The real-life dame and on-screen dowager countess, who has died aged 89, earned fame in her 70s and 80s for blockbuster roles. But her early work at the National Theatre marked her out as a talent for the agesDame Maggie Smith’s trophy cabinet reflected her extraordinary achievements across theatre, film and television – and in the biggest arenas of British and US culture, from the BBC to Hollywood, the West End to Broadway. A measure of her versatility and durability is that, in the 1960s, she played nine major roles in the formative years of the National Theatre, but also, from the start of the 2000s, appeared in five series of Downton Abbey, the ITV Sunday night series that became one of the biggest popular hits of the new millennium.Her role in that show was Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, who lived in such a bubble of exclusive comfort that, in trademark one-liners, she would drawl in mystification, for example: “What is a ‘weekend’?” That acerbic superiority was a signature throughout Smith’s career, including the part that brought her first Academy award in 1970, against a shortlist also featuring Liza Minnelli and Jane Fonda, for the title role in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, adapted from Muriel Spark’s novel about a maverick, arrogant schoolteacher in Edinburgh. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-09-27 13:37:47 UTC ]
Jumping on bandwagons is my least favorite activity. Don't force me to tell you all the must-see movies I've skipped ("Forrest Gump" is all you'll get out of me), the No. 1 best-sellers I've bypassed (I discovered the world of "Harry Potter" only after it became a play) or the platinum records... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The screenings of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone" at Durham Cathedral has broken all of the city’s book festival records with 1,500 tickets selling out in one day. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-08-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Unit sales of print books in the week ended Aug. 6, 2017, were down 17% from the similar week in 2016 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The decline was due entirely to the release last year at this time of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which sold about 2.5 million... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-08-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Sphere) has bewitched the UK Official Top 50 for a second week, holding the number one spot with 23,711 copies sold, according to Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-08-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As her wizarding world returns to the stage and screen, Rowling’s $95m pushes James Patterson into second place with $87mJK Rowling will need to reserve a particularly large vault at Gringotts bank after a bumper year for the Harry Potter novelist magicked her back to the No 1 spot on Forbes’... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Little, Brown) has Wingardium Levoisa’d straight into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-08-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Veteran Hollywood executive Jonathan Dolgen, who formerly headed Paramount Pictures, has sold his home in Malibu for $18 million. The buyer was Chris Columbus, director of such films as “Home Alone,” “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” The English traditional-style home... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-07-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The first book in the Harry Potter series is set to be translated into Scots for the first time, with "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stane", marking the 80th translation of the publishing phenomenon. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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On 11th July 1997, The Bookseller interviewed Jo Rowling, then a little-known author, about her first novel - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. To mark 20 years since the release of the first Harry Potter novel, we republish that interview, conducted by The Bookseller's then children's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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We dug into the archives to find the first Kiwi review of Harry Potter, but the earliest seems to be from 1999. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2017-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bookshops around the country are unveiling a host of magical events — including Quidditch Pong, Harry Potter Bingo and Horcrux hunts—to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the publication of J K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Bloomsbury). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A proof of the first Harry Potter novel, which got the author’s name wrong, is only the latest example of an ungainly tradition stretching back centuriesProofreaders may be worth their weight in gold to authors, but their oversights have proved lucrative for some lucky readers of JK Rowling. On... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Driven by sales of general merchandise and 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,' the Canadian bookstore chain reported record revenue growth for fiscal 2017. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Shortly after I was hired to be a columnist for Time’s website, I was asked to write about a book called The Confidence Code. Having actually been recruited and hired as a columnist, one would assume there’d be certain things I was capable of, such as writing a column. But this was my first... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2017-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Star Wars, Harry Potter or indeed the almost century-old comic book legends Batman and Superman may have sprung from a rich creative well, but in a stunning twist all of them have been banished to the box office naughty step. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2017-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The National Library of Scotland and Creative Scotland are celebrating 100 years since the birth of Scottish writer Muriel Spark with a range of literary and cultural events, including a major exhibition, an international academic conference at the University of Glasgow, two BBC documentaries... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-04-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Soho awards night with David Nicholls and a "very special" Harry Potter screening at the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel London lead the "eclectic" line-up of this year’s London Book & Screen Week. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-02-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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North London retailer the Big Green Bookshop is tweeting out every word of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Bloomsbury) to broadcaster Piers Morgan following his Twitter spat with its author J K Rowling. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Helped by Harry Potter and the hit fitness guru, year on year takings to December rose sharply to £1.59bnRetail sales struggled in 2016, but JK Rowling cast a spell strong enough to power sales towards a magical £1.6bn during the year, a rise of almost 5% on 2015, according to the latest annual... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dan Brown is back. Tolkien is back. Tony Abbott is back. Harry Potter is back (well, recycled in four new editions). Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2017-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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