Leicester

The Guildhall in Leicester, England, is a Grade I listed timber framed building, with the earliest part dating from c. 1390. The Guildhall once acted... as the town hall for the city until the current one was commissioned in 1876. Although some parts are earlier, the majority of the building dates from the 15th century. It is located in the old walled city, on a street now known as Guildhall Lane. It was used first as the meeting place for the Guild of Corpus Christi and then later for the more formal Corporation of Leicester. The hall was used for many purposes, including council meetings, feasts, as a courtroom, and for theatrical performances; the ultimatum given to the city during English Civil War was discussed here. The Great Hall was built around 1390 as the meeting place of the Guild of Corpus Christi; the guild was a group of businessmen and gentry who had religious connections. The Guildhall was used for banquets, festivals, and as a home for a priest who prayed for the souls of Guild members in the nearby St Martin's Church. The Corporation of Leicester bought the Guildhall by the end of the 14th century.
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Mark Morrison is an English R&B singer. The first black male solo artist to reach number-one in the 1990s, his single, "Return of the Mack",... became a number-one or Top 10 hit in several European countries in 1996. The song peaked at number 2 in the United States the following year. Born in Hanover, West Germany, to Barbadian parents, he lived in Leicester, England and attended Rushey Mead School, before moving to Miami, Florida. At age 19, he moved back to England. Mark Morrison's first official recording was the 1993 vinyl release, Where Is Our Love, pressed on his own private Joe'Mel label. In mid-1995, Morrison released his debut single, Crazy, which became a Top 20 hit in the UK. The follow-up single, Let's Get Down, also entered the Top 40. They were followed in the spring of 1996 by Return of the Mack which became a smash international hit spending two weeks at #1 on the UK charts. Morrison became the first black male solo artist to reach #1 in the 1990s. His debut album, also titled Return of the Mack, followed and became a multi-platinum success. It reached number four in the UK chart, and sold 3 million albums worldwide.
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Parminder Nagra is a British actress of Indian descent. She came to international prominence in 2002 after starring in Bend It Like Beckham. She... starred as Dr. Neela Rasgotra in the Emmy Award-winning American medical drama series ER for six years until the series ended on 2 April 2009. She was married to photographer James Stenson, with whom she has a son, Kai David Singh Stenson, who was born on 19 May 2009. She currently stars as Lucy Banerjee, in the Fox television series, Alcatraz. Nagra was born in Leicester, England, the daughter of Punjabi Jat Sikh parents who emigrated to the UK from Punjab, India during the late 1960s. Her father, Sukha, was a factory worker who is believed to have separated from her mother, Nashuter, either shortly after or before her birth; he died in late December 2008. Nagra is the eldest of four children with two brothers and one sister. They were brought up in a small terraced house in the Belgrave district of Leicester by her mother and stepfather, who worked as a bookkeeper at a cousin's transport company.
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Graham Arthur Chapman was an English comedian, physician, writer, actor and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Chapman was... born at the Stoneygate Nursing Home, Stoneygate, Leicester. He was educated at Melton Mowbray Grammar School and studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Medical College and later at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was also an avid fan of radio comedy from an early age, becoming especially drawn to that of The Goon Show. In the introduction to Chapman's posthumous anthology, Jim Yoakum notes that "the radio shows didn't necessarily make him laugh. Only a select few got chuckles from young Chapman including Frankie Howerd, the team of Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warriss, It's That Man Again, Educating Archie, Take It From Here and Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh. 'I especially liked Robert Moreton, although no one else seemed to like him very much. He would do things like tell jokes the wrong way around and switch punch lines. He was obviously a very good comedian and was ahead of his time. The appearance of incompetence was wonderful. He was one of my heroes.
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David Vaughan Icke is an English writer and public speaker, best known for his views on what he calls "who and what is really controlling the... world." Describing himself as the most controversial speaker in the world, he is the author of 19 books and has attracted a global following that cuts across the political spectrum. His 533-page The Biggest Secret has been called "the Rosetta Stone for conspiracy junkies." Icke was a well-known BBC television sports presenter and spokesman for the Green Party, when in 1990 a psychic told him he was a healer who had been placed on Earth for a purpose, and that the spirit world was going to pass messages to him so he could educate others. In March 1991 he held a press conference to announce that he was a "Son of the Godhead" – a phrase he said later the media had misunderstood – and the following month told the BBC's Terry Wogan show that the world would soon be devastated by tidal waves and earthquakes. He said the show changed his life, turning him from a respected household name into someone who was laughed at whenever he appeared in public.
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Colin Henry Wilson is a prolific English writer who first came to prominence as a philosopher and novelist. Wilson has since written widely on true... crime, mysticism and other topics. He prefers calling his philosophy new existentialism or phenomenological existentialism. Born and raised in Leicester, England, Wilson left school at 16. He worked in factories and at various occupations, and read in his spare time. Gollancz published the then 24-year-old Wilson's The Outsider in 1956; the work examines the role of the social "outsider" in seminal works of various key literary and cultural figures. These include Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William James, T. E. Lawrence, Vaslav Nijinsky and Vincent van Gogh; Wilson discusses his perception of social alienation in their work. The book became a best-seller and helped popularize existentialism in Britain. The inside cover's blurb reads: The Outsider is the seminal work on alienation, creativity and the modern mind-set. First published over thirty years ago, it made its youthful author England's most controversial intellectual.
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Susan Lillian Townsend FRSL is an English novelist and playwright, best known as the author of the Adrian Mole books. Although her writing primarily... combines comedy with social commentary, she has also written purely dramatic works. Townsend was born in Leicester and went to Glen Hills Primary School, where the school secretary was Mrs Claricotes, a name she used for the school secretary in the Adrian Mole books. Her father was a postman and she was the eldest of five sisters. After failing her 11-plus exam, Townsend then went to the secondary modern South Wigston High School. She left school at the age of 15 and worked in a variety of jobs including factory worker and shop assistant. She married a sheet-metal worker and had three children under five by the time she was 22. She joined a writers' group at the Phoenix Theatre, Leicester in her thirties. She has four children: Sean, Daniel, Victoria and Elizabeth. At the time of writing the first Adrian Mole book, Townsend was living on the Saffron Lane Estate, a stone's-throw away from the house in which playwright Joe Orton was brought up.
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Dominic Keating is a British television, film and theatre actor, known for his portrayal as Lt. Malcolm Reed on Star Trek: Enterprise. Keating was... born in Leicester to an Irish father; his grandfather, a brigadier, was awarded an OBE. His first stage performance was in primary school, playing a character in The Ragged School. He then attended Uppingham School. After graduating from the University College London with First Class Honours in History, he tried various jobs before deciding to be a professional actor. To obtain his Equity card, Keating worked in a drag act called Feeling Mutual. As of 2005, Keating maintains homes in both London and Los Angeles. He enjoys golfing, swimming, music, boogie boarding, tennis, reading and traveling. Keating had success on the UK stage prior to working as a television and film actor. He originated the role of "Cosmo" in Philip Ridley's The Pitchfork Disney, as well as that of "Bryan" in Michael Wall's Amongst Barbarians, for which he won a Mobil Award.
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Peter Leslie Shilton OBE is a former English footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He currently holds the record for playing more games for England... than anyone else, earning 125 caps. His 30-year career included eleven different clubs, three World Cups, two European Cup finals and more than 1,000 competitive matches. He has the rare distinction of having played over 100 league games for five different clubs. Shilton did not make his World Cup finals debut until the age of 32 but he played in 17 finals matches and shares the record 10 clean sheets in World Cup finals with French keeper Fabien Barthez. During his time at Nottingham Forest he won two European Cups, a UEFA Super Cup, the First Division championship, the Football League Cup and many other honours. Shilton also holds the all-time record for the most competitive appearances in world football. Shilton was a 13 year old pupil at King Richard III Boys School, Leicester, when he started training at schoolboy level with his local club Leicester City in 1963. He caught the eye of first-team goalkeeper Gordon Banks, who commented to the coach about how promising he was.
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