texts:
<mask> (born May 1978) is an Afghan diplomat who has served as Afghanistan's first female ambassador to the United States and non-resident ambassador to Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic from December 2018 to July 2021. From 2016 to 2018, she served as Afghanistan's first female ambassador to Indonesia, first ever ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and non-resident ambassador to Singapore. Previously, she worked for Afghanistan's Ministry of Education as a Planning and Evaluation Advisor (2011). She later joined Ministry of Foreign Affairs, first as a senior advisor to the Deputy Foreign Minister (2011), then as Director General of Regional Cooperation Initiatives (2012-2016). Before entering government, she worked for several nonprofits that primarily focused on women's rights and education. She received a bachelor's degree in software engineering from McGill University in 2003 and a master's degree in public administration and international law at Columbia University in 2009. Early life and education
<mask> was born in Kabul in 1978, a year before Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan.After the Soviets left in 1989, the country descended into civil war. Her school was closed for months at a time due to the missiles hitting the city. In 1993, her family fled to Pakistan. She recalls “Starting in the ’90s, there was famine and drought, and during the 1992-96 civil war, we were literally pushed out of our homes. I remember our family hugging each other, thinking this would be the last night of our lives”. Once in Peshawar, she attended a Saudi-funded school for refugees, where she later recalled studying on the roof for an entire school year due to overcrowding. Rahmani commented on her experiences saying that "As an Afghan woman, very early on, like the rest of my cohort, we learned that you have to try to make the best out of what you have.So uncertainty was what dominated most of our lives." She says the experiences of her youth led her to the lifelong motto of "doing the best with what you have". Rahmani returned to Kabul in 1998, but refused to leave the house rather than put on a burqa as the Taliban required. In 1999, she received a scholarship from the World University Service of Canada and went to McGill University, where she completed a bachelor's degree in software engineering. After graduating in 2004, Rahmani returned to Afghanistan and worked for various nonprofits, eventually deciding to alter her career focus and return to school. She says "It became like a mission in my life that if I could do anything, anything, to stop a bomb from going off and killing people, or even a person, if I could do that, my mission in life is completed." In 2009, she completed a master's degree in public administration and international law at Columbia University in New York.She was a Fulbright scholar. Career

Nonprofit Work
After graduating with her bachelor's degree in 2004, Rahmani returned to Afghanistan and worked for several Canadian nonprofits focusing on human rights, women's empowerment, and education. She also worked part-time as a subject matter expert with the NATO Joint Forces Training Center, and a consultant to the New York Department of Education, the United Nations Secretariat in New York, the Department of Trade and International Affairs of Canada, Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, Women Living under Muslim Laws, and other INGOs. During this time Rahmani worked on a marriage document that secured equitable rights for the family and contributed to data collection at a national level. She received the Best Human Rights Activist Award from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission in 2007 for her work on this document. Government Work
<mask> joined the Afghan government, first in the Ministry of Education, then as a senior advisor to the Deputy Foreign Minister in 2011. From 2012 to 2016, she served as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General for Regional Cooperation.In this role she initiated and promoted important regional cooperation initiatives, like the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process. Ambassador to Indonesia
From June 2016-December 2018, Rahmani served as Afghanistan's first female ambassador to Indonesia, non-resident ambassador to Singapore, and first ever ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. She was the second woman appointed as an ambassador by President Ashraf Ghani, after he vowed to give women more leadership positions. She said Muslim women could introduce a narrative of a "dynamic Muslim", proving that religion is not a static force. Ambassador to the United States
On 14 December 2018, Rahmani was appointed Ambassador to the United States by President Ghani, the first woman to hold the position. She took up the post just as President Trump announced his intention to withdraw troops from her country. She said, "women have been treated like a minority, but they are not a minority.Together, the women and the youth are actually a majority, and they are not willing to give up their rights. They are not willing to compromise their human rights and go back to the old days." She replaced Hamdullah Mohib, who had resigned three months earlier to become National Security Advisor. Ambassador Rahmani also served as Afghanistan's non-resident ambassador to Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic. Issues

Women's rights
Rahmani spent several years working at nonprofits that focused on women's rights and education. At this time, her work focused particularly on family law reform in the Muslim context. She worked with Musawah to reform a marriage contract in Afghanistan to ensure more equitable family rights.<mask> and Musawah "decided to prioritise the marriage contract because it seemed to be a feasible and practical remedy to secure the rights of women within families. Amending the family law required complex procedures, whereas the marriage contract only needed the Supreme Court’s approval”. <mask> also took part in the inaugural Indonesian Congress of Women Ulama while serving as ambassador to Indonesia. She encouraged the formation of more women's ulamas, saying "It's time to get angry about violence committed in the name of our religion that we practice every day to seek refuge and peace." After becoming ambassador to the United States, she continued to advocate for women's rights, especially women's role in the peace process. She has consistently said that a peace deal that ignores half of the population will not work. She argues the essential role of women in the peace process makes women's rights not just an ethical issue, but a matter of national security.Peace process
In May 2019, Rahmani criticized the Trump government after Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad engaged in direct talks with the Taliban, who have rejected engaging in talks with the Afghan government, saying "They are not our government, they are not our representatives" and that ending the war "should be decided by the people who are most affected by the process." TIME Magazine referred to Rahmani as "a fierce advocate for peace on Afghan terms". She has spoken repeatedly on the need for the Taliban to directly engage with Afghan society and government if they are to become a part of it. According to Rahmani, "if [the Taliban] want peace, they would have to sit with the government." Awards and Recognitions

 In 2007, <mask> was awarded the Best Human Rights Activist Award by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission for her work on a marriage document that secured equitable rights for the family and contributed to data collection at a national level. In 2017, her work in Indonesia led her to be named “The People’s Ambassador” by Tatler Indonesia. In 2019, she was included on TIME Magazine's "100 Next List" because she was a “fierce advocate of peace on Afghan terms.”
 In 2019, she was recognized by the Alliance for Peacebuilding for her efforts to create an inclusive peace process.Controversies

Pajhwok Afghan News has released a series of media reports making accusations against Rahmani, including regarding a construction project at the DC embassy. The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a full rejection of their claims, addressing specific accusations made by Pajhwok. Rahmani released an article via Afghan media platform 8AM denying the accusations and calling for a full investigation. In the article, she said the Pajhwok report was biased, their conclusions contradicted the documents they had published, and that it had been published in order to destroy her personally because she was a woman. She also alleged that she has experienced repeated unfounded attacks from local news agencies. Indictment documents leaked to TOLOnews show that the Attorney General has accused two former officials and Rahmani of corruption in the construction of a 70-meter wall in Afghanistan’s embassy in Washington, DC. However, TOLOnews reported that there were "a number of contradictions in the text of the indictment paper" and that the Attorney General's Office and case prosecutors were not willing to respond to questions about the contradictions.The documents also show that the appellate court of the Anti-Corruption Justice Center (ACJC), Afghanistan's primary anti-corruption court, has been asked to try the accused officials on charges of embezzlement of $790,000 from the project. However, the ACJC has said it rejects the allegations and returned the indictment papers to the Attorney General's Office, citing technical and investigative shortcomings. On 31st of July 2021, the Washington Post published an investigative report demonstrating that it was a politically motivated case against Rahmani. As Former Afghan Ambassador to Washington, <mask> Rahmani has been accused of corruption while information available shows that $30,000 was paid for her salary, insurance, house rent and other expenses. Reports show that Rahmani had employees added to the payroll to collect a wage, even though they aren't employed by the Embassy. Publications

Personal life
Rahmani is married and has one daughter, born in 2014. She is a Muslim.She is a fluent speaker of Dari, Pashto, and English, and has a basic understanding of Urdu and French. References

External links

 Embassy biography

Living people
1978 births
People from Kabul
Afghan expatriates in Pakistan
Afghan Tajik people
McGill University Faculty of Engineering alumni
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University alumni
Ambassadors of Afghanistan to Indonesia
Ambassadors of Afghanistan to the United States
Ambassadors of Afghanistan to Argentina
Ambassadors of Afghanistan to Colombia
Ambassadors of Afghanistan to Mexico
Ambassadors of Afghanistan to the Dominican Republic
Ambassadors of Afghanistan to Bolivia
Afghan women ambassadors
Ambassadors of Afghanistan to Singapore
21st-century diplomats
21st-century Afghan women

masks:
Roya Rahmani
Rahmani
Rahmani
Rahmani
Rahmani
Rahmani
Roya


type: original

texts:
<mask> (; born 24 October 1974) is a Swedish actor, theatre director, musical artist, singer and songwriter and acting coach. Background
Nätterqvist was born in Gamla Uppsala. He is the son of competitive equestrians Ted and <mask> and grew up on Flammabyggets equestrian farm outside Laholm. Nätterqvis learned to ride at age of four and competed in show jumping as a child and teenager. He is the grandson of Swedish show jumping rider and trainer <mask>. As a youth, he was more drawn to the world of sports, rather than drama, not only competing in equestrian sports, but playing ice hockey and football as well. After attending several smaller drama institutes, he graduated from the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts in Stockholm in 2001.He quickly landed a three-year stint with Stockholm City Theatre, where he appeared in, among others, Hamlet and A View from the Bridge. He also had the chance to work with Lars Norén, considered by many to be Sweden's most prominent contemporary playwright, at The National Theatre Company in his play Terminal. He landed his first leading TV role in the 2002 mini-series Stackars Tom. Arn: Knight Templar
Nätterqvist has since then moved on to television and film. He had his big breakthrough in 2007 when he starred in the movie Arn – The Knight Templar, its sequel and the six-part television series. Nätterqvist played the leading role of crusading knight Arn Magnusson. Once the stunt team realized how well Nätterqvist could ride, he ended up performing his own horse stunts.He also benefitted from previous classes in olympic fencing for several past theatre productions, and his general interest in fencing (he was a special guest and speaker at the 2012 Swedish Competitive Fencing Convention). <mask> was trained in medieval weapons and longbow archery by Steve Ralphs, costume armourer and archery coach for Game of Thrones, Wrath of the Titans and Ridley Scott's Robin Hood. This is the most expensive movie project in the history of Swedish film and was shot in English and Swedish, on location in Sweden, Scotland and Morocco with an international cast. The production was headed by Svensk Filmindustri in conjunction with Film i Väst, TV4 (Sweden), Telepool (Germany), Danmarks Radio (Denmark), YLE (Finland) and TV 2 (Norway). The Arn project has been shown on television in many areas of the world. When it was shown in France on France 4, it went up against Showtime's historical drama The Tudors, on NRJ12 in the same time slot, and rated with a higher numbers of viewers. Recent projects
<mask> has continued work with television, theatre and film.In 2011, he co-starred in the controversial Swedish film With Every Heartbeat/Kiss Me and award-winning music video director Adam Berg's film In. Americans saw him in the 2011 season finale of USA Network's series Covert Affairs. Since the fall of 2011 <mask> has been playing fashion designer and love interest Hugo Cronstedt in TV3's popular romantic comedy-drama Elsas Värld. The show came back for a second series in 2013 and consisted of 20 episodes, lasting into the spring of 2014. In December 2016 the Russian medieval epic Viking premiered. Nätterqvist spent most of the previous summer shooting on location in Russia. Nätterqvist has a large supporting role as a Viking chieftain and mercenary.The film has taken around $25 million at the box office in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States , becoming the top-grossing Russian film to be released in 2016. It was released in western Europe on Amazon Prime and Sky Digital

In July 2017 Nätterqvist again participated in the Norwegian outdoor musical Eplene i messehagen, this time in a different role than what he played in 2014. In 2016 <mask> joined the 5th season of the popular police procedural Maria Wern as Torwalds, a Stockholm police detective, and reprised this role in season 6 (2018). During the fall of 2018, Nätterqvist was shooting the TV-pilot for Skärvor, an outlaw motorcycle club drama-thriller, from producers Susanne Hörnquist & Magnus G Bergström. He played the part of Stefan Andreason, president of Rubicon MC

In 2019 Nätterqvist joined the 4th season of popular crime drama Gåsmamman portraying the foster dad Patrik Thorin. This season had its premier on streaming service C More in November 2019, and on Kanal 7 the following year. Nätterqvist played Little John in Robin Hood-the Musical, which premiered in October 2019 in Stockholm, followed by a Swedish tour running into 2020, visiting over 20 different cities.In March 22 he will be seen as Peter Rosenberg in "Beck - 58 minuter", a special episode of long running Nordic Noir series Beck detailing hostage drama in real time, which takes place during 58 intense minutes in a TV morning studio. Personal life
<mask> lives in Gamla stan, the medieval section of Stockholm. He has a son with actress Cecilia Häll named Zeth, who recently provided the voice for one of the animated characters in the Swedish release of The Good Dinosaur and also acted alongside his father in the Robin Hood musical. He has a second child with Vendela Drammeh born in late 2019. Nätterqvist is bilingual in Swedish and English (he speaks English with two different accents, standardized American English and British RP - Received Pronunciation). Nätterqvist's favorite play is Macbeth. Other Projects

Nätterqvist was voted sexiest man in Sweden 2007 by Plaza Magazine .<mask> has been active raising money for UNICEF. <mask> is one of the founders of Actors Studio Stockholm, a two-year drama academy. In August 2013, rapper turned celebrity fitness trainer David "D-Flex" Seisay, published his book ‘'Träna med D-flex'’. Nätterqvist contributed to the book, and is featured in text and photos displaying Seisay's fitness instructions. In 2020 Nätterqvist modelled sunglasses from Swedish design house Akenberg. Music
He has a Britpop/Indie pop band named Narcissistic Street. They released the CD Soldier in Me in 2008.The album was recorded before he made his big breakthrough as the medieval knight and had to postpone the album release due to massive Arn project. In December 2011 the band performed at the European premiere of David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. <mask> sings on two songs on post-punk revivalists The Ohios album Every Sorrow Claims Happiness. One of the tracks, "Let My Legs Walk" is featured in the soundtrack to horror-comedy American Burger. On 21 December 2017, <mask> released the Christmas-themed single "Jule ljus" on iTunes and Spotify. A second song "En sequined sen" dropped in late April 2018, and more material will be released throughout 2018, with another tune dropped in late April. The new material will steer away from the Britpop/Indie pop sound of Narcissistic Street, and move into the Swedish singer-songwriter/pop rock tradition.Unscripted television
<mask> has also worked with unscripted television. In 2010 he almost won the Swedish version of Let's Dance for Comic Relief with his interpretation of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. In spring 2011 he co-hosted the popular TV cooking show Klockan åtta hos stjärnorna. He has also participated in other shows such as Herr och Fru, Doobidoo and Fenomen med Uri Geller. In late April 2020 Nätterqvist and musical artist and model/TV-personality Tilde Fröling were celebrity guest stars on season finale of the Swedish edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to raise money for the Swedish Cancer Foundation. School
He is the co-founder of Actors Studio Stockholm, a 2-year academic program, that incorporates and the Meisner and Chekhov techniques with Swedish stage traditions. Nätterqvist has also taught drama at several other schools in Sweden, after-school drama coaching for teens, weekend workshops, and with unemployed actors via the Public Employment Service.Filmography

Selected Stage Appearances
 A Doll's House, Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts
 Inatt tänder vi månen, Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts
 Amadeus, Stockholm City Theatre
 The Cherry Orchard, Stockholm City Theatre
 Järn (musical) Stockholm City Theatre
 Din Stund på Jorden, Stockholm City Theatre
 Hamlet, Stockholm City Theatre
 Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, Stockholm City Theatre
 Mio, My Son,, Stockholm City Theatre
 The Full Monty (musical), Stockholm City Theatre
 As You Like It, Stockholm City Theatre
 A View from the Bridge, Stockholm City Theatre
 Piaf, Stockholm City Theatre
 Amy's View, Stockholm City Theatre
 Som Glöd under Snö (musical) Gottsunda Teater
 Terminal The National Theatre Company
 North of The Border (musical) Teater De Vill
 The Taming of the Shrew, Sheakespear at Gräsgården Manor
 Ken Ludwig's Leading Ladies, Mariebergsskogen Karlstad
 Nu är det klippt! Dröse & Norberg Theatre Company
 Snow White: The Musical  Dröse & Norberg Theatre Company
 I Ljus & Mörker (musical) Jon Anderzon/Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan Gävleborg. Elden  (2014 musical) Leif Stinnerbom / Bergstaden Sylvan Theater
 Eplene i messehagen (2016 musical) Paul Ottar Haga / Malm Sylvan Theater
 Elden (2017 musical) Paul Ottar Haga / Bergstaden Sylvan Theater
 Eplene i messehagen (2018 musical) Malm Sylvan Theater
 People of Hemsö (Hemsöborna) (2019 stage play) Stallebrottet på Bohus Malmön Sylvan theater
 Robin Hood: The Musical (Fall 2019-Spring 2020) Dröse & Norberg Theatre Company
Slottspel i 1600-tals miljo (2021 actor) directed by Ika Nord, Halmstad Castle Outdoor Theater
Eplene i messehagen ( 2021 Director and actor ) written by Rasmus Rohde, Bergstaden Sylvan Theater

Selected Podcast Appearances
 Richards and Mckie Present Randompedia

References

External links

Swedish male actors
Living people
1974 births
Swedish male film actors
Swedish male television actors
People from Uppsala

masks:
Dag Joakim Tedson Nätterqvist
Pia Levin Nätterqvist
Dag Nätterqvist
Nätterqvist
Nätterqvist
Nätterqvist
Nätterqvist
Nätterqvist
Nätterqvist
Nätterqvist
Nätterqvist
Nätterqvist
Nätterqvist


texts:
<mask> is a video game developer, author, and scriptwriter. She is known for her time at Edmonton, Alberta-located game developer BioWare where she worked as a senior writer for eight years, with much of her work centered on the Dragon Age fantasy role-playing video game franchise. <mask>'s notable work after she left BioWare in 2013 include the mobile strategy video game Game of Thrones Ascent, and the 2018 point-and-click adventure game Unavowed. Career
<mask> spent a large portion of her time in high school writing and selling short stories. During her college years, she met <mask> and developed an interest in doing professional writing for role-playing games after being introduced to Vampire: The Masquerade and Shadowrun. Together they co-wrote sourcebooks for Shadowrun, Earthdawn and Paranoia, and later worked as scriptwriters in Hollywood for six years. A notable project <mask> contributed to was CBS Television’s The Agency.<mask> eventually met BioWare representatives at the Game Developers Conference one year, and commenced employment at BioWare from 2005 onwards. <mask> worked with the first three mainline titles in the Dragon Age franchise, starting with 2009's Dragon Age: Origins. <mask> was responsible for developing dwarven civilization and culture in the Dragon Age setting, Thedas, and wrote the origin stories of dwarven player characters as well as the narrative for the Deep Roads region. <mask> said she wanted the setting's dwarven culture to reflect the dichotomies between extreme wealth and power, to extreme poverty and disenfranchisement. Origins was a critical and commercial success, with particular praise for its story and characters. In subsequent sequels to Origins, <mask>'s writing contributions for notable Dragon Age characters include Anders and Cassandra Pentaghast. <mask> was also involved with writing work for multiple questlines in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Star Wars: The Old Republic.Following <mask>'s departure from BioWare, she became the lead writer of Game of Thrones Ascent. <mask> was at one point attached to write for Ambrov X, an episodic RPG set in the Sime~Gen Universe, provided a funding stretch goal on Kickstarter was met. She was one of the contributors for the 2015 book The Game Narrative Toolbox, which discuss the role of a narrative designer on a video game development team. She later joined Kognito, a health simulation company which develops apps that utilizes interactive conversations for the purposes of educating, motivating and helping clients. In 2016, she is credited as the editor for Women in Game Development: Breaking the Glass Level-Cap, a book which discuss the experiences of female videogame developers about their work as well as the harassment and hostility they sometimes receive from end users of the products they contributed to. <mask> is credited as story co-designer for 2018 video game Unavowed. As of December 2020, <mask> works at Pixelberry Studios as a senior writer.Writing style
<mask> described writing as a "generally a solitary profession", and that she used to spend much of her youth at home in front of a computer writing scripts with little to no social interaction. In a 2006 interview, <mask> noted that some combat-oriented games allow players to skip cutscenes and story moments to reach fighting sequences sooner. She discussed the possibility of a role-playing game which allows players the option to bypass combat in favor of story moments, and reasoned that building up relationships among her companion characters and the world around them is more interesting than trading blows with enemy units. Her comments inspired Wadjet Eye Games founder Dave Gilbert to develop a role-playing game without combat mechanics, which eventually became Unavowed. Harassment
Following the release of Dragon Age II, which received a divisive reaction from players, <mask> was targeted for harassment due to her work on the game. In particular, her comments about gameplay and narrative design from the 2006 interview were used out of its original context by some harassers to justify their behavior. According to <mask>, she had received death threats not only to herself, but also to her family and children.In response to the harassment, Bioware publicly condemned the harassers and supported <mask>. On one occasion, the company donated a thousand dollars to a Canadian anti-bullying charity set up in <mask>'s name. By August 2013 it was announced that <mask> was leaving BioWare, with widespread coverage initially linking her departure to the harassment she had faced. <mask> promptly clarified that she left due to family reasons, and also to work on a book and to pursue work as a freelance game writer and consultant. During a 2016 interview conducted by Polygon staff, <mask> explained that she was no longer interested in writing work for video game projects which she believed psychologically rewarded players who were attacking her with gameplay that allowed them to do the same things they did to her in real life. Personal life
<mask> is married to video game developer and longtime collaborator <mask>, who is also a former BioWare employee. Works

Television
The Agency (2001-2003), CBS.Video games
Dragon Age: Origins (2009), Electronic Arts, Inc.
Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening (2010), Electronic Arts, Inc.
Dragon Age II (2011), Electronic Arts, Inc.
Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011), Electronic Arts, Inc.
Game of Thrones Ascent (2013), Disruptor Beam
Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014), Electronic Arts, Inc.
Unavowed (2018), Wadjet Eye Games

Books
Shadowrun Companion: Beyond the Shadows (1996), FASA. Ork Nation Of Cara Fahd (Earthdawn RPG) (1998), FASA. A Complex of Dimness Adventure For Paranoia, Creatures of the Nightcycle Paperback (1998), West End Games. Cyberpirates: A Shadowrun Sourcebook (1998), FASA. M.I.T.H. : Operation Smoking Jaguar (2005), Image Comics. Nations of Barsaive 3: Cara Fahd (2011), RedBrick (Mongoose Publishing).The Game Narrative Toolbox (2015), CRC Press. Women in Game Development: Breaking the Glass Level-Cap (2016), CRC Press. See also
Gamergate controversy, an online harassment campaign which targeted female video game developers

References

BioWare people
Living people
Role-playing game designers
Year of birth missing (living people)
Victims of cyberbullying
Women video game developers

masks:
Jennifer Brandes Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Chris Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Hepler
Chris Hepler


texts:
<mask> is the pen name of Raghav G. Nair (born 1956, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala), an Indian English poet. He is best known for his poem "Father, Wake Us In Passing". He is also the founder editor of quarterly poetry journal Poetry Chain. <mask> lives in Trivandrum, Kerala. Early life and education
<mask> studied at the Loyola English School and Arya Central School, Trivandrum. He obtained his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in English from the Institute of English, Trivandrum. <mask> won his first poetry prize in University college poetry competitions, and soon published his poetry in Indian magazines publishing poetry in English.He attended the Master of Fine Arts (Poetry) program of the Texas State University, Southwest Texas, US. In 2005, he was Poet-in-Residence at the University of Augsburg, Germany, on a sponsorship by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) in association with Tagore Centre, Berlin. On 4 August 2019, he was requested to join the Indian Writers Association as a member of its advisory board. Career

As poet

<mask> <mask> won both the All-India Special Poetry Prize of the British Council-Poetry Society, India All India Poetry Competitions (AIPC) in 1997 for his poem "These are the things we could talk about" and Second Prize for his poem "Digging" in the General Category of the Competition in 1997. Between 1995 and 1998, he won two more poetry prizes presented by the British Council – Poetry Society (India) sponsored All India Poetry Competitions (AIPC). His other major poetry prizes include The All India Poetry Competition(2017) and Wingword International Poetry Award(2021). Kottoor's "Father, Wake Us In Passing" (2000), which won for the poet a Residency in the University of Augsburg, Germany, is a touching poem sequence on his father in coma, and dying.It has received rave reviews. <mask>'s poetry has appeared in international journals that include  Orbis (UK) , Ariel (University of Calgary), Toronto Review (Canada), Plaza (Japan), Arabesques Review (Africa), Persona (Texas State University Journal),  Bluefifth Online (UK),  Chiaroscuro Magazine (UK), Levure littéraire (UK), Big bridge (UK) , Nth Position (UK),  New English Review (UK)  and others. His poems are also featured in the anthology, The Dance of the Peacock. A selection of <mask> <mask>'s poetry, 'Vrindavan' and Changampuzha's elegy 'Ramanan' in translation can be read online here

As playwright

<mask>'s play The Nectar of the Gods (2015) is a socio-historical take on the life of the palace soldier Devasahayam (Lazarus), who was executed following his conversion to Christianity during the reign of King Marthanda Varma (Kerala, 18c). His other plays include The Mask of Death, a radio-play on the dying days of the Romantic poet John Keats in Rome, Fire in the Soul, a play on the life and times of the Nationalist rebel poet of India, Subramania Bharati, and A Woman in Flames. As novelist

<mask>'s first novel, A Bridge Over Karma, was translated into Malayalam and serialized in the popular Malayalam journal Kala Kaumudi. As editor

<mask> founded and edited Poetry Chain, a quarterly for Indian poetry in English, which ran from 1997–2007.He also edits the E-zine Underground Flowers. Awards

 All India Poetry Competition (First Prize), The Poetry Society India, 2017. All India Special Poetry Prize, Poetry Society, India and The British Council, 1997. All India Poetry Prize (Second Prize), Poetry Society, India and The British Council, 1997. All India Poetry Awards, Commendation prizes, 1995 & 1998. The Bharathi Prize, Chennai (1995)
 The Kerala University College Prize (1976)
 The Clover Poetry Prize, Commendation (1973)

Honours
 Philip McCormick Scholarship, Texas State University, Texas, US 2000
 Distinguished Guest from India, Government of India Annual Report 2005-2006,(p) 152
 Michael Madhusudan Dutt Award
 D.Litt, World Academy of Arts, California, US
 21 Top Indian Poets

Bibliography

Poetry
 Piccolo
 Milestones to the Sun
 Sunbirds in the Rain
 Nirvana and Other poems
 Rev: Father Benedict Goes To Heaven and Other poems
 Father, Wake Us In Passing,(Vater, Wecke Uns Im Vorübergehen – German, Laufschrift 2004)
 Mother Sonata
 A Buchenwald Diary (Poems following a visit to Buchenwald Concentration camp, Weimar, Germany)
 Victoria Terminus, Poems Selected and New
 Vrindavan – The Coloured Yolk of Love
 Tell Me Neruda

Novels
 A Bridge Over Karma (Katha Distribution, New Delhi)  Karmathinu Mele Oru Palam (Translation, Malayalam, Moosakutty). by Jeet Thayil and published by Bloodaxe Books Ltd., United Kingdom
 Give the Sea Change USA (Fulcrum, Ed.Jeet Thayil )
 The Golden Jubilee Anthology of Indian Poets in English NBT, India (Ed.Eunice de Souza )
 99 Poets (Ed. Manu Dash)
 The Dance of the Peacock: An Anthology of English Poetry from India (2013) ed. by Vivekanand Jha and published by Hidden Brook Press, Canada
 Travelogue : The Grand Indian Express (2018) ed. by Dr. Ananad Kumar and published by Authorspress, New Delhi

Literature Arts and Culture
Tribute From France:Review
Keats Home Hampstead England:Review

References

Sources
 Father, Wake us in Passing: A Book of poems (A Poetry Chain Imprint)Review: Touching Recollections
 Father Wake Us in Passing: Review: Beyond The Confessional
 Father Wake Us in Passing(Guest Poet Readings at University of Augsburg Germany): Comment
 The Coloured Yolk of Love: Poetry Online
 Varnamala – A Web Anthology of Indian English Poetry Anthology
 Bluefifth Review Winter 2003 PoetryOnline
 NthPosition Online Magazine PoetryOnline
 The Poetry of Emotion, Colour and Passion Literary Interview
 Transcreating Poonthanam Review
 Meditations on Life Review
 E-books India

 The Enchanting Verses
 Bigbridge Anthology PartII
 Life and Legends

1956 births
Living people
Indian male poets
Writers from Thiruvananthapuram
English-language poets from India
Indian male novelists
Indian children's writers

masks:
Gopikrishnan Kottoor
Kottoor
Kottoor
Kottoor
Gopi
Kottoor
Kottoor
Gopi
Kottoor
Kottoor
Kottoor
Kottoor


texts:
<mask> (born July 12, 1971 in Busko Zdrój, Poland as Piotr Krzysztof Marzec), better known as <mask> (Leeroy), is a Polish rapper and politician. He is one of the pioneers of rap and hip-hop culture in Poland. His CDs include East On Da Mic (as PM Cool Lee), Albóóm, Bafangoo Part 1, L,  Bafangoo Part 2 (Dzień Szaka-La), Bestseller and L-Nińo vol. 1. In 2015, he retired from his music career and was elected as a member of the Sejm. He was a part of Kukiz'15, representing Kielce. He was then an independent lawmaker.In 2017 he founded a political association, Skuteczni. At the end of 2018 he joined the Propolish Coalition later renamed to Confederation KORWiN Braun <mask> Narodowcy. He was the chairman of the parliamentary group on medical marijuana. Career

1982–1994
 1982 – first experiences with rap music, first mixtape
 1983 – first experiences as DJ and MC, first attempts as musician with rock bands
 1984–1991 – first rap performances (streets and clubs), breakdancing
 1991 – trip to France, with Polish-American group Leeroy & the Western Posse performances in European clubs
 August–September 1992 – recording of his first material released later as PM Cool Lee
 January 1993 – recording of his first TV appearance for Polish TVP2
 October 18, 1994 – signed a deal with BMG Poland

1995
 May 22, 1995 – release of mini album SCYZORYK with tracks "Scyzoryk", "Korrba" and "Coraz Daley od Rayoo"
 June 7, 1995 – release of video "Scyzoryk", track reaches most of top 10 of country playlists
 July 4, 1995 – <mask> gets standing ovation at Sopot during Marlboro Rock in Festival where he supports Ice-T and Body Count
 July 5, 1995 – Ice T calls Liroy OG of Poland at the press conference in Sopot. "He is cool. 2001 – re-edition of 10 is released. Includes remix of hit track "Scyzoryk" made by Jason Nevins.March 2001 – working on the next album in his own studio Def Noizz. September/October – recording sessions for the new LP to be called Bestseller – album includes artists: Ice-T, Lionel Richie, Prodigal Sunn, DJ Tomekk, and Da G.K.K.M. October 17, 2001 – <mask>'s 1st Bestseller's SP called Hello – a ty czujesz to? is released. Track is featured by Lionel Ritchie. November 12, 2001 – <mask>'s album Bestseller is released; Album becomes top 10 best selling album for few months. SP called Hello – czy ty czujesz to!'becomes one of the best playing songs in 2001/2002
 April 2002 – <mask> is nominated with Fryderyk (Polish equivalent of Grammy Award) for Bestseller as best Rap/Hip-hop album & Video of the Year in 2001. September 2002 – 1st studio session in New York. Start working on 3 parts CD called L Nino;
 July 2003 – <mask> is opening his own night club in Philadelphia (USA) called LIROYS
 September 2003 – Liroy managing and producing Eastern European Tour (or hip-hop icons PMD, DJ HONDA and K-SOLO;
 March 2004 – Liroy Bank Foundation is officially open. Foundation is a help for talented kids from the streets of Kielce city, Liroy's hometown;
 September 2004 – release of video Kiedys Przyjdzie Taki Dzien 1st single from forthcoming album;
 December 2004 – Liroy's new single track titled Kiedys Przyjdzie Taki Dzien is released;
 March 2005 – release of video (Kielce) My robimy To Tak ! 2nd single from forthcoming album;
 April 2005 – new single track titled (Kielce) My robimy To Tak ! is released;
 July–December 2005 – finishing the seventh album called L Nino cz.l / wstep in his own studio Def Noizz in Warsaw & touring
 Jan.-August 2006 – Liroy on tour all around Poland;
 Sept/November 2006 – finishing new LP called L Nino vol 1
 November 26, 2006 – Interview & live on stage at TVN program called Kuba Wojewódzki Show
 November 27, 2006 – <mask>'s album L Nine vol 1 is released exclusively at Allegro. November 27, 2006 – madness starts – over 1000 CDs of L Nino vol 1 sold in 10 hours at Allegro, This is fastest selling CD in the history of Allegro.December 4, 2006 – officially release of L Nino vol.1
 December 5, 2006 – L Nino vol 1 becomes Gold. December 31, 2006 – video shoot of „ Ta Noc Jest za Krótka na Sen" at 6 different New Year's parties. January 4, 2007 – L Nino vol J release party at Warsaw club ZOO. February 2007 – release of video " Ta Noc Jest za Krotka na Sen"
 February 2007 – L Nino vol 1 becomes Platinum
 March 2007 – Liroy opening new street wear company called DEF Life. June 2007 – DEF Life's first collection in stores. June 2007 – project called DOM WARIATA (MAD HOUSE) is born. July/August 2007 – Ta Noc Jest za Krótka na Sen remix contest.September 2007 – interview at TVN program called Szymon Majewski Show
 September 2007 – recording 13 parts of SHIBUYA TV show for VIVA TV. Oct./November 2007 – working on the next album called Grandpaparapa (Powrót Króla)
 November 2007 – L Nino vol.l sold over 50,000 copies
 December 2007 – 25 year anniversary of <mask>'s rap adventure
 December 9, 2007 – <mask> as a star of famous TVP2 show called Szansa na Sukces
 December 21, 2007 – <mask>'s double album Grandpaparapa (Powrót Króla) is released exclusively and only at internet as a limited edition of 3000 copies. Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

EPs

References

External links

1971 births
Living people
People from Busko County
Members of the Polish Sejm 2015–2019
Polish rappers

masks:
Piotr Krzysztof Liroy Marzec
Liroy
Liroy
Liroy
Liroy
Liroy
Liroy
Liroy
Liroy
Liroy
Liroy
Liroy


texts:
<mask> (born <mask> and also called <mask> or Ioan Vințe; September 1, 1910 – 1996) was a Romanian communist politician and diplomat. An activist of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR), he was married to Constanța Crăciun, herself a prominent member of that party. Biography
Born to an ethnic Hungarian family in Lipova, Arad County (then Lippa, Austria-Hungary), he became a member of the Union of Communist Youth in 1930 and of the then-outlawed PCR the following year. An accountant by profession, he attended Școala Superioară de Comerț and Academia Comercială din Cluj. In 1935, he was briefly imprisoned for his activities in support of the PCR. During World War II, Vincze was in Bucharest, becoming involved in activities against the fascist regime of <mask> (see Romania during World War II). By then, he was already in a relationship with Constanța Crăciun, and allegations later surfaced that she was unsuccessfully courted by the PCR general secretary, Ştefan Foriş.On November 19, 1942, a military tribunal in the city condemned him to hard labour for life, having found that "He was part of the central leadership of the Communist Party of Romania, being tasked with the indoctrination of the capital's young people. He was ordered by the party to procure false identity cards for members of the Communist Party who were to remain in Romania clandestinely. He took part in conspiratorial sessions. He recruited and instructed new members of the communist movement. He received and spread communist propaganda materials and gave instructions regarding the organisation of a Communist Youth of Romania. He refused to declare to us his place of residence, which indicates that in that place there was to be found an important stock of materials, instructions, and names of important persons who form part of the leadership of the Communist Movement." Vincze was held in Caransebeş prison, while his lover Crăciun was serving time in Văcăreşti.Petre Pandrea, a PCR activist who was not arrested, visited him and Crăciun, and later recounted that both detainees had been bastinadoed by the authorities during interrogations. Pandrea also left detail on the couple's wedding in custody, indicating that he and his acquaintance, the Roman Catholic cleric Vladimir Ghika, were their godparents. Later in their life, both Ghika and Pandrea were to be incarcerated by the Romanian communist regime. In reference to this, Pandrea noted:
"I'm not sorry that I and Monsignor Vladimir Gh[i]ka have later been jailed in the prisons set up by these fiancées and grooms [...]. Gratitude is a rare flower. I have forgiven them and I do not forget." Released after the coup of August 1944, Vincze held a number of positions in the PCR (which soon after became the Romanian Workers' Party, PMR).His name came up in 1944–1946, when Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and his inner-PCR faction succeeded in toppling, kidnapping, and ultimately killing their rival Foriș. Among the informal charges brought against Foriș was his alleged attempt to seduce Crăciun during the war years, when she considered herself engaged to Vincze, and of having thus caused her a nervous breakdown which, it was argued, had facilitated her capture by the authorities. During the period, Vincze was close to the Ana Pauker-Vasile Luca-Teohari Georgescu faction, which competed with Gheorghiu-Dej's grouping. According to politician Gyárfás Kurkó, <mask> and Luca secretly oversaw the absorption of smaller Hungarian groups into the new Hungarian People's Union, a mass organisation which was to function as a close associate of the PMR. On October 5, 1945, he and Luca, together with other communist activists, attended a meeting with representatives of various PCR affiliates, including representatives of the Jewish community. On this occasion, various party activists issued verbal attacks against the main Jewish anti-communist currents — the moderates led by Wilhelm Filderman and the Zionists represented by A. L. Zissu. <mask> was elected to the Assembly of Deputies in the 1946 election for the Arad electoral district, as a representative of the PCR-led Bloc of Democratic Parties, and served there until 1948.One of his fellow representatives for Arad County was the prominent PCR member Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu. According to Anton Rațiu and Nicolae Betea, two of Pătrășcanu's collaborators, the results in that constituency were forged by a group of 40 people (including Belu Zilber and Anton Golopenţia). They stated that the president of the county electoral commission collected the votes from local stations and was required to read them aloud — irrespective of the option expressed, he called out the names of the Bloc's candidates. Nicolae Betea also indicated that the overall results for the Bloc of Democratic Parties in Arad County, officially recorded at 58%, were closer to 20%. A supplementary member of the PMR Central Committee from February 24, 1948 to December 28, 1955, he was Minister of Forestry in the Petru Groza cabinet, from April 14, 1948 to November 23, 1949. He was subsequently appointed Romania's Ambassador to the People's Republic of Hungary, at a time when the Hungarian communist politician László Rajk was being purged by his rival Mátyás Rákosi. According to journalist Pál Bodor, Vincze organized secret meetings between Rákosi and the emerging Romanian leader, Gheorghiu-Dej, which took place in Romania's Bihor County.As a result of these, Gheorghiu-Dej and Rákosi agreed that the Romanian leadership was to arrest and prosecute various ethnic Hungarians who were charged with having supported Rajk's policies. Among these were Gyàrfás Kurkó; Áron Márton, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Alba Iulia; the urban planner György Sebestyén; and the academics József Méliusz, Lajos Csögör and Edgár Balogh. Pál Bodor believes that Vincze may have played a personal part in the purge. Vincze returned to Romania soon after, and was Minister of Food Industry from November 23, 1949 to December 15, 1950. He was elected as a deputy to the Great National Assembly for the Timișoara-Nord seat in Timișoara Region, and served in that body from 1952 to 1957. In late May 1952, when Luca's fall from power signaled his group's defeat by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and his partisans, Vincze was noted for abruptly ending his association with Pauker. With Alexandru Moghioroş, Iosif Rangheţ, Gheorghe Stoica and others, he attacked Luca's policies in public, leading to his demotion and subsequent arrest.He became deputy minister at the Ministry of Internal Affairs after May 28, 1952, under Premiers Groza and Gheorghiu-Dej. Promoted to the rank of Major General (general-maior) in the Romanian Armed Forces in June 1952, he also served as chief of the Administrative Section of the Central Committee of the Romanian Workers' Party until January 24, 1956. <mask> was vice-president of the Party Control Commission between December 28, 1955 and July 24, 1965. At the time, the body was led by Dumitru Coliu, who, together with Vincze, engineered a series of inner-PMR inquiries and investigations that relied on denunciations. This came in the wake of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, after criticism of Gheorghiu-Dej had been voiced at home (notably, by Miron Constantinescu and Iosif Chişinevschi). During that period, Coliu, <mask>, Petre Borilă and Gheorghe Stoica ordered the Securitate to carry out arrests and organise repressive actions. Alongside Gheorghe Apostol, Constantin Pîrvulescu, Moghioroș and Borilă, Vincze was Gheorghiu-Dej's emissary during renewed discussions with Pauker, when they attempted to make her admit that she was guilty of "deviationism".In 1968, when the new leadership around Nicolae Ceauşescu offered concessions to ethnic Hungarian intellectuals, it created a Council of Working People of Magyar Nationality, of which Vincze was named vice-president. Upon selection, he reportedly announced to the community that he was "returning to the womb". Vincze was also vice-president of the Central Party College from July 24, 1965 to August 12, 1969 and a member of the National Council of Romanian Radio and Television from March 8, 1971. He died in Bucharest. Notes

References
Vladimir Tismăneanu, Stalinism pentru eternitate, Polirom, Iaşi, 2005  (translation of Stalinism for All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2003, ). 1910 births
1996 deaths
Members of the Great National Assembly
Presidents of the Great National Assembly
Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania)
Members of the Romanian Cabinet
Romanian communists
Romanian politicians of ethnic minority parties
Romanian diplomats
Romanian Land Forces generals
Romanian people of World War II
Romanian politicians of Hungarian descent
People from Lipova, Arad

masks:
Ion Vincze
Vincze János
Ion
Ion Antonescu
Vincze
Ion Vincze
Ion Vincze
Vincze


texts:
<mask> (10 February 1775 – 27 December 1834) was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his Essays of Elia and for the children's book Tales from Shakespeare, co-authored with his sister, <mask> (1764–1847). Friends with such literary luminaries as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, William Wordsworth, and William Hazlitt, <mask> was at the centre of a major literary circle in England. He has been referred to by E. V. Lucas, his principal biographer, as "the most lovable figure in English literature". Youth and schooling

<mask> was born in London, the son of Elizabeth Field and <mask>. <mask> was the youngest child, with a sister 11 years older named Mary and an even older brother named John; there were four others who did not survive infancy. His father <mask> was a lawyer's clerk and spent most of his professional life as the assistant to a barrister named Samuel Salt, who lived in the Inner Temple in the legal district of London. It was there in Crown Office Row that <mask> was born and spent his youth.<mask> created a portrait of his father in his "Elia on the Old Benchers" under the name Lovel. <mask>'s older brother was too much his senior to be a youthful companion to the boy but his sister Mary, being born eleven years before him, was probably his closest playmate. <mask> was also cared for by his paternal aunt Hetty, who seems to have had a particular fondness for him. A number of writings by both <mask> and Mary suggest that the conflict between Aunt Hetty and her sister-in-law created a certain degree of tension in the <mask> household. However, <mask> speaks fondly of her and her presence in the house seems to have brought a great deal of comfort to him. Some of <mask>'s fondest childhood memories were of time spent with Mrs Field, his maternal grandmother, who was for many years a servant to the Plumer family, who owned a large country house called Blakesware, near Widford, Hertfordshire. After the death of Mrs Plumer, <mask>'s grandmother was in sole charge of the large home and, as William Plumer was often absent, <mask> had free rein of the place during his visits.A picture of these visits can be glimpsed in the Elia essay Blakesmoor in H—shire. Why, every plank and panel of that house for me had magic in it. The tapestried bed-rooms – tapestry so much better than painting – not adorning merely, but peopling the wainscots – at which childhood ever and anon would steal a look, shifting its coverlid (replaced as quickly) to exercise its tender courage in a momentary eye-encounter with those stern bright visages, staring reciprocally – all Ovid on the walls, in colours vivider than his descriptions. Little is known about <mask>'s life before he was seven other than that Mary taught him to read at a very early age and he read voraciously. It is believed that he suffered from smallpox during his early years, which forced him into a long period of convalescence. After this period of recovery <mask> began to take lessons from Mrs Reynolds, a woman who lived in the Temple and is believed to have been the former wife of a lawyer. Mrs Reynolds must have been a sympathetic schoolmistress because <mask> maintained a relationship with her throughout his life and she is known to have attended dinner parties held by Mary and <mask> in the 1820s.E. V. Lucas suggests that sometime in 1781 <mask> left Mrs Reynolds and began to study at the Academy of William Bird. His time with William Bird did not last long, however, because by October 1782 <mask> was enrolled in Christ's Hospital, a charity boarding school chartered by King Edward VI in 1553. A thorough record of Christ's Hospital is to be found in several essays by <mask> as well as The Autobiography of Leigh Hunt and the Biographia Literaria of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with whom <mask> developed a friendship that would last for their entire lives. Despite the school's brutality, <mask> got along well there, due in part, perhaps, to the fact that his home was not far distant, thus enabling him, unlike many other boys, to return often to its safety. Years later, in his essay "Christ's Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago", <mask> described these events, speaking of himself in the third person as "L". "I remember L. at school; and can well recollect that he had some peculiar advantages, which I and other of his schoolfellows had not. His friends lived in town, and were near at hand; and he had the privilege of going to see them, almost as often as he wished, through some invidious distinction, which was denied to us."Christ's Hospital was a typical English boarding school and many students later wrote of the terrible violence they suffered there. The upper master (i.e. principal or headteacher) of the school from 1778 to 1799 was Reverend James Boyer, a man renowned for his unpredictable and capricious temper. In one famous story Boyer was said to have knocked one of Leigh Hunt's teeth out by throwing a copy of Homer at him from across the room. <mask> seemed to have escaped much of this brutality, in part because of his amiable personality and in part because Samuel Salt, his father's employer and <mask>'s sponsor at the school, was one of the institute's governors. <mask> had a stutter and this "inconquerable impediment" in his speech deprived him of Grecian status at Christ's Hospital, thus disqualifying him for a clerical career. While Coleridge and other scholarly boys were able to go on to Cambridge, <mask> left school at fourteen and was forced to find a more prosaic career.For a short time he worked in the office of Joseph Paice, a London merchant, and then, for 23 weeks, until 8 February 1792, held a small post in the Examiner's Office of the South Sea House. Its subsequent downfall in a pyramid scheme after <mask> left (the South Sea Bubble) would be contrasted to the company's prosperity in the first Elia essay. On 5 April 1792 he went to work in the Accountant's Office for the British East India Company, the death of his father's employer having ruined the family's fortunes. <mask> would continue to work there for 25 years, until his retirement with pension (the "superannuation" he refers to in the title of one essay). In 1792 while tending to his grandmother, Mary Field, in Hertfordshire, <mask> fell in love with a young woman named Ann Simmons. Although no epistolary record exists of the relationship between the two, <mask> seems to have spent years wooing her. The record of the love exists in several accounts of <mask>'s writing."Rosamund Gray" is a story of a young man named Allen Clare who loves Rosamund Gray but their relationship comes to nothing because of her sudden death. Miss Simmons also appears in several Elia essays under the name "Alice M". The essays "Dream Children", "New Year's Eve", and several others, speak of the many years that <mask> spent pursuing his love that ultimately failed. Miss Simmons eventually went on to marry a silversmith and <mask> called the failure of the affair his "great disappointment". Family tragedy
Both <mask> and his sister Mary suffered a period of mental illness. As he himself confessed in a letter, <mask> spent six weeks in a mental facility during 1795:

<mask>'s illness was more severe than her brother's, and it led her to become aggressive on a fatal occasion. On 22 September 1796, while preparing dinner, Mary became angry with her apprentice, roughly shoving the little girl out of her way and pushing her into another room.Her mother, Elizabeth, began admonishing her for this, and Mary suffered a mental breakdown. She took the kitchen knife she had been holding, unsheathed it, and approached her mother, who was sitting down. Mary, "worn down to a state of extreme nervous misery by attention to needlework by day and to her mother at night", was seized with acute mania and stabbed her mother in the heart with a table knife. <mask> ran into the house soon after the murder and took the knife out of Mary's hand. Later in the evening, <mask> found a local place for Mary in a private mental facility called Fisher House, which had been found with the help of a doctor friend of his. While reports were published by the media, <mask> wrote a letter to Samuel Taylor Coleridge in connection to the matricide:

<mask> took over responsibility for Mary after refusing his brother John's suggestion that they have her committed to a public lunatic asylum. <mask> used a large part of his relatively meagre income to keep his beloved sister in the private "madhouse" in Islington.With the help of friends, <mask> succeeded in obtaining his sister's release from what would otherwise have been lifelong imprisonment. Although there was no legal status of "insanity" at the time, the jury returned the verdict of "lunacy" which was how she was freed from guilt of willful murder, on the condition that <mask> take personal responsibility for her safekeeping. The 1799 death of <mask> was something of a relief to <mask> because his father had been mentally incapacitated for a number of years since suffering a stroke. The death of his father also meant that Mary could come to live again with him in Pentonville, and in 1800 they set up a shared home at Mitre Court Buildings in the Temple, where they would live until 1809. In 1800, Mary's illness came back and <mask> had to take her back again to the asylum. In those days, <mask> sent a letter to Coleridge, in which he admitted he felt melancholic and lonely, adding "I almost wish that Mary were dead." Later she would come back, and both he and his sister would enjoy an active and rich social life.Their London quarters became a kind of weekly salon for many of the most outstanding theatrical and literary figures of the day. In 1869, a club, The Lambs, was formed in London to carry on their salon tradition. The actor Henry James Montague founded the club's New York counterpart in 1874. <mask>, having been to school with Samuel Coleridge, counted Coleridge as perhaps his closest, and certainly his oldest, friend. On his deathbed, Coleridge had a mourning ring sent to <mask> and his sister. Fortuitously, <mask>'s first publication was in 1796, when four sonnets by "Mr <mask> of the India House" appeared in Coleridge's Poems on Various Subjects. In 1797 he contributed additional blank verse to the second edition, and met the Wordsworths, William and Dorothy, on his short summer holiday with Coleridge at Nether Stowey, thereby also striking up a lifelong friendship with William.In London, <mask> became familiar with a group of young writers who favoured political reform, including Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt and William Hone. <mask> continued to clerk for the East India Company and doubled as a writer in various genres, his tragedy, John Woodvil, being published in 1802. His farce, Mr H, was performed at Drury Lane in 1807, where it was roundly booed. In the same year, Tales from Shakespeare (<mask> handled the tragedies; his sister Mary, the comedies) was published, and became a best seller for William Godwin's "Children's Library". On 20 July 1819, at age 44, <mask>, who, because of family commitments, had never married, fell in love with an actress, Fanny Kelly, of Covent Garden, and besides writing her a sonnet he also proposed marriage. She refused him, and he died a bachelor. His collected essays, under the title Essays of Elia, were published in 1823 ("Elia" being the pen name <mask> used as a contributor to The London Magazine).The Essays of Elia would be criticised in the Quarterly Review (January 1823) by Robert Southey, who thought its author to be irreligious. When <mask> read the review, entitled "The Progress of Infidelity", he was filled with indignation, and wrote a letter to his friend Bernard Barton, where <mask> declared he hated the review, and emphasised that his words "meant no harm to religion". First, <mask> did not want to retort, since he actually admired Southey; but

masks:
Charles Lamb
Mary Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
John Lamb
Lamb
John Lamb
Charles Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Charles
Lamb
Charles
Lamb
Lamb
Charles
Charles
Lamb
Lamb
Charles
Charles
Lamb
Lamb
Charles
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Charles Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Charles
Charles Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Charles
Charles
Mary Lamb
Charles
Charles
Charles
Charles
Lamb
Lamb
Charles
John Lamb
Charles
Charles
Charles
Charles Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Charles Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Charles
Lamb
Lamb
Charles
Lamb
Lamb


texts:
 later he felt the need to write a letter "Elia to Southey", in which he complained and expressed that the fact that he was a dissenter of the Church, did not make him an irreligious man. The letter would be published in The London Magazine, in October 1823:

A further collection called The Last Essays of Elia was published in 1833, shortly before <mask>'s death. Also, in 1834, Samuel Coleridge died. The funeral was confined only to the family of the writer, so <mask> was prevented from attending and only wrote a letter to Rev. James Gilman, a very close [word missing], expressing his condolences.On 27 December 1834, <mask> died of a streptococcal infection, erysipelas, contracted from a minor graze on his face sustained after slipping in the street; he was 59. From 1833 till their deaths, <mask> and Mary lived at Bay Cottage, Church Street, Edmonton, north of London (now part of the London Borough of Enfield). <mask> is buried in All Saints' Churchyard, Edmonton. His sister, who was ten years his senior, survived him for more than a dozen years. She is buried beside him. Work
<mask>'s first publication was the inclusion of four sonnets in Coleridge's Poems on Various Subjects, published in 1796 by Joseph Cottle. The sonnets were significantly influenced by the poems of Burns and the sonnets of William Bowles, a largely forgotten poet of the late 18th century.<mask>'s poems garnered little attention and are seldom read today. As he himself came to realise, he was a much more talented prose stylist than poet. Indeed, one of the most celebrated poets of the day—William Wordsworth—wrote to John Scott as early as 1815 that <mask> "writes prose exquisitely"—and this was five years before <mask> began The Essays of Elia for which he is now most famous. Notwithstanding, <mask>'s contributions to Coleridge's second edition of the Poems on Various Subjects showed significant growth as a poet. These poems included The Tomb of Douglas and A Vision of Repentance. Because of a temporary falling out with Coleridge, <mask>'s poems were to be excluded in the third edition of the Poems though as it turned out a third edition never emerged. Instead, Coleridge's next publication was the monumentally influential Lyrical Ballads co-published with Wordsworth.<mask>, on the other hand, published a book entitled Blank Verse with <mask>, the mentally unstable son of the founder of Lloyds Bank. <mask>'s most famous poem was written at this time and entitled The Old Familiar Faces. Like most of <mask>'s poems, it is unabashedly sentimental, and perhaps for this reason it is still remembered and widely read today, being often included in anthologies of British and Romantic period poetry. Of particular interest to Lambarians is the opening verse of the original version of The Old Familiar Faces, which is concerned with <mask>'s mother, whom <mask> killed. It was a verse that <mask> chose to remove from the edition of his Collected Work published in 1818:

I had a mother, but she died, and left me,
Died prematurely in a day of horrors –
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. In the final years of the 18th century, <mask> began to work on prose, first in a novella entitled Rosamund Gray, which tells the story of a young girl whose character is thought to be based on Ann Simmons, an early love interest. Although the story is not particularly successful as a narrative because of <mask>'s poor sense of plot, it was well thought of by <mask>'s contemporaries and led Shelley to observe, "what a lovely thing is Rosamund Gray!How much knowledge of the sweetest part of our nature in it!" (Quoted in Barnett, page 50)

In the first years of the 19th century, <mask> began a fruitful literary cooperation with his sister Mary. Together they wrote at least three books for William Godwin's Juvenile Library. The most successful of these was Tales From Shakespeare, which ran through two editions for Godwin and has been published dozens of times in countless editions ever since. The book contains artful prose summaries of some of Shakespeare's most well-loved works. According to <mask>, he worked primarily on Shakespeare's tragedies, while Mary focused mainly on the comedies. <mask>'s essay "On the Tragedies of Shakespeare Considered with Reference to their Fitness for Stage Representation", which was originally published in the Reflector in 1811 with the title "On Garrick, and Acting; and the Plays of Shakspeare, considered with reference to their fitness for Stage Representation", has often been taken as the ultimate Romantic dismissal of the theatre.In the essay, <mask> argues that Shakespeare should be read, rather than performed, in order to protect Shakespeare from butchering by mass commercial performances. While the essay certainly criticises contemporary stage practice, it also develops a more complex reflection on the possibility of representing Shakespearean dramas:

Shakespeare’s dramas are for <mask> the object of a complex cognitive process that does not require sensible data, but only imaginative elements that are suggestively elicited by words. In the altered state of consciousness that the dreamlike experience of reading stands for, <mask> can see Shakespeare’s own conceptions mentally materialized. Besides contributing to Shakespeare's reception with his and his sister's book Tales From Shakespeare, <mask> also contributed to the recovery of acquaintance with Shakespeare's contemporaries. Accelerating the increasing interest of the time in the older writers, and building for himself a reputation as an antiquarian, in 1808 <mask> compiled a collection of extracts from the old dramatists, Specimens of the English Dramatic Poets Who Lived About the Time of Shakespeare. This also contained critical "characters" of the old writers, which added to the flow of significant literary criticism, primarily of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, from <mask>'s pen. Immersion in seventeenth-century authors, such as Robert Burton and Sir Thomas Browne, also changed the way <mask> wrote, adding a distinct flavour to his writing style.<mask>'s friend the essayist William Hazlitt thus characterised him: "Mr. <mask> ... does not march boldly along with the crowd .... He prefers bye-ways to highways. When the full tide of human life pours along to some festive show, to some pageant of a day, Elia would stand on one side to look over an old book-stall, or stroll down some deserted pathway in search of a pensive description over a tottering doorway, or some quaint device in architecture, illustrative of embryo art and ancient manners. Mr. <mask> has the very soul of an antiquarian ...."

Although he did not write his first Elia essay until 1820, <mask>'s gradual perfection of the essay form for which he eventually became famous began as early as 1811 in a series of open letters to Leigh Hunt's Reflector. The most famous of these early essays is "The Londoner", in which <mask> famously derides the contemporary fascination with nature and the countryside. He would continue to fine-tune his craft, experimenting with different essayistic voices and personae, for the better part of the next quarter century. Religious views
Christianity played an important role in <mask>'s personal life: although he was not a churchman he "sought consolation in religion,"<ref>Biography: <mask> 1775–1834, The Poetry Foundation: </ref> as shown in letters he wrote to Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Bernard Barton in which he describes the New Testament as his "best guide" for life and recalls how he used to read the Psalms for one or two hours without getting tired.Other writings also deal with his Christian beliefs.E.V. Lucas. The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Volume 2 Like his friend Coleridge, <mask> was sympathetic to Priestleyan Unitarianism and was a Dissenter, and he was described by Coleridge himself as one whose "faith in Jesus ha[d] been preserved" even after the family tragedy. Wordsworth also described him as a firm Christian in the poem "Written After the Death of <mask>", Alfred Ainger, in his work <mask>, writes that <mask>'s religion had become "an habit". <mask>'s own poems "On The Lord's Prayer", "A Vision of Repentance", "The Young Catechist", "Composed at Midnight", "Suffer Little Children, and Forbid Them Not to Come Unto Me", "Written a Twelvemonth After the Events", "Charity", "Sonnet to a Friend" and "David" express his religious faith, while his poem "Living Without God in the World" has been called a "poetic attack" on unbelief, in which <mask> expresses his disgust at atheism, attributing it to pride. Legacy
There has always been a small but enduring following for <mask>'s works, as the long-running and still-active Charles Lamb Bulletin demonstrates. Because of his quirky, even bizarre, style, he has been more of a "cult favourite" than an author with mass popular or scholarly appeal.Anne Fadiman notes regretfully that <mask> is not widely read in modern times: "I do not understand why so few other readers are clamoring for his company... [He] is kept alive largely through the tenuous resuscitations of university English departments.". Two of the houses at Christ's Hospital (Lamb A and Lamb B) are named in his honour. and he is also honoured by The Latymer School, a grammar school in Edmonton, a suburb of London where he lived for a time: it has six houses, one of which, <mask>, is named after him. A major academic prize awarded each year at Christ's Hospital School's speech day is "The Lamb Prize for Independent Study". Sir Edward Elgar wrote an orchestral work, Dream Children, inspired by <mask>'s essay of that title. A quotation from <mask>, "Lawyers, I suppose, were children once",' serves as the epigraph to Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The <mask> pub in Islington is named after him.<mask> plays an important role in the plot of Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows's novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.Selected worksBlank Verse, poems, 1798A Tale of Rosamund Gray, and Old Blind Margaret, 1798John Woodvil, verse drama, 1802Tales from Shakespeare, 1807The Adventures of Ulysses, 1808Specimens of English Dramatic Poets who Lived About the Time of Shakespeare, 1808On the Tragedies of Shakespeare, 1811Witches and Other Night Fears, 1821The Pawnbroker's Daughter, 1825Eliana, 1867Essays of Elia, 1823The Last Essays of Elia, 1833

Notes

Biographical referencesLife of <mask>, by E.V. Lucas, G.P. Putman & Sons, London, 1905, revised editions 1907 and 1921.<mask> and the Lloyds, edited by E.V. Lucas, Smith, Elder & Company, London, 1898.<mask> and His Contemporaries, by Edmund Blunden, Cambridge University Press, 1933.Companion to <mask>, by Claude Prance, Mansell Publishing, London, 1938.<mask>; A Memoir, by Barry Cornwall aka Bryan Procter, Edward Moxon, London, 1866.Young <mask>, by Winifred Courtney, New York University Press, 1982.A Portrait of <mask>, by David Cecil, Constable, London, 1983.<mask>, by George Barnett, Twayne Publishers, Boston, 1976.A Double Life: A Biography of <mask> and <mask>, by Sarah Burton, Viking, 1993.The Lambs: Their Lives, Their Friends, and Their Correspondence, by William Carew Hazlitt, C. Scribner's Sons, 1897.Dream-Child: A Life of Charles Lamb'' by Eric G. Wilson, Yale University Press, 2022. External links

Charles Lamb Facebook page
Online catalog of Charles Lamb's personal library, online at LibraryThing
Charles Lamb at the National Portrait Gallery, London
The Lambs, Inc., History

 Charles Lamb Collection. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The Charles Lamb Society Page for The Charles Lamb Society, including information on Charles and Mary Lamb

1775 births
1834 deaths
English children's writers
English essayists
People from the City of London
Romanticism
People educated at Christ's Hospital
English letter writers
Writers from London
Writers with disabilities
English Christians
People from Widford,

masks:
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Charles
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Charles Lloyd
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Mary Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Charles Lamb
Lamb
Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb
Charles
Mary Lamb


texts:
<mask> (};  born 28 December 1978) is an English television personality, model, actress and columnist who emerged into the public eye in 2006 when she appeared as a contestant in the seventh series of reality television show Big Brother. Early life

<mask> was born in London on 28 December 1978. Her parents were Sophia Horgan and Steve Wallace. Career
Horgan-Wallace began her career as an actress. In 2006, she had a small non-speaking part in the film Rollin' with the Nines. 2006: Big Brother
Horgan-Wallace became a tabloid celebrity in the United Kingdom after being selected as a contestant in Big Brother 2006, the seventh series of the Channel 4 reality television show 'Big Brother. She entered the Big Brother House on Day 12 of the show and became known for her personality clashes with fellow contestants Nikki Grahame and Grace Adams-Short (although she later became good friends with the former until Grahame's death in April 2021); she was voted into the "House Next Door" by the public——a secret room, unknown to the other contestants, where she was forced to choose whom of five new contestants would become new housemates.She was filmed masturbating on the lavatory, although this footage was not broadcast at the time. Horgan-Wallace reached the final day of the show, where she eventually finished third with 22% of the public vote. 2007–present: Transitions into television work

Since 2007, Horgan-Wallace has been a frequent guest on the Big Brother spin-off shows Big Brother's Big Mouth, Big Brother's Little Brother and, since the show's move to Channel 5 in 2011, Big Brother's Bit on the Side. She also put her name to Big Brother columns for The Sun Online. Horgan-Wallace has appeared in a number of episodes of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe. She has also presented for shows such as T4. She appeared in BBC One's Test The Nation, on a team with several other Big Brother contestants.She also made a small appearance on The Charlotte Church Show. She appeared in several episodes of the Red TV series Celebrity: Stars at Work, which aired in December 2007 and January 2008. Following on from this, Horgan-Wallace signed a  contract with Red TV to film a self-titled, fly-on-the-wall documentary. Four episodes of the resulting programme, named eponymously Aisleyne, were broadcast, the first being aired on 5 March 2008. In June 2008, Horgan-Wallace made a guest appearance on a special edition of The Friday Night Project, which aired after the launch of Big Brother 2008, the ninth series of Big Brother. Her contributions to the show included a sketch that mocked her rivalry with former housemate Nikki Grahame. In August 2008, she made a brief cameo appearance in The Kevin Bishop Show.Two months later she cameoed in Channel 4 and E4's horror series Dead Set, playing herself. She featured in the first and the fifth episodes In the first episode, she played a zombie version of herself. On 2 March 2009, Horgan-Wallace underwent a 'make-under' for the BBC Three programme Snog, Marry, Avoid?, presented by Jenny Frost. She was persuaded that a more natural look with less heavy make-up suited her. In May 2009, she was interviewed for the E4/CH4 programme Big Brother: A Decade in the Headlines, written and presented by Grace Dent. In March 2010, Horgan-Wallace appeared as a guest diner on the Living TV programme, Celebrity Restaurant in Our Living Room. In August 2010, she turned down an offer to appear in Ultimate Big Brother in order to shoot her scenes for a minor role in the British comedy film Anuvahood instead.She played the role of Maria in the film. Anuvahood was released in the UK on 18 March 2011 but was not a success. On 5 May 2011 she starred in an episode of Celebrity Hens and Stags for Wedding TV. She helped organise a stag night in Edinburgh, including racing in an off-road buggy, which later was involved in a hit and run incident in Leith. In June 2011, she appeared as a contestant in the TV3 (Ireland) series Celebrity Salon. She finished runner-up behind a TV presenter called Alan Hughes. In January 2012, Horgan-Wallace appeared in the third series of the Channel 4 show Celebrity Coach Trip, alongside fellow Big Brother contestant Nikki Grahame.The pair were given a 'red card' and dismissed from the show on Day 3 of the series after falling out with other celebrities, including Edwina Currie and Jean Broke-Smith. From December 2012, she became a regular guest on the Loaded TV chat show, Looser Women Live, a programme regularly hosted by her friend, the model and fellow reality TV star, Nicola McLean. She plays the character of Jasmine in a low-budget British horror movie, Serial Killer, which was filmed in April and May 2013. On 11 February 2015, Horgan-Wallace appeared as a 'claimant' on the ITV daytime show Judge Rinder, in a case against her fellow former BB7 contestant Michael Cheshire, alleging an unpaid debt; she won her case. She appeared on the Channel 5 show Celebrity Botched Up Bodies on 6 October 2016, regarding her dental veneers. On 25 March 2017, she appeared as a contributor in the Channel 5 show When Celebrity Goes Horribly Wrong and a week later she was featured in the Channel 4 programme How'd You Get So Rich? presented by famous Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan, in which she discussed her acquisition of a property portfolio.Starting in 2017, Horgan-Wallace became a regular guest on ITV morning show Good Morning Britain, discussing issues of the day with other invited guests. On 12 November 2018 she appeared on Channel 4 show First Dates, where she was set up on a blind dinner date in the First Dates restaurant with Darren, a fellow Londoner. At the end of the show it was revealed the couple had yet to go on a second date. A week later she appeared in a feature within the Victoria Derbyshire show on BBC2 called "Brexit Blind Dates", in which opposing voices in the Brexit debate met for dinner. Horgan-Wallace, a supporter of 'Leave', debated the issue with Labour peer Professor The Lord Winston for 'Remain'. From 2019, Horgan-Wallace was a regular guest on BBC Radio 5 Live's 10 o'clock show, hosted by Sarah Brett and Rick Edwards, amongst others. Bit on the Side incident
On 22 September 2015, Horgan-Wallace appeared as a panelist on the Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side after-show and got into a heated argument with fellow panelist Farrah Abraham.The show was taken off air ten minutes early after a "clash" between panellists. Abraham and Janice Dickinson were given police cautions. Horgan-Wallace was to face trial on charges of common assault and criminal damage, but according to the Daily Mirror, on 29 January 2016 the Crown Prosecution Service dropped all charges. Filmography

Films

Television

Other work
After Big Brother, Horgan-Wallace made numerous personal appearances in nightclubs around the UK. She hosted a show for the online radio station Invincible, was a guest commentator on BBC's Asian Network and made several guest appearances on Choice FM's Morning Vybe show. Horgan-Wallace worked as an 'agony aunt' for More magazine and wrote a weekly column covering Big Brother 2007 for Reveal magazine, as well as writing a daily blog on its website. She reprised this role during the airing of the programme's ninth and tenth series.In September 2007, it was announced that she had taken control of her own career via her management company, Aisleyne Ltd, along with co-director Richard Skeels. On 10 February 2008 Aisleyne released a fashion range named "Unique by Aisleyne". She worked with the "high-end" fashion distributors Unique Collections Ltd, to design and produce the outfits. A complementary swimwear range was launched a few weeks later. It was announced on 24 April 2008 that Mainstream Publishing had bought the right to publish her autobiography, entitled Aisleyne: Surviving Guns, Gangs and Glamour. This book was published on 7 May 2009. The launch party held on 6 May was attended by various celebrities, including Jodie Marsh, Charlie Brooker and Nate James.On 24 and 27 March 2009, Horgan-Wallace co-hosted a radio show on SMUC Radio with Eamonn McCrystal. On 10 June 2011, Horgan-Wallace was a judge in the Miss Universe Ireland beauty contest in Dublin. In March 2014, Horgan-Wallace launched her own celebrity boot camp named Aisleyne's Booty Camp, based in a Country House near Grantham, Leicestershire. In October 2016, Horgan-Wallace launched her own fitness app titled Aisleyne 7 Minute Workout, which was released on the Apple and Android Play Store platforms. Philanthropy
Horgan-Wallace is a patron of Brain Tumour UK and acted as an ambassador for Club4Climate, an initiative based around parties in London's West End and elsewhere that aimed to prevent climate change. In 2007, she completed a London 10 kilometre run to raise money for Brain Tumour UK; she completed the same event on 6 July 2008. Horgan-Wallace has been involved with the National Health Service 'Stop Smoking' campaign in association with Cancer Research UK,  and has given her support to No Smoking Day each year since 2008.She also became involved in the "Put the Knives and Guns Down!" campaign, aimed at encouraging teenagers to get off the streets and stop shootings and stabbings. References

External links

Big Brother (British TV series) contestants
Glamour models
Living people
Fashion designers from London
British women fashion designers
Actresses from London
English television actresses
English film actresses
English columnists
English television presenters
1978 births
Women columnists

masks:
Aisleyne Horgan Wallace
Aisleyne Horgan Wallace


texts:
<mask>, AC (born 14 August 1957), is a former Australian politician and lawyer who served as the Treasurer in the Australian Howard Government from 1996 to 2007. He is the longest-serving Treasurer in Australia's history. <mask> was a Member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1990 to 2009, representing the Division of Higgins. He also served as the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party from 1994 to 2007. On 18 September 2008, <mask> was appointed as chairman of the World Bank's new Independent Advisory Board (IAB) to provide advice on anti-corruption measures. <mask> has served as Chairman of Nine Entertainment Co. since February 2016. <mask> is Chairman of the Board of Guardians of Australian Future Fund.Early life
<mask> was born on 14 August 1957 in Melbourne into a middle-class family of practising Christians. He was the second of three children: his elder brother, Tim, is a prominent Baptist minister and former CEO of World Vision Australia. <mask> was educated at Carey Baptist Grammar School and Monash University, where he studied arts and law, graduating with honours in 1982. <mask> is a descendant of Irish immigrant <mask>, who was expelled from the Parliament of Victoria in the 1860s for electoral fraud. During the 1980s, <mask> was a solicitor at the law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques, then became a barrister and represented employers in some of Australia's best known industrial relations disputes. In 1982 <mask> married Tanya (née Coleman), daughter of writer and former Liberal politician <mask>. In 1983 and 1984, <mask> represented the National Farmers' Federation in legal action against the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union (AMIEU).The AMIEU was seeking a unit tally system to be set up in abattoirs in the Northern Territory. The dispute focussed on one abattoir, Mudginberri, which chose to fight the AMIEU claim. Ultimately the AMIEU claim was unsuccessful. <mask> became counsel to organisations representing small business and rose to prominence in the 1985 Dollar Sweets case, as junior counsel assisting Alan Goldberg QC, successfully representing a confectionery company involved in a bitter industrial dispute. Political background
In his student years, <mask> was active in student politics. For a time, he was an office-bearer of the Social Democratic Students Association of Victoria, an affiliate of the Balaclava Branch of Australian Young Labor. In 1977, <mask> was assaulted by a left-wing student politician, receiving mainstream media attention for the first time in his career as a result.After graduating, <mask> became more conservative but retained liberal views on some social issues. In 1984 he was a founding member of the H. R. Nicholls Society, a think tank on industrial relations. In the late 1980s, he was identified as part of the New Right movement, which was organised to some extent in the H. R. Nicholls Society. Political career

Early political career

In 1990, <mask> defeated sitting member Roger Shipton in a preselection ballot for the comfortably safe Liberal electorate of Higgins, the seat once held by Harold Holt and John Gorton. He entered the House of Representatives at the age of 32. <mask> made his maiden speech in May 1990 and mentioned "government should be subservient to the citizen; the Executive accountable to the representative parliament; and the monopoly give way in the face of the individual." Following the resignation of Andrew Peacock, <mask> voted for John Hewson to replace Peacock as Liberal Leader and <mask> was made shadow minister for Consumer affairs and later Shadow Attorney General.However Hewson despite launching <mask>'s local campaign in Higgins, despised <mask> making it clear to him that he would not be appointed a Minister in a Hewson government and always maintained suspicion about <mask> due to his admiration for John Howard. On one occasion Hewson accused <mask> of bad mouthing him to journalist Laurie Oakes which <mask> denied. Hewson's shock defeat at the 1993 election, <mask> believes, can be attributed to Hewson lacking the experience to know which things to try to change and which things to avoid trying to change. <mask> believed Hewson fought everyone from Churches and Welfare groups over the GST to the Supernnuation and Medicare organisations and recipients. <mask> claimed he found it hard to promote the Liberal party's zero Tariff policy to the car industry. <mask>'s profile became higher following the 1993 election becoming Shadow Finance Minister after his failure to become deputy leader. After the "sports rorts affair" with Sport Minister Ros Kelly: after revealing Kelly did not handle funding properly for the policy, Hewson and <mask> demanded she resign, and she did, this and other factors made <mask> be seen as alternative leader to Hewson.Hewson was deposed as Liberal leader in May 1994, <mask> supported Alexander Downer for the leadership, becoming his Deputy Leader and shadow Treasurer. What may have prevented <mask> from challenging Hewson for the leadership himself was that it would have proven correct an accusation by Victorian Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett that <mask> and his friend, former Victorian Liberal party president Michael Kroger, had undermined Hewson's leadership prior to Hewson calling the leadership spill that partly occurred because of <mask> in the first place. However, Downer resigned in January 1995. <mask> did not seek the leadership, instead supporting John Howard. It was revealed in July 2006 that this was due to a December 1994 meeting between Howard, <mask> and Ian McLachlan during which Howard allegedly agreed to stand aside after one and a half terms as Prime Minister in return for <mask>'s agreement not to challenge for the leadership. Howard denied that this was a formal arrangement. Hewson noted with irony in 2009 that <mask>'s best chances of becoming leader were at the 1994 leadership spill or when Downer stood down, several months later.As Deputy Leader until 2007, he was the longest serving in that role, achieving that status in 2006 after breaking the record of the party's first Deputy Leader Sir Eric Harrison. He also spent all but the last two years of his career on the front bench. Federal Treasurer (1996–2007)

The Liberal/National coalition headed by Howard won the 1996 election, defeating the Keating government on a 29-seat swing, and <mask> became Federal Treasurer at age 38, the same age at which Howard himself had become treasurer in 1977. He oversaw the return to and maintenance of federal budget surpluses, which enabled significant reduction in government debt. <mask> brought down twelve consecutive Federal Budgets, including ten surpluses. During this period he eliminated the Commonwealth Government net debt of $96 billion. He also sold 2/3rds of the Reserve Bank's substantial gold holdings at a record low price.Inflation, interest rates and unemployment all fell and remained generally low during <mask>'s term as Treasurer. Tax reform became a major policy focus for <mask>. Although John Howard had promised during the 1996 election campaign that he would "never, ever" introduce a GST, it returned as Liberal Party policy for the 1998 election. It was passed through the Senate with the help of the Australian Democrats. Until July 2005, <mask>'s own agenda of labour market deregulation remained blocked by the government's lack of a Senate majority. In 1998, <mask> and his wife Tanya, along with Tony Abbott and his wife Margaret, successfully sued author Bob Ellis for false statements he made about them in his book Goodbye Jerusalem. <mask> advocated for change to a republic at the Australian Constitutional Convention 1998.He rejected any suggestion that Australia was not already an independent nation and said that the Australian Constitution works "remarkably well". It was the institution of monarchy that was the crux of his argument for change:

<mask> supported the 1999 referendum on whether Australia should become a republic. After the 2001 election, he attracted criticism for not securing funding for a key election promise to extend the Medicare safety net. In February 2006, <mask> caused controversy during a lecture at the Sydney Institute when questioned about the government's refusal to legally recognise same-sex marriage. He stated, "I think we do recognise the rights of gay and lesbian people in Australia. We do not criminalise [their] conduct or behaviour." He also pointed out that the law was changed in 2004 to recognise same-sex couples with regards to superannuation.He stated that marriage should only be recognised between heterosexual couples. Also during the same speech, <mask> criticised "mushy misguided multiculturalism," warning immigrants that the acceptance of Australian values was "not optional." Leadership aspirations

Under Howard

<mask> expected to gain the Liberal leadership some time during Howard's second term as Prime Minister, as per Howard's alleged December 1994 offer. When this did not eventuate, it is alleged that <mask> became frustrated, particularly when Howard announced, in July 2003, his intention to lead the government into the 2004 election. During the 2004 election campaign, Howard avoided saying whether he would serve a full term if re-elected, saying only he would remain as long as his party supported him. The government's subsequent success in winning control of the Senate raised further speculation that Howard would delay his retirement, and the prospect of a <mask> leadership succession appeared to recede. In July 2006, the alleged <mask> succession deal was made public by Ian McLachlan.<mask> confirmed the incident had occurred and that he shared McLachlan's interpretation of events. Howard denied the claims repeatedly, stating the continued public drama displayed "hubris and arrogance" and that the leadership was the party room's to decide, not a prize to be handed over by leaders to successors. Press Gallery columnist Michelle Grattan described <mask>'s actions :

Despite tensions between the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, nothing further came of those events. Neither Howard nor <mask> took any action to remove the other from office, or resign. However, on 12 September 2007, amid renewed leadership tensions and a series of unfavourable public polls, Howard confirmed he would step aside well into the next term, if re-elected, and that <mask> would be his "logical successor". A federal election was held on 24 November 2007. An exit poll of 2,787 voters by Auspoll, commissioned by Sky News, included a question on the statement "I don’t want <mask> to become Prime Minister".Fifty-nine per cent agreed, while 41 per cent disagreed. The Coalition lost the election. In opposition (2007–2009)
<mask> was widely expected to assume the Liberal leadership after the 2007 election, but the day after the election, in a surprise announcement, he said that he would not seek or accept the leadership or deputy leadership of the Liberal Party. This was after John Howard, in his concession speech on the night of the election, specifically endorsed <mask> as the next leader for the Coalition. A week later, he indicated that he would be unlikely to serve out in full his parliamentary term of three years. However, as opposition leader Brendan Nelson struggled, speculation mounted that <mask> would change his mind and seek the leadership. In August 2008, he ruled out challenging Nelson, but did not comment on the prospect of Nelson stepping aside in his favour.Finally in September 2008, just before the release of his memoirs, The Costello Memoirs, <mask> specifically re-confirmed that he would not be seeking leadership of the party and would leave politics at a time that suited him. Media attention immediately shifted to whether <mask>'s decision cleared the way for a leadership challenge by Malcolm Turnbull (who was the shadow treasurer at the time). Tony Abbott described the decision as a great loss to Australia and to <mask> himself, who might continue to have regrets for the rest of his life at what might have been. Media outlets capitalised on <mask>'s failure to categorically rule out any future leadership challenge. An incumbent-announced leadership spill on the morning of <mask>'s book release saw Turnbull defeat Nelson. <mask> remained as an opposition backbencher. On 18 September 2008, <mask> was appointed to the World Bank's new Independent Advisory Board, (IAB), which will provide advice on anti-corruption measures.On 15 June 2009, <mask> announced that he would retire from Parliament at the next Federal election. However on 7 October 2009, <mask> announced he would be resigning from Parliament when it resumed later in the month. He resigned on 19 October 2009, triggering the 2009 Higgins by-election. <mask>'s departure came just prior to the ETS crisis that lead to Malcolm Turnbull losing
the Liberal party leadership to Tony Abbott. Post-political career
<mask> is a member of the Board of Guardians of the Australian Government Future Fund since December 2009. Amidst some controversy it was announced that David Gonski would succeed the inaugural Chairman, David Murray when Murray's term expired on 3 April 2012. Gonski's appointment was in spite of an independent review (that was conducted by Gonski).Gonski reported to the Australian Government that the existing Guardians favoured <mask> to succeed Murray as Chairman. <mask> is a managing partner of BKK Partners, a boutique corporate advisory run by former Goldman Sachs JBWere managers. He also chairs the advisory board of specialist corporate advisory firm ECG Advisory Solutions. In 2008, his best-selling memoir was published by Melbourne University Press. <mask> writes a regular column for Fairfax newspapers. In October 2010, Howard published a memoir, Lazarus Rising, that drew the ire of <mask> and others. Howard used the memoir to settle some personal scores, calling <mask> "an elitist, who's unable to connect to ordinary Australians" and accuses <mask> of bungling the leadership handover issue.<mask> responded by claiming that Howard "appears to be incapable of taking responsibility for the defeat of the government and for losing his seat of Bennelong." In May 2012, Michael Kroger accused <mask> of being interested in returning to Federal Parliament, most likely by getting a Liberal MP to step aside, with the hope of becoming leader of the Liberal Party. <mask> denied this, saying that Kroger had approached him asking to help preserve his ex-wife Helen Kroger's Senate position. At around the same time, Helen Kroger was demoted on the Senate Liberal ticket for Victoria. Kroger believes <mask> was targeting her along with others; Kroger also claimed <mask> very often criticises past and present Liberal party MPs and officials. In February 2016, <mask> was appointed chairman of the Nine Entertainment Co.

Honours
On 26 January 2011, <mask> was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia for "eminent service to the Parliament of Australia, particularly through the development of landmark economic policy reforms in the areas of taxation, foreign investment, superannuation and corporate regulation, and through representative roles with global financial organisations". References

External links

<mask> – Official Website (www.petercostello.com.au)
Biography – Monash University prominent alumni profile

Treasurers of Australia
Members of the Cabinet of Australia
Australian Anglicans
Australian barristers
Australian economists
Australian investment bankers
Australian people of Irish descent
Australian republicans
Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia
Members of the Australian House of Representatives
Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Higgins
People educated at Carey Baptist Grammar School
Lawyers from Melbourne
Politicians from Melbourne
1957 births
Living people
Monash Law School alumni
Converts to Anglicanism from Baptist denominations
Companions of the Order of Australia
Delegates to the Australian Constitutional Convention 1998
20th-century Australian politicians
World Bank people
Nine Entertainment
21st-century Australian politicians
Government ministers of Australia
Australian officials of the United Nations

masks:
Peter Howard Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Patrick Costello
Costello
Costello
Peter Coleman
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Peter
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello Howard
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Peter Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Costello
Peter Costello
Peter Costello