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Culture and SocietyCulture and Society

Life As You Have Never Seen It Before

Your English Monthly 2-2011/2012

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The Unbearable Boyfriend

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So, YouÕ ve been going out with Jake for a week

now. HowÕ s it going?

We split*

I donÕ t believe it. The gorgeous

Jake? But you were telling everyone

how mad you were about him.

I know, but he was soooo possessive. He

was always phoning up to see what I

was doing.

Hi, IÕ m at schoolÉ

in a maths lesson.

Hi Jake. What am I doing? Er, IÕm w alking down the

street, and yes I am alone.

Of course I am

wearing a swimming costume.

What else am I supposed* to wear to go

swimming?

I am having dinner with my parents.

What? You want to talk

to my father

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sure?!?

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Yesterday was the last

straw*!Hello?

I wanted to make sure you were still sitting next to meÉ

the last straw: the last in a series of things that makes you become angry, impatient or upsettweetosphere: (neologism) the ‘world’ of Twitter and tweeting

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ContentsUK Today Happy Birthday Charles Dickens!

Report The Art of Love

Made in Britain The Sunday Roast

Green Thinking Berlin – Europe’s Eco-capital

Culture and Society Life As You Have Never Seen It Before

Playstation

TEEN People James Blunt

info@elimagazines.com

WelcomeHello everyone and welcome to the latest edition of TEEN. In this issue you can find out how one of Europe’s oldest cities is becoming one of its most futuristic, sit down to Sunday lunch with the British, celebrate the bicentenary of Charles Dickens and learn how the BBC’s world-famous Natural History* Unit have helped us change the way we see the world.Have fun and learn loads!

Liz

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Around the World

The European Parliament has launched a competition in the ‘tweetosphere’* for Italians living in Spain and Spanish people living in Italy to talk about their experiences of living and working in each others’ countries. This growing group of Italians and Spanish – known as Itagnoles, a mixture of ‘Italian’ and ‘Spagnolo’ – were asked to tweet about their lives. The competition was inspired by Article 8 of the

Can you guess?

During the European Year of Volunteering, the European Union launched a project to encourage people to volunteer right across Europe, working with a huge range of volunteer organisations. Which of the following slogans do you think was used in the UK?

• the comparative superlative

• past passive continuous

• time words and

phrases• idioms• cooking terms• vocabulary of TV

and film making

In this issue look out for:

Answer on page 14.

a Help Us to Help Others

b Volunteer! Make a Difference.

c Europe Volunteers!

#itagnoles

Treaty of Lisbon: “Being a citizen of Europe is in addition to your own nationality and does not replace it”. The aim of the competition is to get people to see themselves as citizens of Europe and not just of their country of birth. The best tweets have been published in an illustrated book called #itagnoles, which explores what it means to belong to two countries at the same time.

Coverphoto: © Shutterstock

This is ‘Grammy’ - he will tell you which parts of English grammar to look out for.

TEEN: Common European Framework - Intermediate Advanced (B2-C1)

Audio CD Teacher’s Notes

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Charles Dickens was born two hundred years ago, on 7th February 1812. In this bicentenary year Britain honours one its best writers with exhibitions, events, new editions and film adaptations of his works. Let’s find out about the great man and why we still love the stories and characters he created.

UK Today

The Writer’s Early LifeDickens was the second of eight children and grew up reading all the books he could find. He does not seem to have had a happy childhood though. He wrote later that he spent a lot of time on his own and was not particularly well cared for.

When Dickens was 12, disaster hit his family. His father, who had always spent more than he could afford, was sent to debtor’s* prison* because he could not pay back money he had borrowed. The rest of the family had to go and live with him in prison, except Charles who was sent to work in a factory where the hours were long and the work tedious* and hard.

Eventually Dickens’ grandmother died, leaving them enough money to pay off their debts, but Charles was left to work in the factory for a number of weeks. He never forgave his mother in particular for this injustice.

Write About What You Know It was his experiences at the bottom of society that gave Dickens one of the most important themes of his work. He described the poverty and inequality he saw around him and the unfairness* of the strict class system of the time. There is a lot of autobiographical detail in his novels

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Glossarycliffhanger: dramatic part of a story which ends before the action is finishedcourt case: legal problem which is discussed in front of a judge and jurydebtor: someone who owes moneyinstallments: (here) parts, sectionsleap: jumpmiser: someone who loves money and never spends it prison: you are sent here to stay if you have committed a crime tedious: very boringunfairness: not fair or justworkhouse: (Victorian England) place where poor people were sent to live – rather like a prison

Answers on page 14.

Put the following quotes by Charles Dickens into the correct order.

1. nothing better / with

chocolate. / There is / unless it is

a friend / than a friend,

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.....................................................

.....................................................

2. there would be. / no good

lawyers / no bad people / If

there were,

.....................................................

.....................................................

.....................................................

3. From Oliver Twist: sir, / some

more. / Please, / I want

.....................................................

.....................................................

Want to know more?To find out about Dickens events and exhibitions planned across the world go to: www.dickens2012.org and their Twitter account: @Dickens2012The Museum of London has a special exhibition about Dickens in London: www.museumoflondon.org.uk

Great ExpectationsWatch out for a new film version of Dickens’ masterpiece, due for release later in 2012. It stars Helena Bonham Carter (the Red Queen in Alice, Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter) as Miss Havisham and Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort – Harry Potter, among many other films) as Magwitch, the man who changes Pip’s life.

Characters So Alive They BreatheAnd who are these favourite characters? The orphan Oliver Twist who survives the workhouse* and life in a criminal gang run by the unforgettable Fagin and the Artful Dodger; Pip, the hero of Great Expectations and Miss Havisham still wearing

her wedding dress 20 years after a wedding that never happened; and Scrooge, the miser* in A Christmas Carol who is transformed after he is visited by terrifying ghosts.

Dickens’ WorldDickens’ descriptions of poverty in Victorian England were so powerful that we still use the adjective ‘Dickensian’ to describe similar conditions today. He described a world that most Victorians preferred to ignore, and in that he played an important part in changing attitudes to the poor. And if we could bring Dickens back to life in these times of austerity would he see a different world? Well, we don’t have workhouses or debtors prisons and we do have a welfare state which gives us free healthcare and money if we are unemployed, but he would probably be quite shocked at the number of British children who even today live in poverty.

But before you decide never to read Dickens because he sounds too serious – stop! The best reason for reading Dickens is his humour. The characters and situations leap* off the page because they are funny and as Dickens himself wrote in A Christmas Carol, “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.”

– one of the reasons his novels feel so alive.

Charles eventually got a good education and worked as a journalist covering court cases* for newspapers. Here too he found a lot of material for his novels. Many of Charles Dickens’s novels were published in magazines in installments*. Dickens knew exactly how to make his readers want more by leaving each episode on a cliffhanger*. People had to wait a whole month before finding out what had happened to their favourite character.

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Love is one of the best things about being human – our ability to create works of art is another; and since earliest times, artists and writers have been using art to try and describe what love is. As we celebrate Valentine’s Day, we look at some of the world’s best-loved works of art on love… in all its forms.

Report

The Art of Lovein many of his works. In Chagall’s colourful world, lovers float* above the rooftops like characters in a Russian folktale, held together in a powerful embrace.In his famous painting, The Lovers of Vence, he portrays a young man and woman deeply* in love, exchanging a gift of flowers. Through its use of bright colours and strong imagery, Chagall’s work expresses happiness and optimism, while its use of fantastic imagery gives it a strong lyrical* quality.

The Music of BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist during the nineteenth century and he is still one of the most popular classical composers today. His music is part of the Romantic Movement and explores many kinds of love.Brahms wrote his famous Lullaby* (Op. 49, no. 4) in 1868. Known as The Wiegenlied, it was written to celebrate the birth of a friend’s child. Brahms’s simple melody has been used by generations of parents to sing their children to sleep – and has become a symbol of a parent’s love for their child.

Sculpture: Cupid and PsycheCupid and Psyche is a perfect representation of the neo-classical ideal of love. The work of Italian sculptor Antonio Canova at the end of the Eighteenth Century, the sculpture’s full title is Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss.The sculpture is made from smooth*, white marble and depicts Cupid bringing Psyche back to life with a tender kiss. The subject is

Theatre: Romeo and JulietWilliam Shakespeare’s tragedy was first performed around 1595. It is still one of the most popular and most frequently performed love stories over four hundred years later. Shakespeare’s play is set in Verona, in northern Italy, and tells the dramatic story of two young people, Romeo and Juliet. Against the wishes of their feuding* families, Romeo and Juliet fall in love, with tragic consequences. In their struggle* to be free to love each other, these two young people have become a symbol of perfect love.

Film: CasablancaThis classic black and white film, directed in 1942 by Michael Curtiz, is one of cinema’s greatest romances. Humphrey Bogart plays the hero of this powerful love story, and his performance made him one of the most famous actors in the world.Casablanca is story of selfless* love. Bogart’s character, Rick Blaine, thinks he has found the love of his life in Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), until she leaves him. He moves to Morocco to forget her, but some time later, Ilsa and her Czech husband (a freedom fighter) escape to Casablanca. Although still in love with Ilsa, Blaine helps her husband to escape arrest. The film won three Oscars.

Art: The Lovers of VenceRussian-French Jewish artist Marc Chagall explored the subject of lovers

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“Swan Lake” by Peter Tchaikovsky

“Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare

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Glossary

deeply: (here) very stronglyfeuding: strong disagreement between two families over a long timefloat: move on surface of water or through the airlullaby: song to help children get to sleeplyrical: poeticselfless: when you think of other people before yourself; opposite of selfishsmooth: flat; opposite of roughstruggle: fight, difficultytricked: (here) deceived, eg when you believe a lie

The Art of Lovetaken from The Golden Ass, a play by 2nd century Latin writer Apuleius.

Ballet: Swan LakeSwan Lake has been a favourite ballet since it was first performed in the Nineteenth Century. Written by the Russian composer Tchaikovsky, Swan Lake is a classic tale of good versus evil. It tells the story of Odette who has been transformed into a swan by an evil sorceror. The only way for her to break the spell and become human again is through love. The hero Siegfried falls in love with her, but is tricked* by the sorceror so that Odette can never be free. Russian ballet dancer, Rudolf Nureyev, gave several legendary performances as Siegfried.

Poetry: Jacques PrévertJacques Prévert was born in France in 1900 and is considered one of

Answer on page 14

Puzzle

Use a mirror to read the start of ‘This Love’, a poem by France’s most famous poet - Jacques Prévert!

THISLOVESOVIOLENTSOFRA-GILESOTENDERSODESPERA-TETHISLOVEASBEAUTIFULA-STHEDAYASBADASTHEWE-ATHERWHENTHEWEATHERI-SBADTHISLOVESOTRUETHI-SLOVESOBEAUTIFUL

the most important love poets of the French-speaking world and beyond. His poems speak of love as the only salvation for the world, though the love he describes is often characterised by suffering and pain.One of his best-known poems, Les enfants qui s’aiment (Children Who Love) talks of a love which knows no bounds, which is free, wonderful and spontaneous.

Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in “Casablanca”

“Cupid and Psyche” by Antonio Canova

Johannes Brahms

Jacques Prévert

“The Lovers of Vence” by Marc Chagall

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It’s Sunday lunchtime in winter, so that means everyone in Britain is sitting down to a traditional roast, right? Well, not everyone. In fact, recent research shows that the number of adults having Sunday lunch together has gone down from 12.5 million at the beginning of the sixties to only 6 million today. So, what has happened?

Made in Britain

‘Friday Night’ is the New ‘Sunday Lunch’It would seem that many British people are now having their most important ‘family meal’ on Friday nights. Families and friends are getting together at home to celebrate the end of the working week and they are much more likely to have a curry, pizza or fajitas than a roast dinner. In many cases, with long working hours and busy modern lives, this might be the only meal of the week that parents and children eat together.

Sunday Roast Revival*So, does that mean the end of the traditional Sunday lunch? No, is the simple answer. More and more studies have been showing how important it is for both children and adults to eat together as a family, and Sunday lunch is the perfect opportunity to do that. As a result, the meal is coming back into fashion, particularly in the south of the country. Celebrity chefs can often be seen on TV giving a new twist* to the traditional recipes, and more and more pubs and restaurants are offering a roast* on Sundays.

What Makes a Sunday Roast?The central element is the meat. The idea was that the meat could be put in the oven in the morning, the family would go to church and then the meat would be ready by the time they got back home.The meat is usually roast beef, pork, chicken or lamb, all of which are served with a savoury* sauce, called gravy, roast potatoes and a variety of other things depending on which meat you have. Roast lamb will be eaten with

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The Sunday Roast

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a mint* sauce, pork has apple sauce and chicken is usually stuffed with a mixture of sage*, onion and breadcrumbs. The most famous combination is of course roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

Yorkshire PuddingOriginally made as a cheap way to fill you up if you couldn’t afford much meat, Yorkshire pudding is almost always served with roast beef. Here’s how you make it.Preheat your oven to a very hot 220°C. Put 50g of fat (a mixture of butter and oil works well, though pure animal fat is best) into a 20 cm x 30 cm baking tin* and put it in the oven to heat the fat.

Next, make the batter*. Mix 100g of plain white flour and a pinch of salt with a beaten egg. Now, gradually and carefully, add 250ml of milk, stirring all the time to remove any lumps*. Finally add 25g of melted butter.

When the fat in the pan is so hot it is smoking, put the batter in the tin and put it in the oven. After 30 minutes, turn the oven down to 200°C and cook for another 15 minutes. The pudding should be golden and crispy and it goes perfectly with roast beef!

It’s time for tea!

Find 9 meal-time words in the wordsearch below and them match them with the correct definition below. The letters that are left will tell you the UK’s favourite way to start the day!

What do you think these popular British dishes are?

1 Toad-in-the-hole 2 Bangers and mash3 Bubble and squeak4 Jam roly poly5 Bread and butter pudding

batter: name given to mixture of flour, water and egglumps: (here) solid pieces of flourmint: plant with strong flavour often used to make tea and in cookingrevival: bringing something back into fashion, back to liferoast: (here) colloquial name for roast dinner/lunchsage: aromatic herb often used in cooking meatsavoury: not sweettin: metal container for cooking things in an oventwist: (here) surprise, new unexpected idea

1. ________________ first meal of the day

2. ________________ light meal eaten around 11 a.m. consisting of tea and biscuits

3. ________________ light cooked meal eaten mid-morning usually because you have got up too late to have breakfast

4. ________________ midday meal

5. ________________ light meal eaten around 16.30-17.30, consisting of a cup of tea and cakes, scones or biscuits, often for children when they come home from school

6. ________________ light evening meal consisting of sandwiches, cold meats and cake or other dessert (old fashioned)

7. ________________ main evening meal

8. ________________ light meal eaten at any time of the day

9. ________________ late evening meal

SAFTERNOONTEACOLNOBREAKFASTKEDBUAREAKELEVENSESNCSUPPERDINNERASCKHIGHTEABRUNCHTH

Answers on page 14.

Glossary

Berlin EuropeÕ s Eco-capital

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Germany already has a reputation* for taking green issues seriously and soon its capital city will be even greener! Berlin has announced* hugely* ambitious plans to be Europe’s ‘electric capital’ by 2020. So how are they planning to achieve* this, and in only 8 years?

Green Thinking

change over*. They will also help garages and petrol stations who install* charging stations. Electric cars are almost silent, and because they are battery-driven they do not produce gases such as carbon dioxide – Berlin’s biggest source of pollution.

Green eMotionBerlin is one of a handful* of cities across Europe taking part in a European

100,000 Electric Cars Berlin has always been one of those places which loves change and innovation – its plans for the future are going to change the city forever. Berlin is investing in Electromobility – that is, the use of electric motors in cars, buses and so on, and its city government has promised to get 100,000 electric cars onto the city’s streets by 2020. That’s only 8 years away! In order to reach this ambitious target, the city will be building a network* of ‘charging stations’ where you can plug in your car to recharge its batteries. Electric cars are still more expensive than traditional petrol-driven cars, so Berlin is hoping that a combination of advertising campaigns and financial incentives will get people to

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Berlin EuropeÕ s Eco-capital

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Commission project called Green eMotion. The project will invest €42 million to encourage more towns and cities to go electric, for example by contributing towards the cost of installing charging stations for electric cars. Green eMotion is a joint* project between the European Commission and leading European industries, car manufacturers, universities, as well as research and technology institutes.

Leafy GreenIn and around its historic streets, Berlin has hundreds of public parks. In fact, the city has a total of 2500 green spaces open to the public, where you can go to relax, do some sport or just have fun. With over 425,000 trees lining its streets and filling its parks Berlin really is green in the true sense of the word! In fact over 60% Berlin is green open space, making it one of the greenest cities in the whole of Europe.

The Answer is Blowing on the Wind We all know that electric cars are a great idea, but you still have to find ways to make the electricity to

power them. Over the coming decades, Germany plans to completely stop using nuclear power and to use renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, to make electricity instead. The number of wind farms on Germany’s North Sea Coast will be increased, existing wind farms will be expanded and new ones built on land and at sea.The district of Brandenburg near Berlin already has a large number of wind wind turbines and photovoltaic solar plants, all of which are providing increasing amounts of renewable energy.

How Are the Car-Loving Americans Doing?US President Barack Obama has promised to get a million electric cars onto the streets of America by 2015. To overcome* the difficulties of changing over from petrol-driven to electric, people who buy electric cars will pay less tax. The US is investing in research to improve electric car batteries and is going to install charging stations in cities across the country.

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Glossaryachieve: succeedannounced: made known publiclychange over: make the change (from one thing to another)

Answer on page 14.

In February, Berlin hosts the Berlin International Film Festival. What is the name of the festival’s most prestigious prize? Fill in the spaces below and find out!

Mini-Crossword

1. What is the colour of the future? 2. The surname of the US president. 3. Capital city of Germany. 4. A group of wind turbines is called a

_____________? 5. European project: Green ____________? 6. The energy of the past? 7. Electric cars use this. 8. Wind and solar are two types of what kind

of energy? 9. Americans will pay less what if they buy

electric?10. We are all trying to reduce emissions

of what?

handful: small numberhugely: extremely, veryinstall: (here) buildjoint: (here) groupnetwork: interconnected points (eg computers linked together)reputation: is known for

12 Culture and Society

Life As you Have Never Seen

It Before

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Glossaryblockbuster: ambitious film or TV projectboundaries: edges, frontierscruel: opposite of kindframe: single image in a filmground-breaking: innovative, done for the first timeinspiring: having a strong and positive emotional effectinstrumental: (here) helped in a significant wayprinciple: scientific idea, theorysequences: part of a film which shows a particular event, like a chapter in a bookunit: department

Life on EarthLife on Earth was the Unit’s first big wildlife ‘blockbuster’*. The programme traced the story of evolution and gave us a new understanding of the complexity of life on our planet. First broadcast in the late 70s, the series was seen by 500 million people across the world. Life on Earth was followed by many other successful series, including the recent Blue Planet and Planet Earth.One of the most famous episodes in Life on Earth shows presenter David Attenborough playing with rare mountain gorillas in Rwanda. This piece of film helped raise global awareness that these gorillas were nearing extinction.

Frozen PlanetThe BBC’s current series is Frozen Planet, exploring the Arctic and Antarctic. As David Attenborough explains in his introduction, with ice continuing to melt as global temperatures rise, it might be the last time we get to see these frozen wildernesses before they are changed forever.These BBC documentaries show us the fierce, sometimes cruel*, beauty of our planet. If you don’t believe in the principle* of the survival of the fittest just watch while one animal catches and eats another that didn’t run fast enough!

High-tech DedicationThe dedication of the film crews who work on the BBC documentaries has become legendary. Each series takes a long time to make – Frozen Planet took four years to film! The crews often spend hundreds of hours

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Frozen Planet Quiz

1. How many days did the crew spend filming outside?

a 2356 b 1892 c 1543

2. How many hours did they spend

filming under the ice in water temperatures as low as –2C?

a over 50 b over 90 c over 130

3. How many days did the film crew

spend in temperatures under –15C? a 305

b 425 c 495 Answers on page 14.

If you like watching programmes about wildlife then there is a good chance you have seen documentaries made by the BBC. The BBC has a specialist Natural History Unit*, based in Bristol, which only makes wildlife programmes, and is the biggest wildlife documentary producer in the world. Their ground-breaking* programmes have been inspiring* millions of people in the UK and across the planet.

in the most extreme conditions and remote locations just to get a shot of a rare event or species. They also put themselves in danger, getting close to killer whales or leopard seals in the freezing waters of the Arctic, or venomous snakes and the world’s most powerful predators.

Ultra Slow MotionAs well as pushing the boundaries* in film technique, the Natural History Unit have also been instrumental* in pushing forward film technology. The latest in filming technology is ultra slow motion (slowmo). This gives us the chance to see things that simply happen too fast for the human eye and brain to take in.

So how does it work? Sequences* are filmed at a fast frame* rate (around 1,000 fps or frames per second) and then played back at a normal rate of around 24 fps. The action appears slowed down so we can see much more of what is happening. The latest high-speed cameras can reach tens of thousands of frames per second.

What’s coming up?The Natural History Unit are currently filming a series on the wildlife of Africa – what the BBC call ‘the greatest wildlife continent on Earth’, a three-part documentary on the wildlife of Arabia, and the habits of nocturnal animals – filmed using high-tech military night vision equipment. For the past fifty years, the BBC’s Natural History Unit has been giving us new insights into our amazing planet. What will the next fifty years look like?

Life As you Have Never Seen

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Have you read the TEEN report on art and love? Then find the answers to the clues below and complete the crossword!

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1. Mythical winged creature, symbol of The People’s Republic of China.2. Greece’s mythical firebird.3. A tall yellow, Spring flower; National flower of Wales.4. The kangaroo, koala and emu are the national animals of which country?5. This extinct bird is the national symbol of Mauritius.6. The bear and the double-headed eagle are the symbols

of this Eurasian nation.7. This leaf is the national symbol of Canada; you get a

sweet syrup from the tree.

National SymbolsMany countries around the world use animals or plants as their national symbols. Fill in the gaps and discover the national symbol of England.

1. Composer of Swan Lake.

2. The floating lovers were painted by Marc ________________

3. Who brings Psyche back to life?

4. Home country of romantic composer and artist above.

5. Tragic heroine in love with Romeo.

6. The patron saint of lovers.

7. Name of good swan in Swan Lake

8. Surname of Humphrey.

9. Psyche is brought back to life with a _______________

Crossword

AnswersP 2-3: Can you guess?: b). P 4-5 Dickens Quotes: 1 There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate. 2 If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers. 3 From Oliver Twist: Please, sir, I want some more. P 6-7 Mirror Poem: This love, So violent, So fragile, So tender, So desperate, This love, As beautiful as the day, As bad as the weather, When the weather is bad, This love so true,This love so beautiful. P 8-9 British Food: 1 Sausages in a Yorkshire pudding batter cooked in the oven; 2 Fried sausages and mashed potato; 3 Fried cabbage and potato (onomatopo eic name describing the sound the food makes while it cooks); 4 Round steamed pudding with jam in the middle; 5 Dessert made with slices of bread spread with butter, which is covered in an egg and milk mixture and baked in the oven. British Meal Times: 1 breakfast, 2 elevenses, 3 brunch, 4 lunch, 5 afternoon tea, 6 high tea, 7 dinner, 8 snack, 9 supper: favourite way to start the day is with a cooked breakfast (though because it consists of eggs, bacon, sausages, fried tomatoes, fried mushrooms and fried bread, most people only eat this occasionally!). P 10-11 Mini-crossword: 1 green; 2 Obama; 3 Berlin; 4 wind farm; 5 eMotion; 6 nuclear; 7 battery; 8 renewable; 9 tax; 10 carbon: Golden Bear. P 12-13 Frozen Planet Quiz: 1 A. 2356; 2 C. Over 130; 3 B. 425. P 14 Crossword: 1 Tchaikovsky; 2 Chagall; 3 Cupid; 4 Russia; 5 Juliet; 6 Valentine; 7 Odette; 8 Bogart; 9 Kiss. National Symbols: 1 dragon; 2 phoenix; 3 daffodil; 4 Australia; 5 Dodo; 6 Russia; 7 Maple leaf: The symbol of England is a red rose. Answers below

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It’s not exactly a traditional career path*, but James Blunt has gone from being an officer in the British army to a world-famous singer-songwriter. His talent as a musician and his distinctive* voice have made his romantic songs a massive* hit with audiences and critics right across the globe*.

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James Blunt and Elton John were among the guests at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton last year.

Soldier and Musician James Hillier Blount, better known as James Blunt, is an English singer-songwriter. He was born in 1974 in Tidworth, near London, studied at Bristol University, and then went to the UK’s prestigious military training college, Sandhurst, to train as an officer. He was following in his father’s footsteps (his father was a colonel) and his whole family has a strong military tradition. He was made a captain in the British army and served in Kosovo as part of the peace-keeping force*. It was while he was there that he wrote the song No Bravery about his experiences of war. One of his last jobs in the British Army was in the Queen’s ceremonial guard at Buckingham Palace. After leaving the army, he started focussing on his music and after only a year he got his first recording contract, with Custard Records.

The Success of Back to BedlamHis third single, You’re beautiful, made James Blunt world famous. The song became number one in the UK, beating Coldplay! The last time a British artist sold more records than Coldplay was Elton John back in 1997.His fame and success began to spread right around the world. He went on tour in America and was invited to appear on the influential* Oprah Winfrey Show. After that, he went on to even greater success, selling 14 million records in only three years and winning many music awards, from the Brit Awards to the MTV Awards. This level of success can be compared to Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run, which sold 13 million copies thirty years ago.

Living the LifeJames Blunt lives in Ibiza, where he moved after starting to write his second album All the Lost Souls, which was released in 2007. The songs for that album were written during the winter of 2006 in Ibiza, which he chose because it was quiet, and tranquillity was exactly what he needed after his busy touring schedule*. His music is a combination of pop, folk and romantic rock and his voice is described as passionate and gentle. Not only can James sing, but he is also a talented musician and can play a wide variety of instruments, from the guitar to the mellotron*. ‘Being able to play live is the best bit of my job,’ he says. ‘I love playing my songs with the band because the energy that is created between us and the people watching us is just incredible!’

Musical InfluencesSome people have said that James Blunt is the UK’s first real singer-songwriter since Donovan in the Sixties, but he says this simply isn’t true. ‘The UK has some amazing songwriters but they are not known as singer-songwriters because they play in a band; like Chris Martin from Coldplay or Tom Yorke of Radiohead. There’s also Damien Rice who helped start me off as a singer-songwriter!’He grew up listening to Queen and Dire Straits, but when he was fourteen he heard Nirvana’s Nevermind and that was when he picked up a guitar and began to play.

James Blunt

www.jamesblunt.com

Glossarycareer path: jobs you do through your life (usually dictated by your studies and experience)distinctive: different from other people, easy to recogniseglobe: worldinfluential: person

who affects/changes people’s opinionsmassive: huge, enormousmellotron: an electro-mechanical keyboardpeace-keeping force: army used to maintain peace, often in a civil warschedule: timetable