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Brixham

Brixham is a coastal town and civil parish in the borough of Torbay in the county of Devon, in the south-west of England. As of the 2021 census, Brixham had a population of 16,825. It is one of the main three centres of the borough, along with Paignton and Torquay.

It is believed that the name Brixham originates from the personal name of an early resident, Brioc, followed by the Old English suffix, ham meaning home. The town, which is predominantly hilly, is built around a natural harbour, which in addition to leisure craft, provides anchorage for what is now one of England's (but not the UK's) largest remaining commercial fishing fleets. A conspicuous local tourist attraction is the permanently moored replica of Sir Francis Drake's ship Golden Hind.

Historically Brixham was made up of two separate communities connected only by a marshy lane. In Fishtown, in the immediate vicinity of the harbour, as the name suggests, the residents made a living mainly from fishing and related trades while 1 mi inland in the vicinity of what is now St Mary's Square, on the road out of town to the south-west in the direction of Kingswear, is Cowtown, which made its living from agriculture. St Mary's Square is overlooked by a sizeable church standing on the site of a Saxon original.

On 5 November 1688, the Dutch prince, William of Orange landed in Brixham, with 40,000 soldiers, sailors and volunteers, prior to marching on London to be crowned King William III as part of the Glorious Revolution.

History
The first evidence of settlement dates from the Saxon period, it being possible that settlers arrived by sea from Hampshire in the 6th century or overland in about the year 800.

Brixham was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Briseham with a population of 39.

Brixham was part of the former Haytor Hundred. In 1334, the town's value was assessed as being one pound, twelve shillings and eightpence. William de Whithurst, a distinguished Crown official and judge in Ireland, became parish priest of Brixham in 1350. By 1524 Brixham's value had risen to £24 and sixteen shillings. In 1536 the town was recorded as being a borough, but the status was later lost. The presence of a market is recorded from 1822.

The oldest and largest of Brixham's two Anglican churches is St. Mary's, approximately 1 mi inland from the sea in the area of the town once known as Cowtown. The present church, dating from approximately 1360, is the third to occupy the site (an ancient Celtic burial place), the first and second having been a Saxon building of wooden construction and a Norman one of stone respectively.

On 5 November 1688, the Dutch prince, William of Orange landed in Brixham, with 40,000 soldiers, sailors and volunteers, prior to marching on London to be crowned King William III as part of the Glorious Revolution. There is a statue and commemorative plaque marking the event close to the Golden Hind replica in the Inner Harbour, while a road at the other end of the harbour, which leads up a steep hill to where the Dutch made their camp, is still called Overgang, Dutch for passage or crossing.

Built in around 1736, Brixham boasts what is believed to be the world's only coffin-shaped house, the story going that its unusual design results from an argument between a father and his prospective son-in-law. Upon being asked for his daughter's hand in marriage, the father answered that, "I would rather see my daughter in a coffin than married to you." Not to be so easily discouraged, the prospective husband promised that the father's wishes would be met and built the coffin-shaped house, his action so impressing the bride's father that the latter gave his blessings to the marriage.

Built in 1815, the tower of All Saints' Church is a prominent landmark overlooking the centre of Brixham. Vicar of this church from 1824 to his death in 1847, though much absent because of ill health, was the Rev. Francis Lyte, who is well known for the writing, in the last weeks of his life, of the famous hymn Abide With Me at his home, Berry Head House, (now Brixham's largest hotel) on the north-eastern edge of the town.

Most of the small picturesque terraced cottages built during the nineteenth century and earlier, along the narrow streets overlooking Brixham Harbour were occupied by fishermen and their families and others involved in related trades such as boatbuilding and sailmaking, while housing further away from the harbour in Cowtown and Higher Brixham tends to date from between the 1930s and the 1970s.

Opened in 1863, the British Seaman's Boys' Home was established in Brixham by William Gibbs of Tyntesfield for the bringing up and education of orphaned sons of deceased British seamen. It was closed in 1988 and the building it once occupied, Grenville House in Berry Head Road, is now an outdoor education centre.

On the night of 10/11 January 1866, Brixham was subjected to a storm of unusual severity, which, after the wind had veered to the east around midnight, a direction from which Torbay is not well sheltered, sank at least eleven local trawlers and a visiting French boat. Four Brixham fishermen were drowned. Much greater damage was done to the large number of vessels, at least 62 in number, some by the standards of the time quite large ships, en route to other ports which had sought shelter in Torbay from the storm. Forty of these ships were driven from their anchors and for the most part wrecked along 3 mi of the local coastline. It is not known how many of their crew members and passengers were killed; the committee set up to help the victims of the disaster estimated that at least 70 had died, while other sources, in particular contemporary newspaper accounts, made claims of more than 150 fatalities. A memorial marking a mass grave in St Mary's Churchyard memorializes 25 unidentified victims and four named ones. The estimated financial cost of vessel and cargo losses ranges between £150,000 (equivalent to £20 million in 2022) and £200,000 (£26.5 million in 2022).

A direct result of this disaster was that, thanks to money raised by the citizens of Exeter, Brixham acquired its first Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat, and has maintained a lifeboat station ever since. To date Brixham lifeboat crews (all volunteers) have been awarded 26 awards for bravery.

Brixham was joined to the railway network in February 1868 by the short Torbay and Brixham Railway which carried both passengers and goods (particularly fish), but the line, rendered progressively less and less commercially viable by the expansion of the road transport network in the course of the twentieth century, finally fell victim in 1963 to the Beeching cuts and the course of the old line, though still recognisable in places, has largely been built over, as has the site of Brixham railway station.

Due to Brixham's increasing popularity as a tourist destination following the Second World War, a number of holiday camps were built, for example Pontin's Wall Park and Dolphin camps, the latter being one of the company's biggest. It closed in 1991 after its main entertainment complex was destroyed by fire and the site has now been redeveloped with residential housing.

On 28 April 1967, a UFO reportedly hovered 1500 ft above Brixham for 80 minutes.

On the morning of 3 September 1973, a Jodel D. 117 G-AVEI light aircraft crashed due to engine failure on a residential bungalow in Higher Ranscombe Road, Brixham, killing its twenty-five year old pilot and his two small children. His wife, though very seriously injured, survived.

Maritime
There has probably been fishing in Brixham in one form or another from the settlement's very beginnings in the Saxon period. When this developed into a recognisable industry no one any longer knows, but by 1406 it had grown sufficiently large to warrant regulation by the Bailiff of the Water of the Dart, an officer of the Duchy of Cornwall, a legacy of this being that up until 1902 Brixham fishing boats were registered at Dartmouth rather than their actual home port.

Due to being sheltered from the prevailing south-westerly winds, over the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Brixham became Torbay's largest town and main fishing port, hake being the principal fish landed. Trawl fishing was first recorded in south Devon in the 1760s with high value deep water species such as turbot, sole and plaice being landed. As a result of the development of the turnpike road system during the rest of the eighteenth century, the transportation of fish to markets in Exeter, Bath and even London became economically viable, this trend being substantially enhanced in the nineteenth century with the coming of the railways, although Brixham itself, not getting its own railway station until 1868, was relatively late to fully benefit from this process. During the 1820s over 120 tons on average of turbot and sole was being landed per week by a Brixham fleet of about ninety trawlers exploiting fish stocks as far west as the Irish and Welsh coasts and eastwards along the Channel as far as Hastings and Dover. Migration of Brixham fishing families up the North Sea coast led to the establishment of new fleets in Grimsby and Hull.

In time these ports would grow significantly larger than Brixham, but in the middle of the nineteenth century the town still boasted the largest fishing fleet in England, with more than 250 boats keeping well over 1,000 fishermen in employment. Catches consisted of flounder, gurnard, herring, mullet, plaice, sole, turbot and whiting, the best quality fish being sent to Exeter, Bath, Bristol and London. From 1868, once Brixham had finally been connected directly to the rail network, fish landed in the port could be delivered to London's Billingsgate Fish Market in eight hours as opposed to three days by road.

In parallel with this expansion, over the course of the century, a major boat and shipbuilding industry grew up in the town, numerous boatyards lining the shore and catering both for the local demand for new boats and that from ports further afield. For much of the century, these yards also turned their hand to building ocean-going schooners for the fiercely competitive fruit trade with the Azores.

Other maritime trades such as sail, rope and net-making were needed as well and became a conspicuous feature of the Brixham townscape, forming an important part of the local economy in their own right.

In 1900, Brixham even had its own ice factory, a much needed addition to the town, given the large quantities of ice required to keep catches fresh and the somewhat precarious method of supply available previously, from 1869 onwards it having been imported from Stavanger in Norway, carried aboard fast sailing ships capable of making the passage in just four days. Despite their speed, in the summer months half the cargo would typically be lost to melting in transit.

However, reluctant and unable on financial grounds to replace sailing trawlers with faster and more powerful steam-powered ones, from the 1890 onwards and into the early twentieth century, Brixham's fishing industry went into decline, in particular being unable to compete with North Sea ports such as Lowestoft and Grimsby in the lucrative Dogger Bank fishing grounds. This decline was further compounded by the outbreak of World War One in 1914 and the resultant loss of fishing boats to U-boat attack and trawler crews being called upon for military service. The inter-war years proved no better. In 1928 only 2160 tons of fish were landed at Brixham, compared to 94,000 at Hull, and by the outbreak of World War Two in 1939 the Brixham fishing fleet had dwindled to only six boats.

The arrival during World War Two of refugee fishermen from Belgium helped to revitalise the fishing industry and brought with it a much needed knowledge of diesel engines.

A definite upturn in the industry's fortunes was seen in 1960 following the adoption of larger trawlers from the Netherlands and by 1966 the fishing fleet had grown to 45 boats. In 1969 the fleet had grown to 70 boats with £247,000 worth of fish being landed at Brixham and over the next two decades £4.6 million was invested in infrastructure projects such as building a new fish market and ice plant. In 1991 more than 800 people were employed directly or indirectly within the industry. In 2000 Brixham became England's premier fishing port, landing a total of £18.4 million worth of fish. In 2021 £43.6 million worth of fish was landed.

The modern boats are diesel-driven, but a few of the famous old sailing trawlers have been preserved. Owned by not for profit organisations and registered as historic vessels on the National Historic Ships register it is possible to sail on these big wooden built, red sailed boats. They depend on income from guests to keep them sailing, such as Pilgrim of Brixham (1895) and Vigilance of Brixham (1926).

Hundreds of ships have been wrecked on the rocks around the town. Brixham men have always known the dangers but even they were taken by surprise by a terrible storm that blew up on the night of 10 January 1866. The fishing boats only had sails then and could not get back into harbour because gale-force winds and the high waves were against them. To make things worse, the beacon on the breakwater was swept away, and in the black darkness they could not determine their position. According to local legend, their wives brought everything they could carry, including furniture and bedding, to make a big bonfire on the quayside to guide their men home. Fifty vessels were wrecked and more than one hundred people died in the storm; when dawn broke, the wreckage stretched for nearly 3 mi up the coast.

Hearing of this tragedy, the citizens of Exeter gave money to set up what became the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's Brixham Lifeboat in 1866. Now known as Torbay Lifeboat Station, it operates a Severn-class all-weather lifeboat and a D-class inshore lifeboat. The crews have a history of bravery, with 52 awards for gallantry. The boathouse can be visited and memorials to the brave deeds seen; on special occasions, visitors can go on board the boat. Two maroons (bangs) are the signal for the lifeboat to be launched.

Smuggling was more profitable than fishing, but if the men were caught, they were hanged. There are many legends about the local gangs and how they evaded the Revenue men. One humorous poem describes how a notorious local character, Bob Elliott ("Resurrection Bob"), could not run away because he had gout and hid in a coffin. Another villain was caught in possession but evaded capture by pretending to be the Devil, rising out of the morning mists. On another occasion when there was a cholera epidemic, some Brixham smugglers drove their cargo up from the beach in a hearse, accompanied by a bevy of supposed mourners following the cortege drawn by horses with muffled hooves.

The town's outer harbour is protected by a long breakwater, useful for sea angling. In winter, this is a site for purple sandpiper birds.

To the east of Brixham, and sheltering its harbour, lies the coastal headland of Berry Head with a lighthouse, Iron Age fort and national nature reserve.

Military
From at least the reign of Elizabeth I to World War Two Torbay was a militarily important site due to its sheltered anchorage, being of particular important in the late eighteenth century when Brixham functioned as the Royal Navy's victualling station for the Western Approaches. This role was of particular importance during the American War of Independence of 1775 to 1783.

It is known that a battery of cannons was established as a defensive measure against the threat of attack by Spain in the area now known as Battery Gardens as long ago as 1586 and was continuously maintained until 1664.

The battery was reactivated in November 1688 when William, Prince of Orange's army landed in Brixham and camped on Furzeham Common, guns being positioned to protect the fleet, the town and the road to the town of Paignton, 5 mi away.

When France allied itself with America in 1778 and with Spain in 1779, the Board of Ordnance (the equivalent in its day of today's Ministry of Defence) decided that, in conjunction with other naval stations along the English south coast, Brixham was to be protected by gun emplacements, the battery on the Battery Gardens site being the most westerly protecting the town.

Between 1794 and 1804 two substantial fortified garrisons were constructed on the site of a Saxon hill fort at Berry Head, an elevated site to the east of Brixham. A third fort had been planned, but was never built. The forts were maintained as important defensive positions during the Napoleonic Wars though never fired their cannons in anger, and slowly fell into military disuse during the course of the rest of the nineteenth century, now forming part of the Berry Head National Nature Reserve.

In July 1815, the British Royal Navy warship, HMS Bellerophon, spent a week anchored off of Brixham, the former French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, being held on board as a prisoner following his capture after the Battle of Waterloo. His presence on board, quickly becoming known to the local populace, the ship briefly became a major tourist attraction. He spent a total of three weeks off the Devon coast while the UK authorities decided what to do with Bonaparte. He was then transferred to another ship, HMS Northumberland, and taken to St. Helena, his final place of exile.

Brixham was not directly targeted by enemy action during World War 1; though, out at sea, approximately 10% of the town's fishing fleet, numbering about 300 vessels at the time was lost either to submarine attack or collision with mines, four boats alone being sunk in a U-boat attack in a single day in 1917. During the war there was no loss of life among fishing crews, but those who enlisted in the military were not so fortunate and the town's war memorial lists the names of 216 local residents who died in the conflict.

During World War 2 Brixham was sporadically subjected to small scale hit and run air raids seventeen times between July 1940 and May 1943 with two raids, in May 1941 and May 1942 each resulting in a single fatality respectively. London City, a coaling hulk moored in the outer harbour, and ironically originally a German ship seized after the end of World War 1, was sunk and raised twice in July 1940 and February 1941 respectively, only to be sunk again in March 1942 and this time not raised until being salvaged for scrap years after the war. The names of 125 local residents are listed on Brixham's war memorial as having died on military service during World War 2.

The town also saw an American military presence during the war, with slipways being built in May 1943 for training exercises for US forces. 2,500 men of the US 4th Infantry Division and 32 amphibious DD tanks embarked on 4 June 1944 for Utah Beach as part of the D-Day landings against German-occupied France.

Industrial
Limestone was quarried at Berry Head on the edge of Brixham from the mid 18th century until the 1960s, the stone being used both for agricultural lime and for building stone. At first stone was taken from both sides of the headland, but following a short period of closure due to concerns about undermining the fort's defences in 1828, quarrying was allowed on the north (Torbay facing) side of the headland only and by the quarry's final closure in 1969 a substantial quantity of Berry Head North Fort had been removed. The remains of the quarry are for the most part still accessible to the public and the former loading jetty is a popular venue for sea angling with locals and holidaymakers alike.

Historically iron was also mined close to Brixham, the last mine closing in 1925. With the exception of remnants of the Sharkham Point Iron Mine, there are now no extant remains of this industry.

Another mineral found in Brixham is ochre. This gave the old fishing boats their red sails, but the purpose was to protect the canvas from sea water. It was boiled in great caldrons, together with tar, tallow and oak bark. The latter ingredient gave its name to the barking yards which were places where the hot mixture was painted on to the sails, which were then hung up to dry. The ochre was also used to make a paint. This was invented in Brixham in about 1845, and was the first substance in the world that would stop cast iron from rusting. Other types of paint were made here as well, and the works were in existence until 1961.

Festivals and events
Brixham plays host to a number of festivals and events throughout the calendar year. These events are run entirely by locals and contribute significantly to the local economy.

Brixham Pirate Festival
The annual Brixham Pirate Festival usually takes place over the early May Bank Holiday, and is known for its world record attempts, live music, free entertainment and for filling Brixham with pirates. The festival is a very large event in the town, with thousands of residents and visitors attending the festival yearly.

BrixFest
BrixFest is an annual family friendly festival in Brixham, that usually takes place in May each year.

Fishstock Brixham
Fishstock Brixham is a one-day annual seafood and live music festival held in aid of the Fishermen's Mission (RNMDSF). It is a licensed event, organised by volunteers and held inside the new Fish Market Development on the harbour side. Normally the event is held on the second Saturday of September, but the date also varies for Spring tides.

Governance
There are two tiers of local government covering Brixham, at parish (town) and unitary authority level: Brixham Town Council and Torbay Council, based in Torquay. Brixham Town Council is based at the Town Hall on New Road.

Brixham was an ancient parish. By the 1860s the parish contained two main settlements, being Lower Brixham around the harbour and Higher Brixham on higher ground to the south around the parish church. The larger settlement of Lower Brixham was made a local government district in 1862, governed by a local board. Prior to that the whole parish had been administered by its vestry in the same way as most rural areas. Higher Brixham and the rural parts of the parish continued to be governed by the vestry until 1894. The local board built itself the Town Hall on New Road in 1886 to serve as its headquarters and as a market hall and public hall.

Local boards were converted into urban district councils in December 1894, and the Lower Brixham Urban District was enlarged at the same time to cover the whole parish of Brixham. In recognition of the enlargement, at the second meeting of the urban district council in January 1895 it voted to change its name from Lower Brixham to just Brixham.

In 1968 the urban districts of Brixham and Paignton, the municipal borough of Torquay and the parish of Churston Ferrers were all abolished. A county borough called Torbay was created to cover the whole area, with some adjustments of the boundaries to neighbouring parishes at the same time, including the more rural southern part of Brixham being transferred to the parish of Kingswear. As a county borough, Torbay was administratively independent from Devon County Council. Six years later, in 1974, local government was reformed again, with Torbay becoming a non-metropolitan district and Devon County Council providing county-level services to the area again. Torbay regained its independence from the county council in 1998 when it was made a unitary authority. Torbay remains part of the ceremonial county of Devon for the purposes of lieutenancy.

From 1968 to 2007 Brixham was directly administered by Torbay Borough Council, having no lower-tier authority of its own. On 1 April 2007 a new civil parish of Brixham was created, with its council declaring the new parish to be a town and adopting the name Brixham Town Council. In 2011 ownership of Brixham Town Hall was transferred from Torbay Council to Brixham Town Council to use as its headquarters.

Brixham is part of the UK parliamentary constituency of South Devon, whose MP has been Caroline Voaden since 2024.

Education
Brixham has a number of schools, mostly located in the centre of residential areas.

The town has one secondary school, Brixham College.

Other schools and academies in Brixham and the surrounding area include
 * Eden Park Primary School Academy
 * Brixham Church of England Primary School
 * Saint Margaret Clitherow Catholic Primary School
 * Furzeham Primary School

Media
Local TV coverage is provided by BBC South West and ITV West Country. Television signals are received from the Beacon Hill TV transmitter and the local relay transmitter.

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Devon on 104.3 FM, Heart West on 96.4 FM, Greatest Hits Radio South West (formerly The Breeze) on 105.5 FM, Radio Exe on 107.3 FM, and Riviera FM, a community based station which broadcast to the town on 107.9 FM.

The town is served by the local newspaper, Herald Express which publishes on Thursdays.

Sport
Brixham is home to the Brixham Archers. This is the biggest archery club in the bay and shoots outdoors at their field at Churston. Brixham Archers also use an indoor facility in Brixham. The Archery club was formed in 1969 and has been successful at county and national level competitions.

In 1874, Brixham Rugby Club was founded and became one of the founder members of Devon RFU of which six clubs are now left. They played Rugby on Furzeham Green until 1896 when they moved their present ground to New Gate Park (now Astley Park). The club will play their league fixtures in the National League 3 South West division of English rugby.

Footballer Dan Gosling, of Watford F.C., was born and raised in Brixham, and is the fourth-youngest player to have ever played for Plymouth Argyle aged 16 years and 310 days.

Brixham is also home to Brixham AFC who were founded in 2012, following the merger of Brixham United and Brixham Villa football clubs. The club play their home matches at Wall Park Ground and currently play in the South West Peninsula League Premier Division East.

Transport
Brixham railway station was the terminus of the Torbay and Brixham Railway. It served the town from the bay platform at Churston station until the line was closed in 1963. Some of the track bed remains in place. Houses in Harbour View Close were built on the site of the station. The Association of Train Operating Companies included Brixham as one of fourteen towns that, based on 2009 data, would benefit from a new railway service, but restoration is highly unlikely.

Although Brixham is no longer on the rail network, frequent buses taking 25 minutes connect Brixham with the national rail network at Paignton, where the bus station is conveniently situated opposite the rail station. Trains from Paignton run to destinations such as Exeter Central, Exmouth, London Paddington and Birmingham New Street.

Torbay's flagship bus route, Stagecoach South West service 12, operates up to every 10 minutes and has its terminus at Brixham Town Square, with the service returning to Newton Abbot via Paignton, Torquay and Kingskerswell. The service also calls at the Brixham Park and Ride site located on the A3022 (Dartmouth Road). Flat rate parking charges include a bus ride for a car's occupants to Brixham and return.

Stagecoach service 18 take about 15 minutes for the journey from Brixham (Bank Street) to Kingswear, where a river crossing to Dartmouth can be made by ferry.

Local town services operated by both Stagecoach and Country Bus, serve Furzeham, Wall Park, Sharkham, South Bay, Higher Brixham, Summercombe and Hillhead.

There are direct National Express coach services to London via Bristol and Heathrow Airport, and Sheffield via Bristol and Birmingham.

Frequent ferry services for foot passengers operate from Brixham Harbour to Torquay between the months of April and September, the fastest taking 35 minutes. There are also seasonal ferries to Paignton. Pleasure cruises also call at Brixham Harbour en route from Torquay to Dartmouth, during the spring, summer and autumn.

Brixham Caverns

 * Windmill Hill Cavern, also called Brixham Cavern and Philp's Cave
 * Ash Hole Cavern

Monuments

 * Prince of Orange statue

Notable people

 * Honoré Willsie Morrow (1880–1940), American author, magazine editor; president, Brixham Literary and Debating Society

title: Brixham


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Hundred Thousand Billion Poems

A Hundred Thousand Billion Poems or One hundred million million poems (original French title: Cent mille milliards de poèmes) is a book by Raymond Queneau, published in 1961. The book is a set of ten sonnets printed on card with each line on a separate strip. As all ten sonnets have not just the same rhyme scheme but the same rhyme sounds, any lines from a sonnet can be combined with any from the nine others, allowing for 1014 (= 100,000,000,000,000) different poems. When Queneau ran into trouble creating the book, he solicited the help of mathematician Francois Le Lionnais, and in the process they initiated Oulipo.

The original French version of the book was designed by Robert Massin. Two full translations into English have been published, those by John Crombie and Stanley Chapman. Beverley Charles Rowe's translation, one that uses the same rhyme sounds, has been published online. In 1984, Edition Zweitausendeins in Frankfurt published a German translation by Ludwig Harig. In 2002, Moscow ГрантЪ published a Russian translation by Tatiana Bonch-Osmolovskaya.

In 1997, a French court decision outlawed the publication of the original poem on the Internet, citing the Queneau estate and Gallimard publishing house's exclusive moral right.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Hundred Thousand Billion Poems


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Torbay

Torbay is a unitary authority with a borough status in the ceremonial county of Devon, England. It is governed by Torbay Council, based in the town of Torquay, and also includes the towns of Paignton and Brixham. The borough consists of 24.27 sqmi of land around the east-facing Tor Bay, part of Lyme Bay on the English Channel. A popular tourist destination, Torbay's sandy beaches, mild climate and recreational and leisure attractions have given rise to its nickname of the English Riviera. The neighbouring districts are South Hams and Teignbridge.

History
Human bones and tools found in Kents Cavern in Torquay show that people have inhabited the Torbay area since Paleolithic times. A maxilla fragment known as Kents Cavern 4 may be the oldest example of a modern human in Europe, dating back to 37,000–40,000 years ago. Roman soldiers are known to have visited Torquay during the period when Britannia formed a part of the Roman Empire; they left offerings at a curious rock formation in Kent's Cavern, known as "The Face". A Roman burial was discovered in 1993 in Paignton.

Both Brixham and Paignton appear in the Domesday Book of 1086, and Paignton was given a market charter in 1294 granting it a weekly market and annual fair. The first major building in Torquay was Torre Abbey, a Premonstratensian monastery founded in 1196 and associated with the manor of Torre.

William, Prince of Orange (afterwards King William III), landed in Brixham on 5 November 1688, during the Glorious Revolution, and issued his famous declaration "The Liberties of England and The Protestant Religion I Will Maintain".

Torquay's economy, like Brixham's, initially depended on fishing and agriculture, but in the early 19th century the area began to develop into a fashionable seaside resort, initially frequented by members of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars while the Royal Navy anchored in Tor Bay and later, as the town's fame spread, by Victorian society.

The historic part of Paignton lies inland: salt marsh formerly occupied the low-lying coastal fringe. Kirkham House is a late-medieval stone house and the Coverdale Tower adjacent to Paignton Parish Church is named after Miles Coverdale, who published an English translation of the Bible in 1536 and became Bishop of Exeter in 1551. Paignton remained a small fishing village until the early 19th century; a new harbour was built here in 1837.

A new phase in the urban expansion of the area began when Torre railway station opened in December 1848. The railway extended to Torquay Seafront station in 1858, to Paignton in 1859 and to Brixham in 1861. As a result of its expansion, Torquay was granted borough status in 1872, and 1902 saw its first marketing campaign to summer tourists.

Torbay Golf and Country Club (now defunct) opened in 1933. The club and course closed in the mid-1950s.

Tor Bay hosted the sailing events for the 1948 Summer Olympics in London.

In the 1970s Torbay had problems with substance abuse and people living in poor conditions in houses of multiple occupation.

Governance
Torbay Council is the local authority for the borough. Since 1998 it has been a unitary authority, performing the functions of both a county council and district council combined. The borough contains one civil parish, Brixham, which forms a second tier of local government in that part of the borough; the rest of the borough is an unparished area.

Torbay as an administrative area was created in 1968, when the municipal borough of Torquay, the urban districts of Brixham and Paignton, and the parish of Churston Ferrers were all abolished. Torbay was created as a county borough covering the area of the abolished authorities, with some adjustments of the boundaries to neighbouring areas; the more rural southern parts from Brixham and Churston Ferrers were transferred to the parish of Kingswear, and there were more minor adjustments to the boundaries with the neighbouring parishes of Coffinswell, Kerswells and Marldon. As a county borough, Torbay was administratively independent from Devon County Council. Six years later, in 1974, local government was reformed again, with Torbay becoming a non-metropolitan district and Devon County Council providing county-level services to the area again. Torbay regained its independence from the county council in 1998 when it was made a unitary authority. Torbay remains part of the ceremonial county of Devon for the purposes of lieutenancy.

The area is represented nationally at the House of Commons by two MPs. Torquay (along with part of Paignton) is in the Torbay parliamentary constituency which was created in 1974 and was won by Kevin Foster for the Conservatives in 2015 having been held by Adrian Sanders of the Liberal Democrats from 1997 to 2015. Brixham and part of Paignton fall within the Totnes constituency, which is also represented by a Conservative, Anthony Mangnall.

Geography
There are three main towns around the marine inlet of Tor Bay: Torquay in the north, Paignton in the centre, and Brixham in the south. These have become connected over the years, swallowing up villages and towns such as St Marychurch, Cockington, Churston Ferrers and Galmpton, though the latter maintains a rural feel thanks to tight conservation measures. The borough of Torbay is bordered by the South Hams to the south and west, and by Teignbridge to the north. Nearby towns include Totnes and Dartmouth in the South Hams, and Newton Abbot and Teignmouth in Teignbridge.

The southern limit of Tor Bay is Berry Head, and the northern limit is Hope's Nose, although Torquay itself stretches further north into Babbacombe Bay, where the beaches at Oddicombe, Babbacombe and Maidencombe can be found; these are noted for their interesting Breccia cliffs. Torbay's many geological features have led to the establishment of the English Riviera Geopark; as of July 2008, this is the sole urban geopark of the 53 geoparks worldwide.

Because of the mild climate, Torbay palm trees are a common sight along the coast. However, these are in fact not palms but Cordyline australis, originating from New Zealand where it is known as "cabbage tree". These trees also flourish elsewhere in the UK. It is suggested that the popularity of cabbage trees in Torbay is attributable to their first being introduced to the UK in that region.

Settlements
Torbay includes:

 * Torquay including suburbs
 * Paignton including suburbs
 * Brixham including suburbs
 * Broadsands
 * Churston Ferrers
 * Galmpton
 * Goodrington

Demography
The 2011 census confirmed Torbay's reputation as a retirement area, with a higher proportion of all age groups over the age of 50 than nationally. However compared to 2001, age groups 75-79 and 80-85 both showed a decline of around 4%, compared to increases of 1.5% and 14% for the whole country.

Some other statistics from the 2011 census:

Economy
Torbay's main activities are public service; serving its large retired community such as in hospitality, construction and repairs; tourism; the transport sector including boats; distribution; retail; fishing; the digital, media and arts sector. It has a few established schools and accredited teachers/hosts for the short-term study of English as a foreign language.

The fishing port of Brixham is home to one of England and Wales' most successful fishing fleets and regularly lands more value than any UK port outside Scotland. It is also a base for Her Majesty's Coastguard and the Torbay Lifeboat Station.

Torbay has been twinned with Hameln in Lower Saxony, Germany since 1973; and with Hellevoetsluis in the Netherlands since 1989.

Deprivation and urban renewal
The Melville Street, Warren Road, Rock Road and Coburg Place area of Torbay, also known as Melville Hill, has experienced deprivation and violence since the 1970s. This is an historic area with 44 Grade II listed buildings.

In 2013, a Healthwatch report for the council found that the area had high levels of houses in multiple occupation, "a fairly transient community" and heavy drug use. The report stated that Melville Hill had "a historic reputation as a dumping ground for transient, out of work single people with chaotic lifestyles", but that most residents felt it was a friendly area. In 2014, the council said that the area had "significant challenge ... from car parking, poor quality public realm, bin storage, rat running, ASB, HMOs, lack of community space/play area, links to the town centre". In 2015, the local health authority noted that residents had a lower life expectancy than in other areas of Torbay, that the proportion of people in the area who had mental ill health or learning disabilities were high, that the suicide rate was higher than elsewhere in the South West, and that many residents were either unemployed or earnt low wages.

The local authority first set up a "Making Melville Marvellous" project to support urban renewal in 2013, but this did not lead to results. In 2020 the local authority identified £100,000 of funding from adult social care to start the project again. The aims include supporting people who misuse substances, improving the quality of housing and developing community.

Roads
Torbay is beyond the motorway network and is primarily served by:
 * A38 and A380 roads from Exeter to Tweenaways Cross, Paignton; this is dualled each way as far as Churscombe Cross, except for a single carriageway flyover at Penn Inn roundabout
 * A379 follows a coastal route from Teignmouth, passes through Torquay and Paignton, then goes on to Dartmouth
 * A385 road goes inland to Totnes
 * A3022 road serves all three towns and varies between dual and single carriageway.

Buses
Bus services are largely operated by Stagecoach South West, with some routes run by Torbay Minibuses and County Bus.

Railway
Torbay has three stations on the National Rail network, with services operated by Great Western Railway:
 * Torquay railway station is close to Torre Abbey Sands
 * Torre railway station is inland on the road from Torquay to Newton Abbot
 * Paignton railway station serves that town and links with the heritage Dartmouth Steam Railway to Kingswear, connecting via the Dart ferry to Dartmouth. CrossCountry also provides a limited service here.

A new station at Edginswell was planned to open in December 2018 as part of the proposed Devon Metro but lack of funding prevented construction. Approval of planning permission expired November 2019, but a new application for funding was made in June 2020 for a new design incorporating lifts instead of ramps. If government funding is approved, a new planning application would be made. The station was awarded £7.8m from the New Stations Fund in November 2020.

Notable people
Famous former residents of Torbay include:
 * Sue Barker, tennis player
 * Isambard Kingdom Brunel, industrialist and architect of the nearby Atmospheric railway,
 * Lily Cole, model
 * Peter Cook, comedian
 * Agatha Christie, novelist who set many of her novels in a thinly disguised version of the area
 * Jim Davidson, comedian
 * Edmund Gosse, poet
 * Charles Kingsley, professor
 * Rudyard Kipling, novelist
 * Prog-rock band Wishbone Ash

title: Torbay


text:
Downland

Downland, chalkland, chalk downs or just downs are areas of open chalk hills, such as the North Downs. This term is used to describe the characteristic landscape in southern England where chalk is exposed at the surface. The name "downs" is derived from the Old English word dun, meaning "hill".

Distribution
The largest area of downland in southern England is formed by Salisbury Plain, mainly in Wiltshire. To the southwest, downlands continue via Cranborne Chase into Dorset as the Dorset Downs and southwards through Hampshire as the Hampshire Downs onto the Isle of Wight. To the northeast, downlands continue along the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills through parts of Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and into Cambridgeshire. To the east downlands are found north of the Weald in Surrey, Kent and part of Greater London, forming the North Downs. To the southeast the downlands continue into West Sussex and East Sussex as the South Downs. Similar chalk hills are also found further north in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire where they are known as the Wolds.

Geology
The Chalk Group is a sequence of Upper Cretaceous limestones. The dominant lithology is relatively soft porous white chalk with only poorly-defined bedding. The chalk is classified as a biomicrite, with microscopic coccoliths and other fine-grained fossil debris in a matrix of micrite mud. Small amounts of silica were also deposited, mainly from sponge spicules, which moved during diagenesis and accumulated to form flints. The Chalk Group either directly overlies the impermeable uppermost Lower Cretaceous Gault Clay or permeable Upper Greensand Formation above the Gault Clay.

Since its deposition, the chalk in southern England has been uplifted, faulted, fractured and folded by the distant effects of the Alpine Orogeny. The fracturing has greatly increased the chalk's permeability, such that it is a major aquifer. Sedimentary basins formed by rifting during the Triassic to Early Cretaceous were inverted during the Late Paleogene to Miocene leading to the formation of structures such as the Wealden Anticline and the Portland-Wight Monocline. Later erosion has produced the characteristic ridges of the downland landscape. The landscape was further modified during the Quaternary period by the area's proximity to the southern edge of the ice sheets formed during the last ice age. These periglacial effects included significant amounts of dissolution of the chalk and the modification of existing valleys due to a combination of frozen ground and snowmelt.

Formation
Downland develops when chalk rock becomes exposed at the surface. The chalk slowly erodes to form characteristic rolling hills and valleys. As the Cretaceous chalk layer in southern England is typically tilted, chalk downland hills often have a marked scarp slope on one side, which is very steep, and a much gentler dip slope on the other. Where the downs meet the sea, characteristic white chalk cliffs form, such as the White Cliffs of Dover and Beachy Head.

Hydrology
Chalk deposits are generally very permeable, so the height of the water table in chalk hills rises in winter and falls in summer. This leads to characteristic chalk downland features such as dry valleys or coombes, and seasonally-flowing streams or winterbournes. The practice of extracting water from this aquifer, in order to satisfy the increasing demand for water, may be putting some of these streams under stress.

In the valleys below the downs at the base of the chalk layer, greensand or gault clay comes to the surface and at the interface at the top of the gault a springline can occur where water emerges from the porous chalk or the underlying greensand. Along this line, settlements and farms were often built, as on the higher land no water was available. This is demonstrated very clearly beneath the scarp of the White Horse Hills, above the Vale of White Horse. In many chalk downland areas there is no surface water at all other than artificially created dewponds.

Soil
The soil profile of chalk downland in England is a thin soil overlaying the parent chalk. Weathering of the chalk has created a characteristic soil known as rendzina. Unlike many soils in which there are easily distinguished layers or soil horizons, a chalk rendzina soil consists of only a shallow dark humus rich surface layer which grades through a lighter brown hillwash containing small pellets of chalk, to the white of the chalk itself. This is largely because of the purity of the chalk, which is about 98% calcium carbonate, and the consequent absence of soil-building clay minerals which are abundant, for example, in valley floors.

Steep slopes on chalk downland develop a ribbed pattern of grass covered horizontal steps a foot or two high. Although subsequently emphasised by cattle and sheep walking along them, these terracettes (commonly known as sheep tracks) were formed by the movement of soil downhill, a process known as soil creep.

Habitat

The dominant habitat in chalk downland is typically calcareous grassland, formed by grazing from both livestock and wild animals. Chalk downland is often unsuitable for intensive agriculture, horticulture, or development because of the nutrient-poor, shallow soil and difficult slopes. For this reason downland often survived uncultivated when other, more easily worked land was ploughed or reseeded. This shallow soil structure makes downland ecosystems extremely fragile and easy to destroy. With modern machinery and fertilising techniques, it has become possible to use some previously uncultivated downland for farming, and the decline of extensive grazing has meant that many areas of downland, neither cultivated nor grazed, revert to scrub or other less rare habitat, essentially destroying the delicate calcareous grassland. The UK cover of lowland calcareous grassland has suffered a sharp decline in extent since the middle of the twentieth century. There are no comprehensive figures, but a sample of chalk sites in England surveyed in 1966 and 1980 showed a 20% loss in that period and an assessment of chalk grassland in Dorset found that over 50% had been lost between the mid-1950s and the early 1990s. Much remaining chalk downland has been protected against future development to preserve its unique biodiversity.

title: Downland


text:
Rhetorical figure

Rhetorical figure may refer to:
 * Figure of speech
 * Rhetorical device
 * Literary trope

title: Rhetorical figure


text:
Kelsall

Kelsall is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is located around 8 mi east of Chester, 8 mi west of Northwich, and 4 mi north west of Tarporley. The village is situated on Kelsall Hill, a part of the Mid-Cheshire Ridge, the broken line of sandstone hills that divide the west Cheshire Plain from its eastern counterpart. The ridge includes other hills including Peckforton, Beeston, Frodsham, and Helsby.

Geology
The western part of the parish (west of the Peckforton Fault) is underlain by the Wilmslow Sandstone Formation. East of the fault, the bedrock is largely Tarporley Siltstone with the underlying Helsby Sandstone occurring in some areas.

The lower ground in the west is largely covered by glacial till whilst higher ground in the east is free of superficial deposits. A small area of glacio-fluvial sands and gravels is mapped in the centre of the parish. A narrow strip of alluvium is associated with Salter's Brook.

The Peckforton Fault runs into the parish from the SE then turns north. It downthrows to the east. Two parallel unnamed faults, both downthrowing to the west, run NNE–SSW through Kelsall village, their southern ends terminating at the Peckforton Fault. They terminate against a short ENE–WSW aligned fault with a northerly downthrow at the northern end of the parish. The Clotton Fault which downthrows to the east runs NNW–SSE through the western part of the parish. The rocks within the faulted blocks have a gentle to moderate easterly dip.

History
On Christmas eve, December 1944, a V-1 flying bomb exploded near Street Farm to the south of the village. It had been one of several aerial-launched rockets fired at Manchester by the German Luftwaffe. This explosion would be the most westerly impact of a V1 bomb during the Second World War.

Demographics
At the 2001 Census the population of Kelsall civil parish was 2,525, increasing to 2,609 at the 2011 census. The total population of the Kelsall local government ward, which also included the village of Ashton Hayes, was recorded as 3,439. This ward had been amalgamated with Tarvin by the time of the 2011 Census.

Amenities
The village contains two churches, primary school, community centre, doctors' surgery, chemist, local store, butchers shop, four public houses, farm shop ), and nursing and residential home. The Kelsall and District Rural Amenities Society (KADRAS) was formed in the late 1960s in order to stimulate public interest in the care and development of Kelsall's history, beauty and character.

The village also hosts the annual Chester Folk Festival every May. The £3.82m, two-mile A54 bypass opened in October 1986.

title: Kelsall


text:
The O'Jays

The O'Jays are an American R&B group from Canton, Ohio, formed in summer 1958 and originally consisting of Eddie Levert, Walter Lee Williams, William Powell, Bobby Massey, and Bill Isles. The O'Jays made their first chart appearance with the minor hit "Lonely Drifter" in 1963, but reached their greatest level of success once the producers Gamble & Huff signed them to their Philadelphia International label in 1972. With Gamble & Huff, the O'Jays (now a trio after the departure of Isles and Massey) emerged at the forefront of Philadelphia soul with Back Stabbers (1972), and topped the US Billboard Hot 100 the following year with "Love Train". Several other US R&B hits followed, and the O'Jays were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, and the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2013.

History
The group was formed in Canton, Ohio, in 1958 while its members were attending Canton McKinley High School. Originally known as The Mascots, and then The Triumphs, the friends began recording with "Miracles" in 1961, which was a moderate hit in the Cleveland area. In 1963, they took the name 'The O'Jays', in tribute to Cleveland radio disc jockey Eddie O'Jay, who was part of the powerful management team of Frankie Crocker, Herb Hamlett, and O'Jay. In 1963, the group saw the release of their song "Lonely Drifter," their first entry on the US  Billboard Hot 100. The single peaked at number 93. Their debut album, Comin' Through, was released shortly thereafter.

In the early 1960s, member Frank "Frankie" Little, Jr. joined the group as a guitarist and songwriter. He worked with lead vocalist Eddie Levert, assisting with some of the writing for the group, including 1964's "Do the Jerk" (recorded by Frank Polk), 1964's "Oh, How You Hurt Me" and 1966's "Pretty Words". He is also credited with vocals on 1962's "Down at the Corner." According to Walter Williams, "Frankie was a guitarist and songwriter in the very early O’Jays. He came with us when we first ventured out of Cleveland and traveled to Los Angeles, but he also was in love with a woman in Cleveland that he missed so much that he soon returned back to Cleveland after a short amount of time." In 2021, human remains discovered in 1982 at Twinsburg, Ohio, were identified as those of Frankie Little.

Throughout the 1960s, the group continued to chart with minor hits such as "Lipstick Traces" (which they performed nationally on the ABC television program Shivaree), "Stand In for Love," "Stand Tall," "Let It All Out," "I'll Be Sweeter Tomorrow," "Look Over Your Shoulder," "Deeper in Love with You," and "One Night Affair." However, while they issued dozens of singles throughout the decade, they never hit the US top 40 (although "Lipstick Traces" made it to number 19 in Canada). On the R&B chart, the O'Jays were somewhat more prominent, but their only top 10 R&B single prior to 1972 was 1968's "I'll Be Sweeter Tomorrow."

In spite of their success as a touring group and on the R&B chart, the group had been considering quitting the music industry in 1972. Around that time, original members Bill Isles and Bobby Massey departed, leaving the group a trio. The remaining three original members, Eddie Levert, William Powell, and Walter Williams, continued recording together, and Gamble & Huff, a team of producers and songwriters with whom the O'Jays had been working for several years, signed them to their Philadelphia International label. Suddenly, the O'Jays released their first million-seller, "Back Stabbers," from the album of the same name. This album produced several more hit singles, including "992 Arguments," "Sunshine," "Time to Get Down," and the number 1 pop smash, "Love Train."

During the remainder of the 1970s, the O'Jays continued releasing hit singles, including "Put Your Hands Together" (Pop number 10), "For the Love of Money" (Pop number 9), "Give the People What They Want," "Let Me Make Love to You," "I Love Music" (Pop number 5), "Livin' for the Weekend," "Message in Our Music," and "Darlin' Darlin' Baby (Sweet Tender Love)." Original member William Powell died of cancer in 1977 at age 35.

After adding Sammy Strain (of Little Anthony and the Imperials), the O'Jays continued recording, though with limited success. In 1978, the group released "Use ta Be My Girl," which was their final top-five hit, though they continued placing songs on the R&B charts throughout the 1980s. The O'Jays also saw some success in the United Kingdom, where they scored nine singles on the UK Singles Chart between 1972 and 1983, including four of which became major hits, reaching the top 20 on that chart. Their 1987 album, Let Me Touch You, included the number one R&B hit "Lovin' You." The O'Jays never again achieved pop success. In 1992, Sammy Strain left the group and returned to the Imperials. Later in the 1990s, the group did little recording.

On October 30, 2010, the group performed at Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington, D.C. In Cleveland, Ohio, on August 17, 2013, the O'Jays were inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. The O'Jays are also two-time Grammy Hall of Fame Inductees for their songs "Love Train" (inducted 2006) and "For the Love of Money" (inducted 2016).

Bill Isles (born William Carvan Isles II in McAdenville, North Carolina) died on March 25, 2019, at the age of 78.

Original members

 * Eddie Levert (born Edward Willis Levert, June 16, 1942, Bessemer, Alabama, USA)
 * Walter Lee Williams (born August 25, 1943, Canton, Ohio, USA)
 * William Powell (born January 20, 1942, Canton, Oho, USA died May 26, 1977, Canton, Ohio, USA)
 * Bobby Massey (born 9 March 1942, Detroit, Michigan, USA)
 * Bill Isles (born January 4, 1941, McAdenville, North Carolina, USA died March 26, 2019, Oceonside, California, USA)

Top twenty albums
The following albums reached the top twenty on the United States Billboard 200 pop albums chart.
 * 1972: Back Stabbers (US number 10)
 * 1973: Ship Ahoy (US number 11)
 * 1974: The O'Jays Live in London (US number 17)
 * 1975: Survival (US number 11)
 * 1975: Family Reunion (US number 7)
 * 1976: Message in the Music (US number 20)
 * 1978: So Full of Love (US number 6)
 * 1979: Identify Yourself (US number 16)

Top twenty singles
The following singles reached the top twenty on either the United States Billboard Hot 100 or the United Kingdom's UK Singles Chart.
 * 1972: "Back Stabbers" (US number 3; UK number 14; Canada number 39)
 * 1973: "Love Train" (US number 1; UK number 9; Canada number 15)
 * 1973: "Put Your Hands Together" (US number 10)
 * 1974: "For the Love of Money" (US number 9)
 * 1975: "I Love Music" (US number 5; UK number 13)
 * 1976: "Livin' For The Weekend" (US number 20)
 * 1978: "Use ta Be My Girl" (US number 4; UK number 12)

DVDs

 * The O'Jays Live in Concert (2010)

Gold and platinum records
Gold discs, signifying sales in excess of five hundred thousand copies (USA), were awarded by the RIAA for their singles "Back Stabbers", "Love Train", "For the Love of Money", "I Love Music", and "Use ta Be My Girl"; plus for the albums Back Stabbers, Ship Ahoy, The O'Jays Live in London, Survival, Travelin' at the Speed of Thought, Message in the Music, Emotionally Yours, and Family Reunion. "For the Love of Money" was used as the theme for the two reality shows The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice on NBC-TV.

The following albums by the O'Jays have received RIAA platinum status indicating sales in excess of one million copies: Ship Ahoy, Family Reunion, Identify Yourself, and So Full of Love.

Other awards

 * Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (inducted 2005)
 * Vocal Group Hall of Fame (inducted 2004)
 * Grammy Hall of Fame (two-time inductees) for songs "Love Train" (inducted 2006) and "For The Love Of Money" (inducted 2016)
 * Numerous RIAA Gold and Platinum Awards (see above)
 * National Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Award (awarded 1998)
 * BET Awards Lifetime Achievement Award (awarded 2009)

title: The O'Jays


text:
Francesca Simon

Francesca Isabella Simon (born 23 February 1955) is an American-British author who resides in North London. She is most famous for writing the Horrid Henry series of children's books.

She is the daughter of screenwriter and playwright Mayo Simon (not to be confused with Simon Mayo, a British radio DJ).

Biography
Simon was born in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. She grew up in California and studied at Yale and Jesus College, Oxford, where she majored in medieval studies and Old English. Simon worked as a journalist, writing for the Sunday Times, Guardian, Mail on Sunday, The Daily Telegraph and Vogue (US). She is married to an English husband, and has one son called Joshua (born 1985). She often states that many of her Horrid Henry stories were inspired by her son.

Simon was inspired to write by Anthony Trollope. She began to write children's books full-time in 1989. Simon is one of the UK's best-selling children's writers; she has published over 50 different books, including her most popular series Horrid Henry series, which has sold over 25 million copies, and has been translated into 24 languages.

Simon lives in London with her husband, Martin. Their Tibetan spaniel, Shanti, is memorialized in the short story "Shanti" that Simon wrote for inclusion in the Paws and Whiskers anthology by fellow author Jacqueline Wilson published in February 2014.

In the spring of 2019 the Royal Opera House staged an opera based on Simon's book The Monstrous Child, about the Norse god of the dead, Hel, as an angry teenager. The opera is composed by Gavin Higgins with libretto by Simon.

Selected works

 * Horrid Henry series, illustrated by Tony Ross, Orion Books, 1994 to 2015
 * – longlisted for the Guardian Prize, 2014
 * – longlisted for the Guardian Prize, 2014
 * – longlisted for the Guardian Prize, 2014

Honours and awards
In 2008, Simon won the British Book Award for British Book Award The Children's Book of the Year with Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman. She is the first American to win this award.

Simon was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to literature.

title: Francesca Simon


text:
Stylistics (disambiguation)

Stylistics is the study of language and its context. Stylistics may also refer to:

 * The Stylistics, a Philadelphia soul group
 * The Stylistics (album), a 1971 album by the group

title: Stylistics (disambiguation)


text:
Horrid Henry

Horrid Henry is a children's book series by Francesca Simon and illustrated by Tony Ross. It has been adapted for television, film and theatre.

Books
The first Horrid Henry book was written and published in 1994 by Orion Books. Up until 2015, 24 official Horrid Henry titles were published in the series with a special one-off 25th Anniversary book, published in 2019. The 30th anniversary book, titled Horrid Henry: Creepy Carnival, is set to be published in October 2024. The series has sold more than 21 million copies worldwide.

The books are a slice-of-life series featuring the titular Henry, a wildly misbehaved boy who will typically be faced with a problem and then will often retaliate in interesting ways that involve trickery, rule-breaking and elaborate practical jokes. Henry has a younger brother, Perfect Peter, who is the exact opposite. Almost every character is known by an alliterative nickname (Rude Ralph, Moody Margaret, Brainy Brian, etc.) with a few exceptions e.g. Mum, Dad and Miss Battle-Axe.

The Horrid Henry stories are read on audiobook by the actress Miranda Richardson and published by Orion Audio.

Each title in the main series consists of four short stories with black and white illustrations. The titles The Early Readers series, aimed at younger readers, each consist of a single story with colour illustrations. Each story in that series, except Don't be Horrid Henry!, was originally published in a main series title. Don't be Horrid Henry! is an original story about Henry as a toddler. Eleven fact books, written from Henry's point of view, have also been published along with eight joke books, eleven colour books and at least twelve activity books as well as a series of annuals.

Horrid Henry is published in 25 languages around the world. In April 2009, the US Sourcebooks' Jabberwocky imprint released four Horrid Henry paperbacks nationwide, which included Horrid Henry, Horrid Henry's Stinkbomb, Horrid Henry and the Mega-Mean Time Machine" and Horrid Henry Tricks the Tooth Fairy. Sourcebooks has released additional Horrid Henry titles including activity pages, event kits and a teacher's guide.

Extra Book

 * Horrid Henry's Bedtime (2005)

Joke books

 * Horrid Henry's Joke Book
 * Horrid Henry's Jolly Joke Book
 * Horrid Henry's Mighty Joke Book
 * Horrid Henry's versus Moody Margaret
 * Horrid Henry's Hilariously Horrid Joke Book
 * Horrid Henry's Purple Hand Gang Joke Book
 * Horrid Henry's All Time Favourite Joke Book
 * Horrid Henry's Jumbo Joke Book

Colour books

 * Horrid Henry's Big Bad Book
 * Horrid Henry's Wicked Ways
 * Horrid Henry's Evil Enemies
 * Horrid Henry Rules the World
 * Horrid Henry's House of Horrors
 * Horrid Henry's Dreadful Deeds
 * Horrid Henry Shows Who's Boss
 * Horrid Henry's A-Z of Everything Horrid
 * Horrid Henry's Fearsome Four
 * Horrid Henry's Royal Riot
 * Horrid Henry's Tricky Tricks

Activity books

 * Horrid Henry's Brainbusters
 * Horrid Henry's Headscratchers
 * Horrid Henry's Mindbenders
 * Horrid Henry's Colouring Book
 * Horrid Henry's Puzzle Book
 * Horrid Henry's Sticker Book
 * Horrid Henry Runs Riot
 * Horrid Henry's Annual
 * Horrid Henry's Classroom Chaos
 * Horrid Henry's Holiday Havoc
 * Horrid Henry's Wicked Wordsearches
 * Horrid Henry's Mad Mazes
 * Horrid Henry's Crazy Crosswords

Film adaptation
On 23 June 2010, Vertigo Films announced that a live action 3-D film of Horrid Henry was in production. The film's plot focuses on Henry and The Purple Hand Gang fighting to prevent the closure of their school by an evil private school Headmaster. The film was released on 29 July 2011 in the United Kingdom and 11 January 2013 in Australia.

Reception

 * In April 2008 "Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman" won the Galaxy Children's book of the Year Award.
 * Horrid Henry has twice been nominated for BAFTA's Best Animation; in 2009 and 2010.

General sources

 * Robert McCrum interview in the Guardian
 * Q&A with Francesca Simon
 * Telegraph interview with Francesca Simon
 * The Stage review.Horrid Henry Live and Horrid

title: Horrid Henry


text:
The Stylistics

The Stylistics are an American Philadelphia soul group that achieved their greatest chart success in the 1970s. They formed in 1968, with a lineup of singers Russell Thompkins Jr., Herb Murrell, Airrion Love, James Smith and James Dunn and Edwin Miller. All of their US hits were ballads characterized by the falsetto of Russell Thompkins Jr. and the production of Thom Bell. During the early 1970s, the group had twelve consecutive R&B top ten hits, including "Stop, Look, Listen", "You Are Everything", "Betcha by Golly, Wow", "I'm Stone in Love with You", "Break Up to Make Up" and "You Make Me Feel Brand New", which earned them 5 gold singles and 3 gold albums.

Early years
The Stylistics were created from two Philadelphia groups, The Percussions and The Monarchs. Russell Thompkins Jr., James Smith and Airrion Love came from the Monarchs, and James Dunn and Herb Murrell came from the Percussions. In 1970, the group recorded "You're a Big Girl Now", a song their road manager Marty Bryant co-wrote with Robert Douglas, a member of their backing band Slim and the Boys, and the single became a regional hit for Sebring Records. Producer Bill Perry spent $400 to record the song in the Virtue Studios in Philadelphia. The larger Avco Records soon signed the Stylistics, and the single eventually climbed to No. 7 on the US Billboard R&B chart in early 1971.

Success: The Bell/Creed years
After signing to Avco, the record label approached producer Thom Bell, who had already produced a catalogue of hits for The Delfonics, to work with the group. The Stylistics auditioned for Bell, but he was initially unimpressed. He ultimately agreed to produce the group because he believed in the potential of lead singer Russell Thompkins, Jr.'s distinctive, nasal high tenor and falsetto voice. Avco gave Bell complete creative control over the Stylistics and he proceeded to focus the group's sound exclusively around Thompkins's voice. On most of the group hits, Bell would have Thompkins sing virtually solo.

The first song recorded with Bell and his collaborator, lyricist Linda Creed, was "Stop, Look, Listen".

Their hits from this period — distilled from three albums — included "Betcha by Golly, Wow" (U.S. No. 3), "I'm Stone in Love with You", "Break Up to Make Up" (U.S. No. 5), "You Make Me Feel Brand New" featuring Thompkins singing a lead vocal duet with Airrion Love, "Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)", "You Are Everything" and the Top 20 pop chart hit "Rockin' Roll Baby" (U.S. No. 14). "You Make Me Feel Brand New", the group's biggest U.S. hit, holding at No. 2 for two weeks in 1974, was one of the group's five U.S. gold singles.

The Stylistics also found a path on to adult contemporary airwaves, and the group made Billboard magazine's Easy Listening singles chart twelve times from 1971 to 1976, with three entries ("Betcha by Golly, Wow", "You Make Me Feel Brand New" and "You'll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)") reaching the Top 10. Every single that Bell produced for the Stylistics was a Top Ten R&B hit, and several — "You Are Everything", "Betcha by Golly Wow!", "I'm Stone in Love with You", "Break Up to Make Up" and "You Make Me Feel Brand New" — were also Top Ten pop chart hits. The group also enjoyed commercial success with hits with this material throughout Europe.

Changing style: Continuing international success
Thom Bell stopped working with the Stylistics in 1974, and the split proved commercially difficult for the group in the U.S. They struggled to find the right material, although their partnership with label owners Hugo & Luigi as producers and arranger Van McCoy started well, with "Let's Put It All Together" (No. 18 pop, No. 8 R&B) and "Heavy Fallin' Out" (No. 4 R&B, No. 41 pop). Later singles were notably less successful, but as U.S. success began to wane, their popularity in Europe, and especially the United Kingdom, increased. Indeed, the lighter 'pop' sound fashioned by McCoy and Hugo & Luigi gave the group a U.K. No. 1 in 1975 with "Can't Give You Anything (But My Love)". Further successes with "Sing Baby Sing", "Na Na Is The Saddest Word", "Funky Weekend" and "Can't Help Falling in Love" consolidated the group's European popularity. The Stylistics recorded "Disco Baby", "Love is the Answer" and "16 Bars" also. They are one of the few U.S. acts to have two chart-topping greatest hits albums in the U.K.

The Stylistics switched record labels during this period as Avco Records transitioned into H&L Records in 1976. Notwithstanding this, the band began to struggle with increasingly weak material, and although the singles and albums came out as before, by 1978 chart success had vanished; even a move to Mercury in 1978, for two albums produced by Teddy Randazzo, failed to produce any major success. Russell Thompkins Jr. wrote (in the sleevenotes for the re-issue of the 1976 album, Fabulous) that the group began to feel that the music they were recording was becoming dated, and not in keeping with the popular disco sound of the late 1970s.

In 1979, they had a small part in the movie Hair, directed by Miloš Forman, where they play conservative army officers. They double Nell Carter in singing a song called "White Boys".

Later years
In 1980, the group reunited with Thom Bell and signed with Philadelphia International Records subsidiary, TSOP Records. They released the single "Hurry Up This Way Again" that year which brought them back into the R&B Top 20 (peaking at No. 18). Both James Dunn and James Smith departed due to conflicts over the direction of the group; Dunn left before the recording of the album Hurry Up This Way Again (1980) and Smith after the recording of Closer Than Close in 1981. Nevertheless, the group continued, recruiting new member Raymond Johnson, but Johnson departed in 1985, leaving the group as a trio. Love, Murrell and Thompkins continued to tour until 2000, when Thompkins, Jr. left the group.

In 2000, singer Eban Brown (formerly of The Delfonics, The Manhattans, and Ray, Goodman and Brown) replaced Thompkins as lead singer. That same year, tenor singer Van Fields, who had previously sung with the A Cappella group "A Perfect Blend", joined, enabling The Stylistics to grow from a trio back to a quartet. The group was featured live on the DVD The Stylistics Live at the Convocation Center (2006), as well as with other artists of the 1970s on the DVD, 70s Soul Jam.

In 2004, after having left The Stylistics in 2000, former lead singer Thompkins launched his own group called Russell Thompkins Jr, & The New Stylistics, returning with former member Johnson, plus James Ranton and Jonathan Buckson. They were featured on the DVD Old School Soul Party Live!, which was part of the PBS My Music series.

In 2010, they released an album entitled, That Same Way by LAC Management.

In 2011, Fields departed from the group after 11 years, due to creative differences, and was replaced by singer Jason Sharp.

In January 2018, after 18 years with The Stylistics, Brown, who is also a jazz guitarist and composer, announced his departure to concentrate on his solo career. He since performed at venues in the States and overseas as a solo artist. Brown was initially replaced by Michael Muse, and after a few months, he was replaced by former Temptation Barrington "Bo" Henderson.

In 2018, The Stylistics celebrated their 50th. anniversary in the music industry. Their milestone was acknowledged at venues throughout the year during their 50th. Anniversary tour in the States and overseas.

As of 2020, the remaining members of the original group, Love and Murrell were still performing, continuing the Stylistics' legacy with their unit, while Thompkins and his New Stylistics continue to perform as well.

Personnel

 * BOLD - indicates the original member.

Current members

 * Airrion Love (1968–present)
 * Herb Murrell (1968–present)
 * Jason Sharp (2011–present)
 * Barrington "Bo" Henderson (2018–present)

Former members

 * Russell Thompkins Jr. (1968–2000)
 * James Dunn (1968–1980)
 * James Smith (1968–1981)
 * Raymond Johnson (1981–1985)
 * Harold Eban Brown (2000–2018)
 * Van Fields (2000–2011)

Inductions

 * In 1994, The Stylistics were inducted into The Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame.
 * The Stylistics were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.

RIAA Gold certifications
Between January 1972 and August 1974 The Stylistics were awarded five gold singles and three gold albums.
 * January 3, 1972 - "You Are Everything"
 * April 17, 1972 - "Betcha By Golly Wow"
 * December 13, 1972 - "I'm Stone In Love With You"
 * February 16, 1973 - The Stylistics
 * April 6, 1973 - "Break Up To Make Up"
 * June 14, 1973 - Round Two
 * May 22, 1974 - "You Make Me Feel Brand New"
 * August 12, 1974 - Let's Put It All Together

Film and television appearances
The Stylistics television appearances. Top of the Pops The Stylistics appeared 10 times on Top of the Pops between 1972 and 1978.
 * Episode #15.14 (1978)
 * Episode #14.39 (1977)
 * Episode #14.15 (1977)
 * Episode #14.13 (1977)
 * Episode #13.16 (1976)
 * Top of the Pops '75: Part 2 (1975)
 * Episode #11.18 (1974)
 * Episode #11.4 (1974)
 * Episode #9.42 (1972)
 * Episode #9.30 (1972)

The Mike Douglas Show The Stylistics appeared six times on the show between 1972 and 1978.
 * Episode #17.219 (1978)
 * Episode #15.217 (1976)
 * Episode #15.143 (1976)
 * Episode #14.155 (1975)
 * Episode #14.40 (1974)
 * Episode #12.80 (1972)

The Midnight Special The Stylistics appeared in four episodes of the show.
 * 4th appearance (1974)
 * 3rd appearance (1973)
 * 2nd appearance (1973)
 * 1st appearance (1973)

Soul Train The Stylistic appeared in two episodes of Soul Train.
 * Episode #10.15 (1984)
 * Episode #3.27 (1974)

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
 * Episode #17.9 (2009)

Showtime at the Apollo
 * Episode #17.15 (2004)

Sinbad's "Soul Music Festival: Part 5 1999"
 * The Stylistics appeared on the TV Special that took place in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands and was aired on HBO

The Vera Lynn Show
 * Episode #2.1 (1975)

Saturday Night Live In 1975, The Stylistics appeared on the 1st season of Saturday Night Live.
 * Episode #1.8 (1975)

Dinah Shore Show The Stylistics appeared on the 1st season of The Dinah Shore TV Show.
 * Episode #1.181 (1974)

Your Hit Parade
 * Episode #2 (1974)

Don Kirshner's Rock Concert
 * Episode #2.3 (1974)

In popular culture
Tower of Power referenced the Stylistics in their song, "Sexy Soul" from their 1995 album, Souled Out. The song was written by Emilio Castillo.

The song "People Make The World Go Around" from the group's 1970 self-titled debut was used in the 1994 Spike Lee film Crooklyn. In 2016, the song was also featured "Suckas Need Bodyguards," the sixth episode in the first season of the Luke Cage TV series.

title: The Stylistics


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Aleatoricism

Aleatoricism or aleatorism, the noun associated with the adjectival aleatory and aleatoric, is a term popularised by the musical composer Pierre Boulez, but also Witold Lutosławski and Franco Evangelisti, for compositions resulting from "actions made by chance", with its etymology deriving from alea, Latin for "dice". It now applies more broadly to art created as a result of such a chance-determined process. The term was first used "in the context of electro-acoustics and information theory" to describe "a course of sound events that is determined in its framework and flexible in detail", by Belgian-German physicist, acoustician, and information theorist Werner Meyer-Eppler. In practical application, in compositions by Mozart and Kirnberger, for instance, the order of the measures of a musical piece were left to be determined by throwing dice, and in performances of music by Pousseur (e.g., Répons pour sept musiciens, 1960), musicians threw dice "for sheets of music and cues". However, more generally in musical contexts, the term has had varying meanings as it was applied by various composers, and so a single, clear definition for aleatory music is defied. Aleatory should not be confused with either indeterminacy, or improvisation.

Architecture
Sean Keller and Heinrich Jaeger coined the term aleatory architecture to describe "a new approach that explicitly includes stochastic (re-) configuration of individual structural elements — that is to say 'chance.'"

Literature
Charles Hartman discusses several methods of automatic generation of poetry in his book The Virtual Muse.

Music
The term aleatory was first coined by Werner Meyer-Eppler in 1955 to describe a course of sound events that is "determined in general but depends on chance in detail". When his article was published in English, the translator mistakenly rendered his German noun Aleatorik as an adjective, and so inadvertently created a new English word, "aleatoric". Pierre Boulez applied the term "aleatory" in this sense to his own pieces to distinguish them from the indeterminate music of John Cage. While Boulez purposefully composed his pieces to allow the performer certain liberties with regard to the sequencing and repetition of parts, Cage often composed through the application of chance operations without allowing the performer liberties.

Another composer of aleatory music was the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, who had attended Meyer-Eppler's seminars in phonetics, acoustics, and information theory at the University of Bonn from 1954 to 1956, and put these ideas into practice for the first time in his electronic composition Gesang der Jünglinge (1955–56), in the form of statistically structured, massed "complexes" of sounds.

Aleatoric techniques are sometimes used in contemporary film music, e.g., in John Williams's film scores and Mark Snow's music for X-Files: Fight the Future.

title: Aleatoricism


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Clive Chin

Clive Chin (born 14 May 1954 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a son of Vincent "Randy" Chin. He is a Hakka Chinese Jamaican record producer whose work includes recordings by The Wailers, Dennis Brown, Lee Perry and Black Uhuru, among others. Chin was a pioneer in the establishment of dub as a standalone musical form.

Biography
He began working at Randy's Record Store, his father's business and began helping make the associated studio, Randy's Studio 17, one of the most important Jamaican studios of the early 1970s.

Chin's first major commercial success was Java, an international hit by Augustus Pablo. He had further local hits with Dennis Brown's "Cheater" and Junior Byles' "King of Babylon" and produced Pablo's debut album, This Is Augustus Pablo. Chin produced the Java Java Dub album in 1973, which he claims was the first ever dub album. Further local hits followed with Carl Malcolm's "Miss Wire Waist" and "Fattie Bum Bum", which, with the help of Jonathan King, became a UK chart hit in 1975, reaching #8.

After his family business moved to New York City, Chin spent some fifteen years running a Jamaican restaurant in Queens. He began producing again in 1998.

In 2007, VP Records started an imprint 17 North Parade to reissue some of the historic Randy's releases.

title: Clive Chin


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Talk:Horrid Henry

Dennis the Menace
There are two Dennis the Menace characters. Which one do you mean ? He sounds more like the UK one than the US one. Was that who you had in mind ? -- Derek Ross 19:30, 31 January 2003
 * Being American myself, I was thinking of the American character, but he may very well be like the UK one as well. -- Deece actually User:62.255.64.6 16:40, 6 February 2003
 * Whichever was meant, if it's just one editor's opinion, it shouldn't be here. I've removed the reference. -- Oliver P. 12:34 8 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * Seeing as though the author is British it's probably going to be the British Dennis the Menace, but Horrid Henry is nothing like him. Don't  Click  Here chat / what i've done / email 15:48, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

The author is a US citizen that has lived in London for a long time. Dennis the Menace does not add much to the page - so I agree with the cut.

But overall the page seems fine - I don't see any problem. Hughie Dear —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.159.85.2 (talk) 12:53, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

If one is searching to see where this character came from, there is only the name of the creator, which unless known to the reader personally is unhelpful, and the letters of a TV station, which same thing, and the cue of the world "horrid" to indicate country of origin. It would be helpful to explicitly state the country of origin. It is suggestive of UK but that is not clear enough to cite or rely on at this point. I am not even sure enough to make the change myself now. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Horrid Henry 588 (talk • contribs) 13:09, 28 September 2014 (UTC)

How the hell is editing Jump Jeffery vandalism?

Splitting Article
I think we should split the article between the book series and the Cartoon series (The latter would include DVD's as well). What do you think. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gleech (talk • contribs) 00:57, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Characters
Shouldn't we create a seperate list of characters to replace the list here? On a seperate list of characters, we can write more about the characters. George.millman (talk) 17:50, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Everything
This article apparently lists everything ever published with the character H.H. But for someone who is not familiar with the series, it is impossible to get an impression of how the character looks or what the basic story of any of the comics/books/tv series is. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.168.111.114 (talk) 15:59, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Information about the Story
It would help, as at the moment this article is simply a list of all published works. If anyone has any information about the series, editing the article would be highly appreciated. ~NottNott (talk) 22:30, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Surname
Wondering if the surname of Henry and his family was ever hinted at. http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_Horrid_Henry's_surname says Drulley but it was not sourced so I do not believe it yet. --Ranze (talk) 08:28, 25 December 2014 (UTC)
 * I have seen the occasional claim to Henry's surname in the List of Horrid Henry characters article so I started the discussion 'Henry's surname, the first names of his parents and the headteacher's title' on the talk page for that article. Please refer to that entry to keep this discussion in one place. Tk420 (talk) 13:22, 9 June 2018 (UTC)

External links modified
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Manuel of style in the Horrid Henry articles
I have started this discussion in case of any confusion over the writing style to be used in these articles. Although many modern British publishers use single quotation marks for primary quotation and double marks for secondary quotation the British editions of the Horrid Henry books use double marks for primary quotation as used by the mainstream media and in American English. Tk420 (talk) 14:39, 12 October 2018 (UTC)

Alternative and former titles
At least three books in the Horrid Henry series have had more than one title within the English-speaking world over their lifetimes. I remember seeing Horrid Henry and the Tooth Fairy (obviously an alternative to Horrid Henry Tricks the Tooth Fairy) in my school library in the early 2000s and I had noticed in the "other titles" section of the Horrid Henry books of that era the third book being "previously published as Horrid Henry and the Tooth Fairy" and Horrid Henry Get Rich Quick being "previously published as Horrid Henry Strikes it Rich". I have since found those titles on book covers in Google image searches in which I also found a cover with the title Horrid Henry's Head Lice with an illustration in the style other than that by Tony Ross used in the UK. As far as I know the fourth book has always been published in the UK as Horrid Henry's Nits (in British slang "nit" is used to refer to head lice in general rather than just empty or non viable eggs). Other Wikipedia articles often have former or international titles, if the work has had any in the English-speaking world, in brackets after the current title in the work's home country which I presume is to let readers know they have found what they are looking for if they discovered the work by one of its other titles. I have previously tried providing the alternative titles to the Horrid Henry book I know to have had other titles. Tk420 (talk) 18:15, 11 December 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Horrid Henry


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Eggs over Easy

Eggs over Easy were an American country rock band, of the early 1970s, who visited London to record an album, and then became a resident band in a London pub, launching what subsequently became known as pub rock.

Formation
Although both hailed from New York City, Jack O'Hara (guitar, bass & vocals) met Austin de Lone (keyboards, guitar & vocals) in Berkeley, California, where they formed a duo. The pair moved back to New York, where they met Brien Hopkins (keyboards, bass, guitar & vocals) who joined to form a multi-instrumental trio, without a drummer or percussionist. They regularly played clubs and bars in Greenwich Village and Long Island, until they acquired a small fan base, and a manager, Peter Kauff. Kauff was also helping Cannon Films to move into the music business, and arranged for Chas Chandler (bass player for the Animals and producer/manager of the Jimi Hendrix Experience) to produce their first album.

London
Recording started at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London, in December 1970, initially with Les Sampson (a friend of Noel Redding who joined him in the band Road) on drums. They also played several dates at the American Embassy as a trio. Recording was completed in January 1971, with ex-Animal John Steel on drums. The recordings went well, but Kauff fell out with Cannon Films, and advised the band to stay in London, until the problems were resolved, rather than return to the US.

Chandler, by now their manager, arranged for the band to play a number of college gigs around the country. Many of these were sponsored by the American Embassy in London, which paid for the band to tour British universities to perform before larger audiences with American poets such as Marilyn Hacker, Denis Boyles and Louis Simpson. By then, the band had moved into a house, 10 Alma Street, Kentish Town, near a pub called the Tally Ho. The band were used to playing in American bars, but in common with most London pubs at the time, the Tally Ho had a jazz-only policy. They persuaded the landlord that they played jazz, although their music was predominantly country rock and blues, and first appeared on either 3 May, or 13 May 1971, with Steel on drums. They soon attracted large crowds - including other musicians, such as Graham Parker, Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello - making Eggs the pioneers of the "pub rock" movement. Eventually, they were asked to increase their performances, until they were playing three nights and Sunday lunchtime each week. On other days they often appeared at other venues, such as The Marquee, which is where Dave Robinson, Brinsley Schwarz's manager, had seen them and introduced them to the band.

Eggs over Easy had a large repertoire of over 50 of their own songs, and 50 covers, and were regularly joined on stage by members of Brinsley Schwarz and other performers, such as Loudon Wainwright III and Frankie Miller. One of the former Tally Ho jazz players, Barry Richardson, was so impressed he formed Bees Make Honey, who were also given a Tally Ho residency, alongside a mix of new and existing bands, such as Max Merritt and the Meteors and Brinsley Schwarz.

The number of venues wanting to stage Eggs Over Easy and other "pub-rock" bands was also increasing, primarily in large Victorian pubs "north of Regents Park" where there were plenty of suitable pubs. Eggs over Easy toured a chain of London pubs owned by the brewer Ind Coope, and in September and October 1971 supported John Mayall on a UK tour, with George Butler replacing Steel on drums; "Eggs over Easy's country rock-flavored repertoire offering a fascinating counterpoint to Mayall's then rampant jazz-blues fixation" (Dave Thompson).

Kauff had not managed to resolve the dispute with Cannon Films, so the album remained unreleased, and the band had not secured a contract with a UK record label either. As they were having visa problems, Kauff suggested that they return home, so on 7 November 1971 they played their last gig at the Tally Ho, and went back to the US.

Return to US
Back in New York, Bill Franz joined on drums, they signed a deal with A&M Records and in 1972 they recorded their first album to be released, Good 'N' Cheap. This was partially a re-recording of the tracks originally recorded in London. The album was produced by Link Wray, at his brother, Vernon Wray’s studio in Tucson, Arizona, and the band wrote all but one of the songs.

In 1973, they moved to San Francisco, and later supported Eagles and Yes on tour, the sort of "megastar" bands that, back in England, pub rock was seen as a backlash against. By 1976 John "Jay" David (ex Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show) had replaced Franz on drums, and they issued a single "Bar in my Car", on Buffalo Records, but the record company "tanked as soon as the record came out." Originally titled "I'm Gonna Put a Bar in the Back of My Car (And Drive Myself to Drink)", the song appears on numerous internet lists of "worst country song titles" as being from their album Fear of Frying, but this is incorrect.

The second album Fear of Frying was eventually recorded in 1980/81 and issued on Squish Records, which also failed as soon as the album was released, making this album a rarity, which has yet to be re-issued on CD.

The Eggs were frequently joined on stage by Grootna's vocalist Anna Rizzo and also played with members of Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen in Moonlighters. One of their final gigs was as "The Opinions", backing Dan Hicks; Eggs Over Easy finally split in 1981.

After the break-up, Hopkins continued as a songwriter, O’Hara became a recording engineer and de Lone played as a session musician with Bonnie Raitt, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello and others.

Albums

 * Good 'N' Cheap - LP (1972) A&M (A&M 2366) : LP Re-issue (1986) Edsel : CD (1998) Edsel (ED199) : CD + bonus tracks (2006) Hux (Hux 081)
 * Fear of Frying – LP (1981) Squish Records

Singles

 * "Back of My Car" (1974) Buffalo Records

Compilations

 * Naughty Rhythms: The Best of Pub Rock CD (1996) EMI (Premier 37968) includes one "Eggs" track - "Factory"
 * Goodbye Nashville Hello Camden Town – a Pub Rock Anthology CD (2007) Castle Music (CMEDD1451) includes one "Eggs" track - "Runnin' Down to Memphis"
 * Good 'N' Cheap: The Eggs Over Easy Story 2-CD (2016) Yep Roc Records

title: Eggs over Easy