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Bristol2014
'Bravo, Bristol!'
The song was set to music by composer Ivor Novello. Writing to the Committee, Weatherly described the music as ‘tuneful and easy, and yet not commonplace.’ Following negotiations with the Committee, Weatherly and Novello, along with the music publisher, Boosey and Co, agreed that the entire proceeds from the sale of the song’s sheet music […]
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Bristol2014
“Germany, Austria and Drink" Bristol’s War on Alcohol
In the decades before the First World War, alcohol had become a major social problem in the cities of industrialised countries, particularly the Anglo-Saxon ones. Modern brewing techniques produced very strong beer very cheaply. This, combined with low taxation and light regulation of public houses and the brewing industry, led to massive amounts of alcoholism […]
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Bristol2014
The Public Lecture Series at Bristol Library 1941-1943
The leaflets include speaker biographies and bibliographies of suggested reading with the recommendation that people ask for the books listed at their local library. Local history librarian Dawn Dyer believes that many of the books dating from the war in the library’s reserve stack were bought to coincide with the lectures. In addition to the […]
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Bristol2014
Bristol Adopts Bethune
It pursued its objective by encouraging British cities and towns to become a ‘Godparent’ to a small town or village that had been destroyed; the village was ‘adopted’, a relationship was established with the people who had returned to their ruined homes, and various types of aid relevant to their particular needs were provided. 80 […]
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Bristol2014
‘Dread Fascination’ Artists and War
Not far away, the Canadian polemicist and painter Wyndham Lewis had equally taut feelings about the unforeseen appeal of war. Agog at the scale of the ‘unseen orchestra’ that pounded away in his artillery lines, Lewis surveyed the awful majesty and ‘sinister expectancy’ of the Front and, with typical bravado, ‘plunged into the romance of battle’: If your mind is of […]