Sir John Richard Gray Drummond CBE (25 November 1934, London - 6 September 2006) was an English arts administrator who spent most of his career at the BBC. He was the son of a master mariner in the British India line and an Australian lieder singer.
He was educated at Canford School and, after his National Service in the Navy, read History at Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he was a member of the Marlowe Society, performing in Christopher Marlowe's Edward II, which was broadcast on the Third Programme in 1958 with Derek Jacobi in the title role. At the time he had already gained a BBC general traineeship (Carpenter p316).
His early career at the BBC was as a foreign correspondent (Drummond spoke fluent French and Russian) and then director/producer of arts programmes for BBC Television; ultimately he became Assistant Head of Music and Arts before becaming director of the Edinburgh International Festival at the end of 1977. Drummond's period at the Festival was particularly successful, and Norman Lebrecht commended him in a tribute for his multi-disciplinary approach in a celebration of 'fin de siècle' Vienna in 1983.[1]
After leaving his post in Edinburgh in 1983, he returned to the BBC and was appointed Controller, Music (in tandem with his predecessor Robert Ponsonby for a year as Controller, Designate) in 1985 and then Controller of Radio 3 (1987-92) when the two posts were merged. He was succeeded by Nicholas Kenyon as Controller of Radio 3, but Drummond continued to be responsible for the Proms until his last season in 1995. While Controller of Radio 3, Drummond introduced the co-ordination of interval talks with the evening concert, doubled the length of the Saturday morning Record Review programme and scheduled the first Jazz concert at the Proms with Loose Tubes in 1987. Drummond had a low opinion of the Radio 3 audience, which he saw as consisting of "thirty minority tastes, each of which is characterised by its intense dislike of the other twenty-nine" (Carpenter p335).
Drummond attacked Nigel Kennedy in 1991 for wearing a black cloak while performing Berg's Violin Concerto,[2] and comparing Kennedy's usual punk clothing to the vulgarity of Liberace (Carpenter p335). Most opinion in the media sided with Kennedy.
Having chosen not to renew his contract as Radio 3 Controller for a second five-year term in 1992, he became openly critical of the Birt regime at the BBC, for its managerial and populist instincts. For Drummond, the BBC "has been an organisation which has seen itself as leading society, not following taste. If it no longer wishes to be that, I can't see any reason for its existence."[3] At about the same time, he called Tony Blair a "professional philistine" and attacked the Blair government for destroying "the national sense of culture".[4]
John Drummond was chairman of the Theatres Trust near the end of his life (1998-2001). He had also been on the Council of Management of the early music group, the Fires of London.

History
h2g2 is really two separate but complementary Guides, one Edited and one Unedited. The Unedited Guide is described in a separate section below. The Edited Guide consists of articles (usually called 'Entries') which have passed through a peer review process, and then been checked and tidied up first by a volunteer sub-editor and then, more briefly, by an in-house editor. The 7,000th entry was added to the Edited Guide on April 8, 2005. [3]

Editing process
On h2g2, entries are peer reviewed by any members of the community who feel like spending a little time reading and commenting. Some of these may be specialists on the topic, but generally most are not, and it soon becomes obvious, therefore, whether the average Researcher can understand an Entry. While this has the advantage that Entries are generally written in terms that the layman can understand, it also means that mistakes can occasionally slip into the Edited Guide [4].
Once an entry has been picked by a Scout (see later) and leaves Peer Review, a copy is made and editing rights are handed to a Sub-editor. After the Entry has its day on the Front Page of h2g2 and becomes part of the Edited Guide it can only be modified or updated by its author either by requesting minor changes through the Editorial Feedback section of h2g2, or by submitting it to the Update Forum if larger changes or a rewrite are needed. However, the author can still update the unedited version, which remains in the wider unedited guide. Many authors choose to delete the original (unedited) version, so that it does not show up in search results.

Peer Review
Sub-editors, likewise, are not generally experts on the material they are editing, which is assigned on a more or less random basis. Sub-editing is mainly limited to ensuring readability and conformity to the h2g2 house style, though the amount of changes made varies from one Entry to another.
Some sub-editors tend to discuss changes with the Researcher who wrote the Entry to make sure that they are correct in their information and written in the right way. However, this is entirely at the individual sub-editor's discretion. h2g2 lacks an effective change control system, and this often leads to errors creeping in at this stage.

Sub-editing
After years of discussion, h2g2 has now adopted a formal update system. This consists of an Update Forum, which works in the same way as Peer Review, allowing a new version of an existing entry to be submitted for full review.
Smaller changes to Edited Entries can be made by posting to the Editorial Feedback page. The Editors and the Curators (a volunteer group) will attend to them. This can include typos, minor errors, and other small changes.[5] [6] It can also include the addition of extra information:
If the information is more than a few paragraphs, but less than a full reworking, the information can be submitted via Editorial Feedback. For us to accept the update, however, it must be presented with explicit directions as to why the update is required, as well as directions as to what goes where/replaces what and it should be in full GuideML, including links.[7]

Updating
If an article is not yet ready for submission to Peer Review, there exists an Edited Guide Writing Workshop, where other researchers can post suggestions and corrections, so that the author can improve their work, and bring it up to the standard required of the Edited Guide. There is another review forum, the Flea Market, where abandoned Entries from Peer Review are moved, so that other researchers can adopt them. An Entry might be moved to the Flea Market if, for example, its author leaves h2g2 (called 'Elvising').
There is also an Alternative Writing Workshop, where entries that don't adhere to the Writing Guidelines can be worked on. Entries from this workshop are candidates for the UnderGuide (see below).

The workshops
The Edited Guide forms only a small part of h2g2 as a whole. Most of the site's 'cultural life' takes place in the far larger Unedited Guide, which contains, amongst other things, various clubs and societies, discussion areas, Researchers' h2g2 homepages (known as their 'personal spaces'), and writing workshops. The Unedited Guide can also contain fiction, although this cannot be submitted for inclusion to the Edited Guide, which only contains factual information.
If an article does not make it through the Peer Review process, the original (unedited) entry can still be viewed, as before, in the Unedited Guide. It can, of course, also be rewritten by the author(s) and submitted again at a later date.

The Unedited Guide
The UnderGuide is h2g2's most ambitious attempt to bring the attention of the community to the best entries that fall outside of the Edited Guide's Guidelines. The UnderGuide and its volunteers have a similar structure to the Edited Guide's volunteers. They have scouts, but call them Miners. They have sub editors, but their name is Gem Polishers. Miners inhabit the Alternative Writing Workshop to comment on entries and pick them for the UG.

The UnderGuide
The bulk of site activity takes place in the United Kingdom (GMT/BST) daytime, which is when the in-house London based team (known as 'The Italics', see below), is there. But at other times, the US, Canadian and Australian researchers are also very active.

The community
The Italics (technically 'the Editors'), the inhouse editors of h2g2, are the only people on the site who get paid (by the BBC) for what they do. They monitor the content of the Edited Guide and oversee the general development of community life. They are named for the way their names appear in conversations, in bold italics, to keep people from impersonating them. There are informal nicknames for the editors such as 'The Powers That Be', 'The Towers', 'The Powers in the Towers' and 'Pisa People'.
The core personnel have changed considerably since h2g2 started in 1999. Of the original TDV team, only Technical Lead Jim Lynn remains working on the site, although most of his time is spent developing the DNA software base for other uses within the BBC. The first full-time editor, Mark Moxon, left in 2002, and with the exception of Community Editor Peta Haigh, all other Italics have moved on.

The Italics
There are seven different kinds of volunteer on the site, with varying responsibilities. Any researcher can apply to become a volunteer; if accepted, they gain a badge for their Personal Space, advertising their status as a member of that particular group:

Aces (the name is an acronym for Assistant Community Editor) are responsible for welcoming new users and assisting them in becoming active and experienced members of h2g2. No statistics are publicly available, but this approach ensures that a large proportion of initially active Researchers continue to contribute. Aces are also expected to take a responsible role within the community, encouraging discussion and debate.
Gurus help Researchers later on with technical issues, such as with GuideML, a custom markup language designed to allow additional features (such as formatting for headings and subheadings, and graphical emoticons), whilst removing unwanted HTML tags (such as JavaScript and embedded images and sounds).
Scouts are responsible for making sure that quality work does not languish in Peer Review for too long. They keep an eye open for entries that have received a favourable response from other Researchers, and pick a few each month to recommend for inclusion in the Edited Guide. The picks are reviewed by the 'Italics' and then forwarded to a sub-editor.
Sub-editors check and edit Entries to be added to the Edited Guide. After that is done, the new Edited Entry is posted to the front page for a day and one in three articles is awarded its own professionally drawn picture. Once Edited, the original authors cannot change the articles anymore, although there is a small team of Curators who continuously trawl old edited entries repairing broken links, making updates, and so forth. These were the first volunteers, originally hand picked, who used to do the jobs of scouts as well prior to the creation of Peer Review.
Community Artists contribute the art that illustrates many of the entries. The volunteer group provides graphics frequently, in order to meet the one-in-three requirement mentioned above. They are always credited on the pages they have illustrated. Everyone on h2g2 has some respect for the artists.
University Field Researchers write groups of entries based around a common theme, aiming to provide a comprehensive guide to a specific subject. These projects often become quite involved and take several months to complete. Once finished, they are usually featured on the h2g2 home page for a week. This scheme was discontinued on June 25, 2003, though previous Field Researchers retained their badges. [8] In late 2005, the scheme was reinstated and projects began to be featured on the Front Page again.
Curators are long-term responsible Researchers who have demonstrated a commitment to the Edited Guide. They have been granted the power to edit Entries in the Edited Guide. They work with the Italics to keep the Edited Guide tidy and up-to-date. Their duties include correcting typos which have slipped through the editing process, cross-linking newer Entries to older ones and removing broken links, and taking care of requests for minor changes which have been posted to the Editorial Feedback forum. Volunteers
h2g2 is large enough to have many unofficial clubs and societies, set up and maintained by researchers. Examples include:

The Musicians' Guild - self explanatory; this is a place for musicians to gather and discuss musical topics.
The Zaphodistas - Loosely based on Mexico's Zapatista rebels, the Zaphodistas campaign for researcher rights, for example, to include external images on h2g2 pages.
The Freedom from Faith Foundation - An organization of free-thinkers, the FFFF is a forum for non-dogmatic discussion of philosophical and religious issues.
The Society for the Addition of a Towel Smiley - This is a group that campaigned (successfully) to have a graphic representing a towel added to the extensive list of h2g2 smileys.
The Thingites - This is a group that campaigns (not yet successfully) to have the days of the week renamed (chiefly to rename 'Thursday' as 'Thing'). The group is also attempting (as yet also unsuccessfully) to have one of their threads ('No no no!!') recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the longest thread in any chat community in the world. (As of April 2007, that particular thread had over 90,000 posts, so maybe they have a point.)
The Thursdayites - This group campaigns to have the days of the week as they are now
The Terranic Army - This virtual army used to have online battles on their own World War battlefield. The army is now in general disuse, although many copycat societies have emerged.
United Friends of h2g2space - One of the largest clubs at the site, United Friends is simply a celebration of the friendliness of h2g2. Membership is open to any researcher. Clubs and societies
Among the most popular Talk Forums on the site are:

Ask the h2g2 Community - usually abbreviated to Ask. This is a general forum where Researchers can ask members of the community questions on various subjects. It also contains long-running conversations such as "My penis and I - what do women think of penises?", "What Films have you seen recently?" and "(The Return of) What book are you reading at this time?".
The Forum - The Forum contains many similar conversations to Ask, but they tend to be of a more serious nature.
SEx - Science Explained Forum - an area for Researchers to discuss all things scientific. Many of the Researchers are experts in particular fields, and so are able to provide explanations on a broad range of subjects.
Miscellaneous Chat - an area devoted to conversations about anything and everything
Talking heads of h2g2 - A place for general chatting. Talk forums
The Post is h2g2's own virtual broadsheet newspaper, published weekly by a team of community members. It includes cartoons, regular columns, fiction, poetry and feature stories written and submitted by the h2g2 Researchers. It is edited by a few dedicated h2g2 Researchers, not paid in-house editors. The Post provides an outlet for comment and for sharing experiences, and often features content that is not intended to form a part of the Edited Guide.
The h2g2 community also investigates its own progress at times, for example in the h2g2 Reports, written by a varied group of Researchers on a relatively infrequent basis.

The Post
In order to contribute to the site, it is necessary to register and to agree to the h2g2 "House Rules" and the general BBC Terms and Conditions. Registered users are called Researchers. Researchers retain the copyright to their articles, but grant the BBC a non-exclusive license to do pretty much whatever it likes with them.
The House Rules prohibit various things, including racism, "hard-core" swearing, spamming, flooding, languages other than English, and "otherwise objectionable" material. The Terms and Conditions are more legalistic, and prohibit material that is not the submitter's own and original work, defamatory material, etc.
When the site became part of BBCi, the BBC insisted on moderating all contributions to the site soon after they were made. However, they were eventually persuaded that the h2g2 Community could be trusted to a system of "Reactive Moderation", in which posts are not checked by moderators unless a complaint is made. Individual user accounts are sometimes put on "pre-moderation", meaning that any posts they make are not displayed until they have been reviewed by a moderator.
Occasionally, there has been an issue that is particularly contentious and discussion of this issue may be moderated differently. For example:
Additionally, several of the more contentious Entries submitted for review have had to be hidden pending moderation for fear of litigation, with two articles about the Nestlé boycott having been pulled in the past.

Political Discussions during any Elections in the United Kingdom are restricted to specific forums. These forums have all posts read by moderators to ensure that the BBC cannot be seen to break the tight rules that govern the UK media during such elections.
During the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, extra rules were put in place and, for example, the username OBL was deemed unacceptable.
On 17 March 2003, h2g2 issued guidelines for discussions during the 2003 Iraq war, including saying that "Postings and Entries on the subject of the conflict posted to h2g2 will be removed".
In February 2006, various posts linking to the Muhammad cartoons were removed. Terms and conditions
The software for h2g2 - and all of its related 'sister' communities in the BBC, such as "606", "Film Network", "Action Network", "Comedy Soup", "British Film" and "collective" – is affectionately known as DNA, after the initials of author and site founder Douglas Noel Adams. The DNA technology was introduced a few months after the BBC takeover. Before this technology, there was "Ripley", which was named after the character from the film Aliens, in homage to the quote "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." Before that there was a technology with no particular name, which subsequently gained the retronym Llama, due to the code holding the site together being written mostly in Perl.
All of the BBC message boards moved onto the DNA engine in 2005.
Adams himself was rather involved in the website in its early days. His account name (of course) was DNA, and his user number was 42, a reference to the famous joke in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything is 42. When Adams died, in May 2001, his personal space was the focus for a huge reaction from the community. Tributes and messages poured in at a rate of about one every two minutes.
Adams' legacy is still felt on h2g2, and naturally the site is peppered with references to the Hitchhiker books; it is, however, not a fan site, and was never intended as such.

DNA
h2g2 has four different skins which are different ways of viewing the site. Users can set their options menu to view the site in one or other of the skins when they are logged in. Some skins are more popular than others; some even have fanclubs. It is possible to switch between skins while not logged in by altering the URL, for example changing http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A352487 to http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A352487 would alter the skin from Classic Goo to Alabaster.

Classic Goo was the first skin. It has large white text on a blue background. The first programmers of h2g2 nicknamed it 'Goo' but it appears as /classic in the URL.
Alabaster was the second skin. Its layout is most like the rest of the internet, featuring small black text on a white background with chunks of orange and green. Originally called 'the corporate skin', its design was considered necessary to increase registrations from visitors who might previously have been intimidated by Goo. Launch editor Tim Browse suggested the name Alabaster to the development team, who were immediately delighted by the concept and suggested further possibilies along the lines of Porcelain, Ivory and China. It wasn't mentioned at the time that the suggestions, whilst reflecting the change to a white design from the classic blue, were also associated with toilets.
Brunel is the newest official skin, and consequently it is the default format for visitors who are not logged in. It has black text on white backgrounds, and was designed to look more like the rest of the BBC. The border colours vary depending on what type of Entry is being viewed, and can be determined by creators of Entries by using special GuideML tags; the h2g2 Front Page changes its colour scheme with its content. This skin is generally considered as having the best layout, as it has several useful buttons that are not on the other skins.
Plain was designed for Digibox, Palm and Pocket PC users who can't load the more graphic alabaster, brunel or classic. The Plain skin is not officially supported on the site, so it has not undergone the same level of testing as the other skins and has a few small problems. Unlike the other site skins, plain allows registered site users to define and use their own Style Sheet if they so wish.
pda for mobile phones. Contains Edited Guide only. Articles are cut into sections at headers. Does not contain conversation fora. Notes

Internet encyclopedia project - for similar online projects
Collective
Science humour

TheSoundEx, also known as "The Sound Explosion" are a self-proclaimed Rock n' Soul band from Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
Their self titled debut album was released in March 2005 on the Durham based inde label Captains of Industry. When they were all 20, The Soundex co-headlined The Nokia New School of Rock Tour with The Answer and The Tokyo Dragons. The band have also toured with The Datsuns, Hell Is for Heroes, The Mooney Suzuki, International Noise Conspiracy, Million Dead, The 5678's and The Glitterati.
Early 2005 brought a headline tour, a pilgrimage to Dublin, a brainstorming session with Gordon Raphael who recorded the B-side to Apollo entitled Let It Turn Inside Itself), lots of positive reviews from the press and a nasty bite from the NME. After releasing their debut single "Apollo" in November, the band signed to Red Ink, Sony in January, and completed recording their second album with Paul Reeve in October.

Members

Kit Endean - Guitar + Vocals
Glen Roughead - Guitar + Vocals
Stevey Gibson - Drums
Euan Macfarlane - Bass

Over its history, the BBC has employed many journalists and newsreaders to present its news programmes as well as to provide news reports and interviews. The following list as of August 2007 contains the names of those individuals who for whatever reason are no longer employed by the BBC in its news division BBC News.

B

Stephen Cole - presenter on BBC World and of technical programme Click Online
Alistair Cooke - broadcaster, presented Letter from America until October 2004, he died later in the same month. C

Jill Dando - presenter of BBC News programmes as well as others including Holiday and Crimewatch UK until her murder in 1999.
Sir Robin Day - political broadcaster and commentator, he died in 2000.
Robert Dougall - one of the first BBC Television News newsreaders, together with Richard Baker and Kenneth Kendall. He died in 1999. D

Anna Ford - presenter of the One O'Clock News from 1999 until 2006. She had also worked across other BBC News programmes, having been the first female newsreader at ITN. She left the BBC in 2006 to follow other interests.
Sir David Frost - veteran broadcaster, presented Breakfast with Frost from 1993 to 2005, when he left the corporation. F

Andrew Gilligan - journalist implicated in the Hutton Report of 2003 following his report on BBC Radio 4's The Today Programme regarding the content of a British government briefing paper. Resigned following publication of the report's findings in the same year. G

Andrew Harvey - presenter of main BBC News programme as well as regional news programmes later including BBC Points West and South Today. Left the corporation to join rival ITN.
Philip Hayton - veteran broadcaster, presented the One O'Clock News as well as regional news in the North of England. Presented on BBC World and BBC News 24, resigning from the corporation in 2005 citing "incompatibility" with his new co-presenter Kate Silverton. He had been with the BBC for 37 years. H

Anna Jones - presented the morning 9-1pm shift alongside Phillip Hayton on BBC News 24 from 2003. She had been with the channel since its 1997 launch, originally as a business presenter. She left in 2005, after 12 years at the BBC, to become a presenter on Sky News.
Darren Jordon - originally sports correspondent on BBC News 24, he moved up within the department to present BBC Breakfastand was later deputy presenter of the BBC One O'Clock News and weekend bulletins. He left the corporation in October 2006 to become a main presenter on the Al Jazeera English service, based in Doha. K

Martyn Lewis - was the first presenter of the BBC One O'Clock News when it launched in 1986. He also presented the BBC Six O'Clock News and the BBC Nine O'Clock News. He left BBC News in 1999. P

Valerie Sanderson - was a presenter for BBC News 24 from its 1997 launch until 2003. She presented the 1-4pm shift alongside Bill Turnbull, and later Chris Eakin.
Moira Stuart - presented many of the BBC's main bulletins, including the Six O'Clock News and the Nine O'Clock News, during a long career with the BBC. She was dropped from her weekend slot by the BBC in 2007, leading to accusations of ageism.

Refectories and monastic culture
Refectories varied in size and dimension, based primarily on the wealth and size of the monastery, as well as the period in which the room was built. They shared certain design features. Monks ate at long benches; important officials sat at raised benches at one end of the hall. Outside the refectory usually stood a lavabo, or large basin for hand-washing. Other factors were also largely fixed by tradition. In England, the refectory was generally built on an undercroft (perhaps in an allusion to the upper room in which the Last Supper reportedly took place) on the side of the cloister opposite the church. Benedictine models were generally laid out on an east-west axis, while Cistercian models lay north-south.
Norman refectories could be as large as 160 feet long by 35 feet wide (as is that in the abbey at Norwich). Even relatively early refectories might have windows, but these became larger and more elaborate in the high medieval period: the refectory at Cluny Abbey was lit through thirty-six large glazed windows. That in the twelfth-century abbey at Mont Saint-Michel had six windows, five feet wide by twenty feet high.

Eastern Orthodox

Adams, Henry, Mont Saint-Michel and Chartres. New York: Penguin, 1986.
Fernie, E. C. The Architecture of Norman England. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Harvey, Barbara. Living and Dying in England, 1100-1450. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.
Singman, Henry. Daily Life in Medieval Europe. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Webb, Geoffrey. Architecture in Britain: the Middle Ages. Baltimore: Penguin, 1956.

Harold Pinter, CH, CBE (born 10 October 1930) is an English playwright, screenwriter, poet, actor, director, author, and political activist, best known for his plays The Birthday Party (1957), The Caretaker (1959), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978), and also for his screenplay adaptations of novels by others, such as The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1970), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1980), and The Trial (1993).
The recipient of scores of awards and honorary degrees, Pinter received the Nobel Prize in Literature from the Swedish Academy in December 2005. In its citation, the Academy states that "Harold Pinter is generally regarded as the foremost representative of British drama in the second half of the 20th century."

Biography
Beginning in autumn 1948, for two semesters, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Later that year, he was "called up for National Service," registered as a conscientious objector, was brought to trial twice, and ultimately fined by the magistrate for refusing to serve. He "loath[ed]" RADA, mostly cut classes, and dropped out in 1949. He had a minor role in Dick Whittington and His Cat at the Chesterfield Hippodrome in 1949-50. From January to July 1951, he attended "two terms" at the Central School of Speech and Drama (a constituent college of the University of London since 2005). From 1951-52, he toured Ireland with the Anew McMaster repertory company, playing over a dozen roles; in 1952 he began regional repertory acting jobs in England; and from 1953-54, he worked for the Donald Wolfit Company, King's Theatre, Hammersmith, performing nearly ten roles. From 1954 until 1959, Harold Pinter acted under the stage name David Baron.

Early theatrical training and stage experience
From 1956 until 1980, Pinter was married to Vivien Merchant, a rep actress whom he met on tour, probably best known for her performance in the original film Alfie (1966). Their son, Daniel, was born in 1958. Through the early 70s, Merchant appeared in many of Pinter's works, most notably The Homecoming on stage (1965) and screen (1973). The marriage was turbulent and began disintegrating in the mid-1960s. For seven years, from 1962-69, Pinter was engaged in a clandestine affair with Joan Bakewell, which informed his play Betrayal (1978). According to his own program notes for that play, between 1975 and 1980, he lived with historian Lady Antonia Fraser, wife of Sir Hugh Fraser. In 1975, Merchant filed for divorce.
Chairman of the Gaieties Cricket Club, Pinter has called cricket one of his three great "loves." The other two are "love" (of women) and "writing" (Gussow, Conversations with Pinter 28-29). "Running" (as a teenage sprinter [29]) and "reading" are two other pleasures that he mentions at times in interviews. Pinter is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.

Personal life
Pinter is the author of twenty-nine plays, fifteen dramatic sketches, over twenty-one screenplays and filmscripts for cinema and television, a novel, and other prose fiction and essays, and co-author of two works for stage and radio. Along with the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play for The Homecoming and several other American awards and award nominations, he and his plays have received many awards in the UK and elsewhere throughout the world. His screenplays for The French Lieutenant's Woman and Betrayal were nominated for Academy Awards in the category of "Writing: Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium" in 1981 and 1983, respectively. (See Honors.)
Pinter's first play, The Room, written in 1957, was a student production at the Bristol University directed by (later acclaimed) actor Henry Woolf, who also originated the role of Mr. Kidd in that play (which he reprised in 2001). After his longtime friend Pinter had mentioned that he had an "idea" for a play, Woolf asked him to write it so that he could direct it as part of fulfilling requirements for his postgraduate work. Pinter wrote it in three days. There was also a revival of The Caretaker in the West End.
Late in 2001, Pinter was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus, for which, in 2002, he underwent a successful operation and chemotherapy. During the course of his treatment, he directed a production of his play No Man's Land, wrote and performed in his new sketch "Press Conference" for a two-part otherwise-retrospective program of his dramatic sketches at the National Theatre, and was seen on television in America in the role of Vivian Bearing's father in the HBO film version of Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit. Since then, having become increasingly politically "engaged" as "citizen Pinter", Pinter has continued to write and present politically-charged poetry, essays and speeches, a dramatic collaborative work for radio (Voices), and two new screenplay adaptations of plays by Shakespeare King Lear (unfilmed) and Anthony Shaffer's play Sleuth.

Main career (1957-2005)
On 28 February 2005, in an interview with Mark Lawson on the BBC Radio 4 program Front Row, Pinter announced publicly that he would retire from writing plays to dedicate himself to his political activism and writing poetry: "I think I've written 29 plays. I think it's enough for me. I think I've found other forms now. My energies are going in different directions—over the last few years I've made a number of political speeches at various locations and ceremonies . . . I'm using a lot of energy more specifically about political states of affairs, which I think are very, very worrying as things stand."

Public announcement of retirement from playwriting (2005)
Pinter was an early member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the United Kingdom and supported the British Anti-Apartheid Movement (1959-94), participating in British artists' refusal to permit professional productions of their work in South Africa in 1963 and in subsequent related campaigns). In both his writing and his public speaking, as McDowell observes,
Pinter's precision of language is immensely political. Twist words like "democracy" and "freedom", as he believes Blair and Bush have done over Iraq, and hundreds of thousands of people die. Earlier this year [March 2006], when he was presented with the European Theatre Prize in Turin, Pinter said he intended to spend the rest of his life railing against the United States. Surely, asked chair Ramona Koval, he was doomed to fail? "Oh yes — me against the United States!" he said, laughing along with the audience at the absurdity, before adding: "But I can't stop reacting to what is done in our name, and what is being done in the name of freedom and democracy is disgusting." (Qtd. by McDowell)

Political activism
Pinter was appointed CBE in 1966 and became a Companion of Honour in 2002 (having previously declined a knighthood in 1996). He has also received the 1995 David Cohen Prize for Literature , in recognition of a lifetime's achievement in literature, the 1996 Laurence Olivier Special Award for a lifetime's achievement in the theater; a 2001 World Leaders Award for "creative genius"; the 2004 Wilfred Owen Award for Poetry—"in recognition of Pinter's lifelong contribution to literature, 'and specifically for his collection of poetry entitled War, published in 2003,'" and the Europe Theatre Prize, in recognition of lifetime achievements pertaining to drama and theater (conferred March 2006).
Further information: #Artist and Citizen: 50 Years of Performing Pinter

Honors
On 13 October 2005 the Swedish Academy announced that it had decided to award the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2005 to "Harold Pinter", "who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms."

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2005
In his controversial Nobel Lecture "Art, Truth & Politics", speaking with obvious difficulty while seated in a wheelchair, Pinter distinguishes between the search for truth in art and the avoidance of truth in politics.

Art, Truth & Politics: The Nobel Lecture
In his first public appearance in Britain since he won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature, Pinter participated in "Meet the Author" with Ramona Koval, at the Edinburgh Book Festival, in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the evening of 25 August 2006. Prior to the interview, Pinter read a scene from his play The Birthday Party. (Other recent and "upcoming events" [updated periodically] are listed on the home page of Pinter's official website and through its menu of links to the "Calendar".)

Subsequent interviews, media appearances, and productions (2006 – the present)
Among his other honors, Pinter is the recipient of over fifteen honorary degrees conferred by European and American academic institutions, as well as an Honorary Fellow of the Modern Language Association of America (MLA) (1970). He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Leeds School of English on 13 April 2007.

Pinter and Academia
In 1986, a group of American academic scholars formed the Harold Pinter Society (an Allied Organization of the MLA); members and individual and institutional subscribers receive The Pinter Review: Collected Essays, at first an academic journal and now a biennial book publication published by the University of Tampa Press since 1987.

Artist and Citizen: 50 Years of Performing Pinter
Goldsmiths College, University of London, established the Pinter Centre for Performance and Creative Writing, inaugurated in June 2003, with Harold Pinter as Honorary President. It is "an interdisciplinary research centre, involving principally the Departments of English & Comparative Literature and of Drama, the latter organising and hosting the Centre, and with links in Media and Communications, Music, PACE and the Digital Studios." So far it has planned three conferences, "one on the work of Stephen Sondheim, and another on African Women Playwrights." Its third conference, Ravenhill 10, was a symposium on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the first production of Mark Ravenhill's play Shopping and Fucking (11-12 Nov. 2006). The Pinter Centre will sponsor additional conferences in the future, "including one on Black British Drama and a major conference in 2008 to be entitled, 'Pinter, Postmodernism and Contemporary Writing'."

The Pinter Centre for Performance and Creative Writing

Characteristics of Pinter's work
"That [Harold Pinter] occupies a position as a modern classic is illustrated by his name entering the language as an adjective used to describe a particular atmosphere and environment in drama: 'Pinteresque'" ("Bio-bibliography"), placing him in the company of authors considered unique or influential enough to elicit eponymous adjectives. Susan Harris Smith observes: "The term 'Pinteresque' has had an established place in the English language for almost thirty years. The OED defines it as 'of or relating to the British playwright, Harold Pinter, or his works'; thus, like a snake swallowing its own tail the definition forms the impenetrable logic of a closed circle and begs the tricky question of what the word specifically means" (103). The Online OED (2006) defines Pinteresque more explicitly: "Resembling or characteristic of his plays. . . . Pinter's plays are typically characterized by implications of threat and strong feeling produced through colloquial language, apparent triviality, and long pauses."
"Pinteresque"
Once asked what his plays are about, Pinter lobbed back a phrase "the weasel under the cocktail cabinet", which he regrets has been taken seriously and applied in popular criticism:
Once many years ago, I found myself engaged uneasily in a public discussion on theatre. Someone asked me what was my work 'about'. I replied with no thought at all and merely to frustrate this line of enquiry: 'the weasel under the cocktail cabinet'. This was a great mistake. Over the years I have seen that remark quoted in a number of learned columns. It has now seemingly acquired a profound significance, and is seen to be a highly relevant and meaningful observation about my own work. But for me the remark meant precisely nothing.
"The weasel under the cocktail cabinet"
Among the most-commonly cited of Pinter's comments on his own work are his remarks about two kinds of silence ("two silences"), including his objections to "that tired, grimy phrase 'failure of communication'," as defined in his speech to the National Student Drama Festival in Bristol in 1962, incorporated in his published version of the speech entitled "Writing for the Theatre":
There are two silences. One when no word is spoken. The other when perhaps a torrent of language is being employed. This speech is speaking of a language locked beneath it. That is its continual reference. The speech we hear is an indication of that which we don't hear. It is a necessary avoidance, a violent, sly, anguished or mocking smoke screen which keeps the other in its place. When true silence falls we are still left with echo but are nearer nakedness. One way of looking at speech is to say that it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness. We have heard many times that tired, grimy phrase: 'failure of communication'...and this phrase has been fixed to my work quite consistently. I believe the contrary. I think that we communicate only too well, in our silence, in what is unsaid, and that what takes place is a continual evasion, desperate rearguard attempts to keep ourselves to ourselves. Communicaton is too alarming. To enter into someone else's life is too frightening. To disclose to others the poverty within us is too fearsome a possibility. I am not suggesting that no character in a play can never say what he in fact means. Not at all. I have found that there invariably does come a moment when this happens, when he says something, perhaps, which he has never said before. And where this happens, what he says is irrevocable, and can never be taken back.

"Two silences": a "continual evasion" of "communication"
One of the "two silences"–when Pinter's stage directions indicate pause and silence when his characters are not speaking at all–has become a "trademark" of Pinter's dialogue called the "Pinter pause": "During the 1960s, Pinter became famous–nay, notorious–for his trademark: 'The Pinter pause.'"

The "Pinter pause"

Pinter's cultural influence
A line in "The Ladies Who Lunch", a song in Company, the 1970 Broadway musical by George Furth and Stephen Sondheim, alludes to "a Pinter play."

Some literary allusions to Pinter and his work in Anglo-American popular culture
See main article: Works of Harold Pinter Further information: Works of Harold Pinter#Awards and nominations for plays, Works of Harold Pinter#Awards and nominations for screenwriting, and Works of Harold Pinter#Awards for poetry

Works
One of the actors in Harold Pinter[']s The Birthday Party at the Lyric, Hammersmith, announces in the programme that he read History at Oxford, and took his degree with Fourth Class Honours. Now I am well aware that Mr Pinter[']s play received extremely bad notices last Tuesday morning. At the moment I write these it is uncertain even whether the play will still be in the bill by the time they appear, though it is probable it will soon be seen elsewhere. Deliberately, I am willing to risk whatever reputation I have as a judge of plays by saying that The Birthday Party is not a Fourth, not even a Second, but a First; and that Pinter, on the evidence of his work, possesses the most original, disturbing and arresting talent in theatrical London. . . . Mr Pinter and The Birthday Party, despite their experiences last week, will be heard of again. Make a note of their names.
Pinteresque, adj. (and n.) Brit. /pntrsk/, U.S. /pn(t)rsk/ [< the name of Harold Pinter (b. 1930), British playwright + -ESQUE suffix. Cf. PINTERISH adj.] Of or relating to Harold Pinter; resembling or characteristic of his plays. Also occas. as n. Pinter's plays are typically characterized by implications of threat and strong feeling produced through colloquial language, apparent triviality, and long pauses.

Notes

Baker, William, and John C. Ross. Harold Pinter: A Bibliographical History. London: The British Library and New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll P, 2005. ISBN 1-58456-156-4.
Batty, Mark. About Pinter: The Playwright and The Work. London: Faber and Faber, 2005. ISBN 0-571-22005-3.
Bensky, Lawrence M. "The Art of Theater No. 3: Harold Pinter" (Interview). The Paris Review 39 (Fall 1966). 30 June 2006.
Billington, Michael. The Life and Work of Harold Pinter. 1996; rpt. London: Faber and Faber, 1997. ISBN 0-571-17103-6. Updated 2nd ed. retitled Harold Pinter. London: Faber and Faber, 2007. ISBN 978-0-571-23476-9.
–––. "Passionate Pinter's Devastating Assault On US Foreign Policy: Shades of Beckett As Ailing Playwright Delivers Powerful Nobel Lecture". The Guardian 8 Dec. 2005. 31 July 2006.
–––, comp. "'They said you've a call from the Nobel committee. I said, why?': Harold Pinter in His Own Words". The Guardian 14 Oct. 2005. 31 July 2006.
"Bio-bibliography" for Harold Pinter: The Nobel Prize in Literature 2005. Nobel Foundation and Swedish Academy. NobelPrize.org. Oct. 2005. 31 July 2006.
Bond, Paul. "Harold Pinter's Artistic Achievement". World Socialist Web Site 29 Dec. 2005. 31 July 2006.
Brown, Mark. "What Is It (War) Good for?" Socialist Review Sept. 2003. 31 July 2006.
"Bush and Blair slated by Pinter". BBC News 7 Dec. 2005. 31 July 2006. [Features related links.]
Chrisafis, Angelique, and Imogen Tilden. "Pinter Blasts 'Nazi America' and 'deluded idiot' Blair". The Guardian 11 June 2003.
Eden, Richard, and Tim Walker. "Mandrake: A Pinteresque Silence". Sunday Telegraph 27 Aug. 2006, accessed 31 Aug. 2006.
Freed, Donald. "The Courage of Harold Pinter". Presentation at the conference Artist and Citizen: Fifty Years of Performing Pinter. University of Leeds. 13 April 2007. Online posting. Another America. © Donald Freed, Apr. 2007. Accessed 28 May 2007.
Gardner, M.C. "Harold Pinter's War". Book rev. Another America Journal (Lightning Source, Inc., 2003). Online posting. Another America. Updated May 2007. Accessed May 28, 2007.
Grimes, Charles. Harold Pinter's Politics: A Silence Beyond Echo. Madison & Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson UP; Cranbury, NJ: Associated UP, 2005. ISBN 0-8386-4050-8.
Gussow, Mel. Conversations with Pinter. London: Nick Hern Books, 1994. ISBN 1-85459-201-7. Rpt. New York: Limelight, 2004. ISBN 0-87910-179-2.
Higgins, Charlotte. "Edinburgh Festival: Two-act rant from Sean and Harold". The Guardian 26 Aug. 2006. Accessed 26 Aug. 2006.
Hitchens, Christopher. "Commentary: The Sinister Mediocrity of Harold Pinter". Wall Street Journal 17 Oct. 2005, A18. (Online ed. of this article restricted to subscribers.) The Silver Christopher. Znet 18 Oct. 2005. 4 July 2006.
Howard, Jennifer. "Nobel Prize in Literature Goes to Harold Pinter, British Playwright Widely Studied in Academe". Chronicle of Higher Education 13 Oct. 2006. 8 July 2006.
Koval, Ramona. "Books and Writing with Ramona Koval: Harold Pinter". Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) 15 Sept. 2002. Transcript of interview of Harold Pinter conducted at Edinburgh Book Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland, Aug. 2002.
–––. "Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize-Winning Playwright and Poet, at Edinburgh International Book Festival (transcript available)". The Book Show, Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 25 Sept. 2006. Downloadable audio file (MP3) and printable transcript of interview of Harold Pinter conducted at Edinburgh International Book Festival (transcript available)",] Edinburgh, Scotland, 25 Aug. 2006, The Book Show, Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 25 Sept. 2006, accessed 26 Sept. (The audio file includes Pinter's dramatic reading of a scene from his play The Birthday Party.)
Lawson, Mark. "Pinter 'to give up writing plays'". Interview with Harold Pinter. Incl. "Pinter on Front Row". Broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Online posting. Last updated 28 Feb. 2005. BBC News. (RealPlayer audio.) 11 Nov. 2006.
Lyall, Sarah. "Playwright Takes a Prize and a Jab at U.S." New York Times 8 Dec. 2006. Correction appended 10 Dec. 2005. 1 Aug. 2006. (Site registration required.)
[McDowell, Leslie.] "Book Festival Reviews: Pinter at 75: The Anger Still Burns: Harold Pinter". The Scotsman 26 Aug. 2006: 5. (Updated 27 Aug. 2006.) 31 Aug. 2006.
Merritt, Susan Hollis. Pinter in Play: Critical Strategies and the Plays of Harold Pinter. Paperback ed. 1990; Durham and London: Duke UP, 1995. ISBN 0-8223-1674-9.
–––. "Talking about Pinter". (On the Lincoln Center 2001: Harold Pinter Festival Symposia.) The Pinter Review: Collected Essays 2001 and 2002. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2002. 144-67.
–––, comp. "Harold Pinter Bibliography". The Pinter Review 1987- .
Moss, Stephen. "The Guardian Profile: Harold Pinter: Under the Volcano". The Guardian 4 Sept. 1999. 7 July 2006.
Pilger, John. "The Silence of Writers". ZNet 16 Oct. 2005. 5 July 2006.
Pinter, Harold. Art, Truth & Politics: The Nobel Lecture. Presented on video in Stockholm, Sweden. 7 Dec. 2005. Nobel Foundation and Swedish Academy. NobelPrize.org 8 Dec. 2005. (RealPlayer streaming audio and video as well as text available). London: Faber and Faber, 2006. ISBN 0-571-23396-1 (10). ISBN 9780571233960 (13). Rpt. also in The Essential Pinter. New York: Grove P, 2006, as listed below. Rpt. in Not One More Death. London: Stop the War Coalition, 2006. Rpt. in PMLA (Publications of the Modern Language Association) 121 (2006): 811-18.
–––. "Campaigning Against Torture: Arthur Miller's Socks" (1985). ("Written as a tribute to Arthur Miller, on the occasion of his 80th birthday".) HaroldPinter.org 3 July 2006. Rpt. in Various Voices 56-57.
–––. Death etc. 1990; New York: Grove P, 2005. ISBN 0-8021-4225-7.
–––. The Dwarfs. New York: Grove P, 2006. ISBN 0-8021-3266-9.
–––. The Essential Pinter: Selections from the Work of Harold Pinter. New York: Grove P, 2006. ISBN 0-8021-4269-9. [Incl. "Art, Truth & Politics", Harold Pinter's Nobel Lecture.]
–––. "Evacuees". The Pinter Review: Annual Essays 1994. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1994. 8-13. (First publication of an interview with Pinter conducted by B.S. Johnson in 1968.)
–––. Various Voices: Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948-2005. Rev. ed. 1998; London: Faber and Faber, 2005. ISBN 0-571-23009-1.
–––. War. London: Faber and Faber, 2003. ISBN 0-571-22131-9. (Book rev. by Gardner.)
"Pinter 'to give up writing plays.'" Online posting. BBC News 28 Feb. 2005. 2 July 2006.
"Pinter Wins Nobel Literary Prize". BBC News 13 Oct. 2005. 8 July 2006.
Riddell, Mary. "Comment: Prophet without Honour: Harold Pinter can be cantankerous and puerile. But he is a worthy Nobel prizewinner." The Observer 11 Dec. 2005. 3 July 2006.
–––. "The New Statesman Interview: Harold Pinter". New Statesman 8 Nov. 1999. 1 July 2006. (Limited access.)
Robinson, David. "Books: Doyle Returns to an Old Favourite in New Work; . . . Harold Pinter." The Scotsman 28 Aug. 2006, Living. 28 Aug. 2006.
–––. "I'm Written Out, Says Controversial Pinter". The Scotsman 26 Aug. 2006: 6. 9 Sept. 2006.
Rockley, John. "Neil Pearson Drops in for a Morning Coffee!" BBC Radio Gloucestershire 7 Mar. 2007. 17 Mar. 2007. [Interview with actor Neil Pearson about performing in Old Times at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham, England.]
Rose, Charlie. "A Conversation with Harold Pinter". Interview of Harold Pinter. The Charlie Rose Show WNET-TV (New York City) (Public Broadcasting Service). First broadcast on 19 July 2001 from 11:00 p.m. EST to 12:00 a.m. EST. Also broadcast on PBS affiliate channels at various scheduled times. 58 mins. (3-min. preview video clip posted by copyright owner Charlie Rose on Google.) Full-length streaming video accessible directly from the show's website. Accessed May 30, 2007.
–––. "A Conversation with Harold Pinter". Interview of Harold Pinter. The Charlie Rose Show. WNET-TV (New York City) (Public Broadcasting Service). First broadcast on 1 Mar. 2007 from 11:00 p.m. ET to 12:00 a.m. ET. Also broadcast on PBS affiliate channels at various scheduled times. WXXI-TV (Rochester, New York) (Public Broadcasting Service). Broadcast 1 Mar. 2007 from 11:00 p.m. ET to 12:00 a.m. ET. 52 mins., 21 secs. Full-length streaming video accessible directly from the show's website. Accessed May 30, 2007.
Smith, Susan Harris. "'Pinteresque' in the Popular Press". The Pinter Review: Collected Essays 2003 and 2004. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2004. 103-8.
Sofer, Andrew. "The Cheese-Roll under the Cocktail Cabinet: Pinter's Object Lessons". The Pinter Review: Collected Essays 2003 and 2004. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2004. 29-38.
"Special Report: The Nobel Prize for Literature: 2005 Harold Pinter". The Guardian Dec. 2005. 30 June 2006. 1 Aug. 2006. [Features related links.]
Traub, James. "The Way We Live Now: Their Highbrow Hatred of Us." New York Times Mag. 30 Oct. 2005. 2 July 2006.
Wark,Kirsty. "Harold Pinter on Newsnight Review". BBC Two 23 June 2006. 1 Aug. 2006. "Interviews: Nobel Prize winning playwright Harold Pinter talks to Kirsty". RealPlayer streaming video of program. 25 June, 4 Sept., & 6 Nov. 2006. Further resources

Harold Pinter: Art, Truth & Politics. © Copyright 2006 Illuminations. All Rights Reserved. Transmission Channel 4, 2005. DVD. 46 mins. (Digital video disc and VHS video recording.) Additional essays and speeches by Harold Pinter

"Harold Pinter's Poetry". Authorized official webpage (incl. "Harold Pinter's Most Recent Poetry", periodically updated).
"Poetry by Harold Pinter". Online posting (with permission of author). Another America. Updated May 2007. Accessed May 28, 2007.
Pinter's print publications of his poems in various collections (such as Death etc., The Essential Pinter, The Pinter Review, Various Voices, and War), and related book reviews (such as "Harold Pinter's War", by M.C. Gardner), as listed above in #References and #Works.