1958.

Early years

Born in Berlin, and named Gerhard, Hoffnung was the only child of a well-to-do Jewish couple, Hildegard and Ludwig Hoffnung. He was sent to England, where he attended Bunce Court School in 1938. In 1939, his parents left Germany; his father went to Palestine to enter the family's banking business. Gerard went with his mother to London, where she rented a house in Hampstead Garden Suburb, where Hoffnung lived for the rest of his life. In 1939 he enrolled at Highgate School, where, according to one biographer, he was "remembered for his anarchic spirit". Among the artists he most admired when he was growing up was Walter Trier, long associated with Lilliput magazine. Hoffnung had his first cartoon published in the same publication while he was still at school.

Sidney King

Sidney King (1885 – 1972) was an English cricketer. King's batting style is unknown. He was born at Rushden, Northamptonshire.

King made his first-class debut for Northamptonshire against Gloucestershire in the 1907 County Championship. He made three further first-class appearances, the last of which came against Hampshire in the 1908 County Championship. In his four first-class matches, he scored 47 runs at an average of 9.40, with a high score of 23.

He died at the town of his birth sometime in 1977.

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Bushido

Bushidō, (武士道) literally meaning "the way of the warrior", is a Japanese word for the way of the samurai life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry in Europe.

The "way" itself originates from the samurai moral values, most commonly stressing some combination of frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honor until death. Born from Neo-Confucianism during times of peace in Tokugawa Japan and following Confucian texts, Bushido was also influenced by Shinto and Zen Buddhism, allowing the violent existence of the samurai to be tempered by wisdom and serenity. Bushidō developed between the 16th and 20th centuries, debated by pundits who believed they were building on a legacy dating back to the 10th century, although some scholars have noted that the term bushidō itself is "rarely attested in premodern literature".

Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, some aspects of warrior values became formalized into Japanese feudal law.

The word was first used in Japan during the 17th century in Kōyō Gunkan. It came into common usage in Japan and the West after the 1899 publication of Nitobe Inazō's Bushido: The Soul of Japan.

Sonny Black

Sonny Black is a leading acoustic guitarist based in the UK, who plays blues, rags and original compositions usually fingerstyle or slide. "Sonny Black" is a pseudonym adopted when he began the first "Sonny Black's Blues Band". He previously became well known by his real name of Bill Boazman on the folk club circuit and at college gigs during the 1970s as a singer, songwriter and acoustic guitarist. He has been credited with accompanying J. J. Cale, but this is a fallacy arising from a typographic error involving an American musician with a similar name, Bob Brozman.

Biography

First influences

Bill Boazman's father, also named William, was an officer in the REME regiment of the British Army. William senior took an active part in army entertainment and on retirement became an actor, appearing in several West End shows. Bill travelled with his family to several overseas postings, and lived for a while in Singapore. He was later educated at Churchers College in Petersfield, while his family lived in Camberley, near Aldershot. Boazman's younger sister, Sally Boazman,is a traffic reprter with BBC Radio 2, popularly known as 'Sally Traffic'