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TheUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as theUnited Kingdom (UK) orBritain, is a country inNorthwestern Europe, off the coast ofthe continental mainland. It comprisesEngland,Scotland,Wales andNorthern Ireland, with a population of over 69 million in 2024. The UK includes the island ofGreat Britain, the north-eastern part of the island ofIreland, and most ofthe smaller islands within theBritish Isles, covering 94,354 square miles (244,376 km2). It sharesa land border with theRepublic of Ireland and is otherwise surrounded by theAtlantic Ocean, theNorth Sea, theEnglish Channel, theCeltic Sea and theIrish Sea, while maintaining sovereignty over theBritish Overseas Territories. The capital and largest city of both England and the UK isLondon;Edinburgh,Cardiff andBelfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Britain has been inhabited since theNeolithic. In AD 43 theRoman conquest of Britain began. TheRoman departure between 383 and 410 was followed byAnglo-Saxon settlement beginning around 450. In 1066the Normans conquered England. After theWars of the Roses, theKingdom of England began to flourish, resulting in the 16th-centuryannexation of Wales and the establishment of theBritish Empire. Over the 17th century the role of theBritish monarchy was reduced, particularly as a result of theEnglish Civil War. In 1707 the Kingdom of England and theKingdom of Scotland united under theTreaty of Union to create theKingdom of Great Britain. In theGeorgian era the office ofprime minister became established. TheActs of Union 1800 incorporated theKingdom of Ireland to create theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. Most of Irelandseceded from the UK in 1922 as theIrish Free State, and theRoyal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 created the present United Kingdom.
The UKbecame the first industrialised country and was the world'sforemost power for the majority of the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly during thePax Britannica between 1815 and 1914. The British Empire was the leadingeconomic power for most of the 19th century, a position supported byits agricultural prosperity, its role as a dominanttrading nation, a massive industrial capacity,significant technological achievements, and the rise of19th-century London as the world's principal financial centre. At its height in the 1920s, the empire encompassed almost a quarter of the world's landmass and population, and was thelargest empire in history. However,its involvement in the First World War andin the Second World War damagedBritain's economic power, and a global wave ofdecolonisation led to the independence of most British colonies. (Full article...)
Mary: A Fiction is the first and only completenovel written by the 18th-century BritishfeministMary Wollstonecraft. Published in 1788, it tells the story of a heroine's successive "romantic friendships" with a woman and a man. Helping to redefinegenius, Wollstonecraft describes Mary as independent and capable of defining femininity and marriage for herself. It is Mary's "strong, original opinions" and her resistance to "conventional wisdom" that mark her as a genius. Making her heroine a genius allowed Wollstonecraft to criticize marriage as well: geniuses were "enchained" rather than enriched by marriage.Mary rewrites the traditional romance plot through its reimagination of gender relations and female sexuality. Wollstonecraft later repudiatedMary, writing that it was laughable. However, scholars have argued that, despite its faults, the novel's representation of an energetic, unconventional, opinionated, rational, female genius (the first of its kind in English literature) is an important development in the history of the novel because it helped shape an emerging feminist discourse. (Full article...)
Vivien Leigh was anEnglish theatre and filmactress. Although her film appearances were relatively few, she won twoAcademy Awards playing "Southern belles",Scarlett O'Hara inGone with the Wind andBlanche DuBois inA Streetcar Named Desire, a role she had also played inLondon'sWest End. She was a prolific stage performer, frequently in collaboration with her husband,Laurence Olivier, who directed her in several of her roles. During her thirty-year stage career, she played parts that ranged from the heroines ofNoël Coward andGeorge Bernard Shaw comedies to classicShakespearean characters such asOphelia,Cleopatra,Juliet andLady Macbeth. Lauded for her beauty, Leigh felt that it sometimes prevented her from being taken seriously as an actress, but ill health proved to be her greatest obstacle. Affected bybipolar disorder for most of her adult life, she gained a reputation for being difficult, and her career went through periods of decline. She was further weakened by recurrent bouts oftuberculosis, which was first diagnosed in the mid-1940s. She and Olivier divorced in 1960, and Leigh worked sporadically in film and theatre until her death from tuberculosis. (Full article...)
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