Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz (born 26 November 1956) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester East for 32 years, from 1987 to 2019. He was the British Parliament's longest-serving British Asian MP.

Vaz served as the Minister for Europe between October 1999 and June 2001. He was appointed a member of the Privy Council in June 2006. He was Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee from July 2007, but resigned from this role on 6 September 2016 after the Sunday Mirror revealed he had engaged in unprotected sexual activity with male prostitutes and had said he would pay for cocaine if they wished to use it.

At the end of October 2016, Vaz was appointed to the Justice Select Committee; a parliamentary vote to block his appointment was defeated. On 10 November 2019, he said in a statement that he was retiring from Parliament and would not be standing for re-election at the general election the following month.

Early and personal life
Keith Vaz was born in the British crown colony of Aden, on 26 November 1956, to Anthony Xavier and Merlyn Verona Vaz. The Vaz family hailed from Goa, now an Indian state, which accounts for his Goan-Portuguese surname. Vaz is a distant relative of Saint Joseph Vaz, a 17th-century missionary. He moved to England with his family in 1965, settling in Twickenham.

His father, previously a correspondent for The Times of India, worked in the airline industry, while his mother held jobs both as a teacher and simultaneously part-time in Marks & Spencer. Vaz's father took his own life when Vaz was 14. Merlyn Vaz moved to Leicester when her son was selected as prospective parliamentary candidate for the Leicester East constituency. She was elected to Leicester City Council as a Labour councillor and served on the council for 14 years.

While in Aden, Vaz was educated at St Joseph's Convent. In England, he attended Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith, followed by Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he read Law. He graduated from Cambridge University with a BA first-class Honours degree (1979), later promoted to MA (1987).

Vaz has two sisters, Valerie (b. 1954), who has been the MP for Walsall South since 2010, and Penny McConnell, who is a solicitor. He lives in London with his wife, Maria Fernandes, and their two children, a son and a daughter.

Early career
Before his political career, Vaz was a practising solicitor. In 1982, he was employed as a solicitor to Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council; and later as a senior solicitor to the London Borough of Islington. He was selected as the prospective Labour candidate for the Leicester East constituency in 1985. At that time, he found a job in Leicester as a solicitor at the City Council-funded Highfields and Belgrave Law Centre. He remained in this role until his election to Parliament in 1987.

Political career
Vaz has been a Labour party member since 1982. In 1983, Vaz stood in the general election as the Labour candidate in the Conservative-Liberal marginal Richmond and Barnes constituency, coming third with a swing away from Labour of 4.3% compared with a national average swing away of 9.3%. He stood as the Labour candidate in the European Parliament election in 1984 for Surrey West, coming third.

On 11 June 1987, Vaz was elected as the Member of Parliament for Leicester East by defeating the sitting Tory MP Peter Bruinvels with a majority of 1,924. Three other Labour Party Black Sections members, Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant, entered the House of Commons at the same election.

Vaz was re-elected in 1992 (majority of 11,316), 1997 (majority of 18,422), 2001 (majority of 13,442), 2005 (majority of 15,867), 2010 (majority of 14,082), 2015 (majority of 18,352) and 2017 (majority of 22,428).

Vaz has held a variety of parliamentary posts. Between 1987 and 1992, he was a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, of which he was the Chair from July 2007 to September 2016. Between 1993 and 1994, he was a member of the Executive Committee Inter-Parliamentary Union. Finally, between December 2002 and July 2007, Vaz acted as a senior Labour Member of the Select Committee for Constitutional Affairs.

In 1992, Vaz was given the role of Shadow Junior Environment Minister with responsibility for planning and regeneration, his first frontbench role. He remained in this position until 1997, when he was given his first Government post as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Attorney General and Solicitor General. Vaz then served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Department between May and October 1999. This was quickly followed by his appointment as the Minister for Europe, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He served in this position from October 1999 and June 2001.

Other positions he held included as an elected member of the National Executive Committee and as the Vice-Chair of Women, Race and Equality Committee of the Labour Party. He held both of these positions since March 2007. Since 2000, he has been a patron of the Labour Party Race Action Group and in 2006 he was appointed the Chairman of the Ethnic Minority Taskforce.

Vaz was also appointed to a public bill committee, which held its first meeting on 15 November 2016, looking at the Criminal Finances Bill which aimed to tackle money laundering and corruption.

Vaz signed several early day motions sponsored by David Tredinnick MP supporting the continued funding of homoeopathy on the National Health Service.

Vaz supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour leadership election. He is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.

Controversies

Rushdie affair

In March 1989, Vaz, a Roman Catholic, led a march of several thousand Muslims in Leicester calling for Salman Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses to be banned, describing the march as "one of the great days in the history of Islam and Great Britain".  According to Rushdie's autobiography Joseph Anton, Vaz had a few weeks earlier promised his "full support" to Rushdie, describing the fatwa against him as "absolutely appalling".

Leicester IRA attack

In February 1990, after the Provisional Irish Republican Army carried out a bombing attack against a British Armed Forces recruiting centre in Leicester, Vaz caused public outrage by publicly suggesting that the military might have planted the bomb.

Filkin inquiry
In February 2000, the Parliamentary standards watchdog Elizabeth Filkin began an investigation after allegations that Vaz had accepted several thousand pounds from a solicitor, Sarosh Zaiwalla, which he had failed to declare. The allegations were made by Andrew Milne, a former partner of Zaiwalla, and were denied by both Vaz and Zaiwalla. He was censured for a single allegation – that he had failed to register two payments worth £4,500 in total from Zaiwalla. Vaz was accused of blocking Filkin's investigation into the allegations.

Hinduja affair
In January 2001, immigration minister Barbara Roche revealed in a written Commons reply that Vaz, along with Peter Mandelson and other MPs, had contacted the Home Office about the Hinduja brothers. She said that Vaz had made inquiries about when a decision on their application for citizenship could be expected.

On 25 January, Vaz had become the focus of Opposition questions about the Hinduja affair and many parliamentary questions were tabled, demanding that he fully disclose his role. Vaz said via a Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) spokesman that he would be "fully prepared" to answer questions put to him by Sir Anthony Hammond, QC, who had been asked by the Prime Minister to carry out an inquiry into the affair.

Vaz had known the Hinduja brothers for some time; he had been present when the charitable Hinduja Foundation was set up in 1993, and also delivered a speech in 1998 when the brothers invited Tony and Cherie Blair to a Diwali celebration.

On 26 January 2001, Conservative MP John Redwood accused Prime Minister Tony Blair of prejudicing the independent inquiry into the Hinduja passport affair, after Blair declared that the FCO minister Keith Vaz had not done "anything wrong".  On the same day, Vaz told reporters that they would "regret" their behaviour once the facts of the case were revealed. "Some of you are going to look very foolish when this report comes out. Some of the stuff you said about Peter, and about others and me, you'll regret very much when the facts come out", he said. When asked why the passport application of one of the Hinduja brothers had been processed more quickly than normal, being processed and sanctioned in six months when the process can take up to two years, he replied, "It is not unusual."

On 29 January, the government confirmed that the Hinduja Foundation had held a reception for Vaz in September 1999 to celebrate his appointment as the first Asian Minister in recent times. The party was not listed by Vaz in House of Commons register of Members' Interests, and  Redwood, then head of the Conservative Parliamentary Campaigns Unit, questioned Vaz's judgement in accepting the hospitality.

In March, Vaz was ordered to co-operate fully with a new inquiry launched into his financial affairs by Elizabeth Filkin. Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, Vaz's superior, also urged him to answer fully allegations about his links with the Hinduja brothers. Vaz met Filkin on 20 March to discuss a complaint that the Hinduja Foundation had given £1,200 to Mapesbury Communications, a company run by his wife, in return for helping to organise a Hinduja-sponsored reception at the House of Commons. Vaz had previously denied receiving money from the Hindujas, but said that he made no personal gain from the transaction in question.

In June 2001, Vaz said that he had made representations during the Hinduja brothers' applications for British citizenship while a backbench MP. Tony Blair also admitted that Vaz had "made representations" on behalf of other Asians.

On 11 June 2001, Vaz was dismissed from his post as Europe Minister, to be replaced by Peter Hain. The Prime Minister's office said that Vaz had written to Tony Blair stating his wish to stand down for health reasons.

In December 2001, Filkin cleared Vaz of failing to register payments to his wife's law firm by the Hinduja brothers, but said that he had colluded with his wife to conceal the payments. Filkin's report said that the payments had been given to his wife for legal advice on immigration issues and concluded that Vaz had gained no direct personal benefit, and that Commons rules did not require him to disclose payments made to his wife. She did, however, criticise him for his secrecy, saying, "It is clear to me there has been deliberate collusion over many months between Mr Vaz and his wife to conceal this fact and to prevent me from obtaining accurate information about his possible financial relationship with the Hinduja family".

Suspension from House of Commons
In 2002, Vaz was suspended from the House of Commons for one month after a Committee on Standards and Privileges inquiry found that he had made false allegations against Eileen Eggington, a former policewoman. The committee concluded that "Mr Vaz recklessly made a damaging allegation against Miss Eggington to the Commissioner, which was not true, and which could have intimidated Miss Eggington or undermined her credibility".

Eggington, a retired police officer who had served 34 years in the Metropolitan Police, including a period as deputy head of Special Branch, wanted to help a friend, Mary Grestny, who had worked as personal assistant to Vaz's wife. After leaving the job in May 2000, Grestny dictated a seven-page statement about Mrs Vaz to Eggington in March 2001, who sent it to Filkin. Grestny's statement included allegations that Mr and Mrs Vaz had employed an illegal immigrant as their nanny, and that they had been receiving gifts from Asian businessmen such as the Hinduja brothers. The allegations were denied by Vaz, and the Committee found no evidence to support them.

In late 2001, Vaz complained to Leicestershire Police that his mother had been upset by a telephone call from "a woman named Mrs Egginton", who claimed to be a police officer. The accusations led to Eggington being questioned by police. Vaz also wrote a letter of complaint to Filkin, but when she tried to make inquiries Vaz accused her of interfering with a police inquiry and threatened to report her to the Speaker of the House of Commons. Eggington denied that she had ever telephoned Vaz's mother and offered her home and mobile telephone records as evidence. The Commons committee decided that she was telling the truth. They added: "Mr Vaz recklessly made a damaging allegation against Miss Eggington, which was not true and which could have intimidated Miss Eggington and undermined her credibility."

A letter to Filkin from Detective Superintendent Nick Gargan made it plain that the police did not believe Vaz's mother ever received the phone call and the person who came closest to being prosecuted was not Eggington but Vaz. Gargan said that the police had considered a range of possible offences, including wasteful employment of the police, and an attempt to pervert the course of justice. Leicestershire Police eventually decided not to prosecute. "We cannot rule out a tactical motivation for Mr Vaz's contact with Leicestershire Constabulary but the evidence does not support further investigation of any attempt to pervert the course of justice."

The complaints the committee upheld against Vaz were:

 That he had given misleading information to the Standards and Privileges Committee and Filkin about his financial relationship to the Hinduja brothers.
 That he had failed to register his paid employment at the Leicester Law Centre when he first entered Parliament in 1987.
 That he had failed to register a donation from the Caparo group in 1993.

It was concluded that Vaz had "committed serious breaches of the Code of Conduct and showed contempt for the House" and it was recommended that he be suspended from the House of Commons for one month.

Vaz was represented by his solicitor Sir Geoffrey Bindman.

Nadhmi Auchi
In 2001, it was revealed that Vaz had assisted Anglo-Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi in his attempts to avoid extradition to France. Opposition MPs called for an investigation into what one dubbed "Hinduja Mark II".

Auchi was wanted for questioning by French police for his alleged role in the notorious Elf Aquitaine fraud scandal which led to the arrest of a former French Foreign Minister. The warrant issued by French authorities in July 2000 accused Auchi of "complicity in the misuse of company assets and receiving embezzled company assets". It also covered Auchi's associate Nasir Abid and stated that, if found guilty of the alleged offences, both men could face 109 years in jail.

Vaz was a director of the British arm of Auchi's corporation, General Mediterranean Holdings (GMH), whose previous directors had included Lords Steel and Lamont, and Jacques Santer. Vaz used his political influence on GMH's behalf; this included a party in the Park Lane Hilton to celebrate the 20th anniversary of GMH on 23 April 1999, where Lord Sainsbury presented Auchi with a painting of the House of Commons signed by Tony Blair, the Opposition leaders, and over 100 other leading British politicians. Lord Sainsbury later told The Observer that he did this "as a favour for Keith Vaz". In May 1999, Vaz resigned his post as a director after he was appointed a Minister. In a statement to The Observer, a GMH spokesman said that Vaz had been invited to become a GMH director in January 1999, yet company accounts showed Vaz as a director for the financial year ending December 1998.

Labour confirmed in May 2001 that Auchi had called Vaz at home about the arrest warrant to ask him for advice. A spokesman said that Vaz "made some factual inquiries to the Home Office about the [extradition] procedure." This included advising Auchi to consult his local MP. The spokesman stressed that Vaz acted properly at all times and was often contacted by members of Britain's ethnic communities for help. In a Commons answer to Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker earlier the same month Vaz confirmed that "details of enquiries by Mr Auchi have been passed to the Home Office".

Campaign against video game violence
Following the February 2004 murder of a fourteen-year-old boy, Vaz asked for an investigation of the relationship between the video games and violence, saying the parents of the victim believed that the killer was influenced by the video game Manhunt. Although the police dismissed the claim and the only copy found belonged to the victim, Tony Blair said the game was unsuitable for children and agreed to discuss with the Home Secretary what action could be taken.
The sequel, Manhunt 2, described by the British Board of Film Classification as "distinguishable ... by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone", became the first video game banned by the BBFC in the UK for 10 years. Vaz said: "This is an excellent decision by the British Board of Film Classification, showing that game publishers cannot expect to get interactive games where players take the part of killers engaged in 'casual sadism' and murder."

Vaz has also criticised Bully, which had a pre-release screenshot showing three uniformed pupils fighting and kicking. In 2005, he asked Geoff Hoon: "Does the leader of the house share my concern at the decision of Rockstar Games to publish a new game called Bully in which players use their on-screen persona to kick and punch other schoolchildren?"  Due to the controversy surrounding the Bully title, the game was released in the UK in 2006 under an alternative name, Canis Canem Edit, though the original title was restored when the game was re-released in 2008. Both releases of the game were rated 15 by the BBFC and were generally positively received by critics.

In October 2010, Vaz put down an early day motion noting that the 2009–10 Malmö shootings "have been associated with the violent video game Counter-Strike". The EDM also noted that the game had been previously banned in Brazil and also been associated with US College Campus massacres in 2007. It called on the Government to ensure the purchase of video games by minors was controlled and that parents were provided with clear information on any violent content.

Home Affairs Select Committee
In July 2007, Vaz was elected as the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee. Select committee members are usually proposed by the Committee of Selection which, under the Standing Orders of the House, nominates members to select committees, but unusually Vaz was the only nomination made by Harriet Harman, Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal. Harman argued that this was because there was not sufficient time to go through the usual procedure before the impending summer recess. The Chairman of the Committee of Selection told the House that the Committee had been ready to meet earlier that week, but had been advised by the Government that there was no business for it to transact. Vaz replaced John Denham on 26 July 2007. Vaz was re-elected to the Committee's chairmanship in June 2015.

Speculation over Counter-Terrorism Bill
Vaz's backing for the 42-day terrorist detention without charge "was seen as crucial by the Government".
During the debate on 10 June 2008, the day before the key vote, Vaz was asked in Parliament whether he had been offered an honour for his support. He said: "No, it was certainly not offered—but I do not know; there is still time."
The Daily Telegraph printed a hand written letter to Vaz, written the day after the vote, then Chief Whip Geoff Hoon wrote:

Vaz wrote to the Press Council complaining the story was inaccurate, that the letter had been obtained by subterfuge and that he had not been contacted before the story was published. The complaint was rejected as the article made it clear that the reports of an honour were just speculation which Vaz had already publicly denied.

Conflict of interest

In September 2008, Vaz faced pressure to explain why he failed to declare an interest when he intervened in an official investigation into the business dealings of a close friend, solicitor Shahrokh Mireskandari, who has played a role in several racial discrimination cases against the Metropolitan Police, and who was representing Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur in his racial discrimination case against Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Ian Blair.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority began an investigation into Mireskandari's legal firm, Dean and Dean, in January 2008 after a number of complaints about its conduct. Vaz wrote a joint letter with fellow Labour MP Virendra Sharma to the authority's chief executive, Anthony Townsend, in February 2008 on official House of Commons stationery. He cited a complaint he had received from Mireskandari and alleged "discriminatory conduct" in its investigation into Dean and Dean. The Authority was forced to set up an independent working party to look into whether it had disproportionately targeted non-white lawyers for investigation.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Vince Cable said that Vaz should make a public statement to clear up his role in the affair. "It is quite unreasonable that an independent regulator should have been undermined in this way. I would hope that the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee will give a full public statement."

Detention without charge inquiry
In September 2008, Vaz came under pressure when it was revealed that he had sought the private views of Prime Minister Gordon Brown in connection with the Committee's independent report into government plans to extend the detention of terror suspects beyond 28 days. The Guardian reported that emails suggested that Vaz had secretly contacted the Prime Minister about the committee's draft report and proposed a meeting because "we need to get his [Brown's] suggestions". An email was sent in November 2007 to Ian Austin, Gordon Brown's parliamentary private secretary, and copied to Fiona Gordon, at the time Brown's political adviser. Another leaked email showed that Vaz had also sent extracts of the committee's draft report to the former Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, for his comments; according to Parliament's standing orders, the chairman of the Select Committee cannot take evidence from a witness without at least two other committee members being present.

Shami Chakrabarti, then director of human rights group Liberty, compared it to a judge deciding a case privately emailing one of the parties to seek their suggestions.

Vaz denied that he invited Brown to contribute, except as a witness to the committee.

Other issues and incidents since 2008

Parliamentary expenses
Vaz's total expenses of £173,937 in 2008/2009 were ranked 45th out of 647 MPs, with office running costs and staffing costs accounting for 70% of this. The register of Member's interests shows that he owns the constituency office. His second home expenses, ranked 83 out of 647 at £23,831 in 2008/2009 were the subject of a Daily Telegraph article. Vaz who lives in Stanmore, a 45-minute journey time from Parliament, claimed mortgage interest on a flat in Westminster he bought in 2003.

In May 2007, after claiming for the flat's service and council tax, he switched his designated second home to his constituency office and bought furniture. The report into the Parliamentary expenses scandal by Sir Thomas Legg showed that 343 MPs had been asked to repay some money and Vaz was asked to repay £1514 due to furnishing items exceeding allowable cost. New expenses rules published by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority which came into force after the 2010 general election limit the second home allowance to £1,450 a month, i.e. the Westminster cost of renting a one bedroomed flat. Profits made on existing second homes will be recouped.

Patrick Mercer affair
Vaz was one of the members of the Commons who agreed to be on the all-party parliamentary group on Fiji proposed by Patrick Mercer MP, as part of his paid advocacy for lobbyists. Mercer was recorded describing Vaz as "a crook of the first order", adding that he had "never met an operator like him ... I mean it's not always completely ethical but it's stunning, he is an operator". Such comments on Vaz and on other politicians were a reason for the Committee on Standards deciding that Mercer had brought the House of Commons into disrepute.

2015 election campaign loudspeaker use

In April 2015, a video showing Vaz speaking using loudspeakers from a campaign car caused a row with Leicester Conservatives. Using a loudspeaker on the street is an offence that carries a penalty of up to £5,000, and there is no exemption for political campaigning.

The incident was investigated by noise pollution officers of Leicester City Council, with officials confirming in June that it was illegal but that no action would be taken.

Male prostitute revelations
Allegations about Vaz were published by the British tabloid Sunday Mirror in early September 2016. It was reported that he had engaged in unprotected sexual activity with male prostitutes and had told them he would pay for cocaine if they wished to use it. He told the prostitutes that his name was Jim and that he was an industrial washing machine salesman. Vaz later apologised for his actions. "It is deeply troubling that a national newspaper should have paid individuals who have acted in this way", he said. Vaz resigned as chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee on 6 September 2016.

At the end of October 2016, Vaz was appointed to the Justice Select Committee, after he had put himself forward and was nominated by his party. A House of Commons motion to block this development was defeated; motions of this kind are rare. According to Laura Hughes of The Daily Telegraph, Conservative Party whips told their MPs to vote for Vaz in the division to prevent a precedent being created of such appointments being rejected by MPs. Over 150 Conservative MPs voted in support of Vaz. The Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen asked in the chamber of Vaz; "If the right honourable member for Leicester East found himself last month to be not fit to be chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee and the matters are unresolved, what makes him think that he is a fit and proper person this month?"

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Hudson, announced an investigation into Vaz's conduct. The Standards Commissioner's investigation was halted "for medical reasons" in December 2017. The inquiry recommenced in March 2018 and, in October 2019, under the stewardship of the new Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Stone, the inquiry recommended that Keith Vaz be suspended from Parliament for six months. The inquiry report confirmed that, in her memorandum, the Commissioner had concluded "... it is more likely than not that Mr Vaz has engaged in paid sexual activity" and there was "evidence of Mr Vaz's apparent willingness to purchase controlled drugs for others to use". The Commissioner's memorandum also concluded Vaz "shows disregard for the law and that, in turn, is disrespectful to the House and fellow Members, who collectively are responsible for making those laws. Mr Vaz's conduct has also been disrespectful of the House's system of standards. He has not "co-operated at all stages" with the investigation process. He has failed, repeatedly, to answer direct questions; he has given incomplete answers and his account has, in parts, been incredible". On 31 October 2019, MPs voted in favour of the suspension.

Bullying allegations
Allegations were published in August 2018 by BBC's Newsnight that a former Clerk of the House of Commons, Jenny McCullough, was bullied by Vaz as she was trying to uphold the Standards of the House. Among other allegations, McCullough alleged that Vaz made jokes about her being a security threat, on account of her Northern Irish background and accent. In September 2021, Parliament's standards commissioner and the Independent Expert Panel found the allegations to be credible, saying the bullying "was hostile, sustained, harmful and unworthy of a Member of Parliament"; the Panel concluded that Vaz should never be given a Parliamentary pass again.

Daman, India - Indigenous land clearing

Valuable seafront land along the 700 metre stretch from Moti Daman Lighthouse to Jampore beach is claimed to be owned by indigenous tribal fishing communities who have lived there for generations, as well as by NRI Damanese predominantly living in Leicester. In December 2018, local residents received documents instructed by State Administrator Praful Khoda Patel ordering the confiscation of their land and demolition of homes to make way for development. With 11,000 Damanese living the Leicester East constituency, members of the community appealed to Keith Vaz, who flew out to Daman to meet Praful Patel. In January 2019 Vaz reported back:

"I believe that Mr Patel has a vision for Daman and he wants to develop it as a tourist and education centre. I was particularly impressed by the commitments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in order to enhance the development of Daman. Mr Patel promised that there would be no further demolitions until after the court has made its ruling and that he would talk to me about any further matters concerning this issue. I welcomed his constructive and positive approach."

However, by November, the bulldozing went ahead and the  Daman protests began. On 3 November 2019, Daman Collector Rakesh Minhas issued a Section 144 order banning peaceful assembly of four or more persons, slogan-shouting and the use of loudspeakers across the entire district and ordered the conversion of two highschools into 'temporary jails'. 70 protesters were held in these 'temporary jails' and another 8 arrests were made. Few of the adivasi fisherfolk were rehoused whilst most languished traumatised and homeless on the streets near the rubble of their razed homes. , the site is now billionaire Binod Chaudhary of CG Corp Global's Fern Seaside Luxurious Tent Resort, offering tent accommodation to tourists for £57 per night.

Resignation from Parliament
Following the vote in October 2019 by MPs to endorse Vaz's suspension in the wake of the preceding scandals, the Daily Telegraph published an article asking: "Why is Keith Vaz even in Parliament?" The article noted that: "He resigned as a minister in 2001, was suspended in 2002, named in the 2009 expenses scandal... His ability to survive certainly suggests something in our democratic system is broken."

On 10 November 2019 Vaz released a statement that he was retiring from Parliament. His six-month suspension meant he would have faced an automatic contested re-selection before standing for re-election.

After Parliament
He was elected chairman of the Leicester East constituency Labour Party (CLP) in January 2020.

In 2020, Vaz said of a petition entitled "Remove the Gandhi statue in Leicester", alleging that Mahatma Gandhi was a "fascist, racist and sexual predator", "This is a dreadful petition that seeks to divide communities in Leicester and in the country. If this is not withdrawn I will certainly refer it to the police to consider whether it incites racial hatred."

References

External links

1956 births
Living people
21st-century Roman Catholics
Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
British Roman Catholics
English people of Indian descent
Aden emigrants to England
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Labour Friends of Israel
English LGBT politicians
LGBT members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
People educated at Latymer Upper School
People from East Sheen
People from Twickenham
British people of Goan descent
UK MPs 1987–1992
UK MPs 1992–1997
UK MPs 1997–2001
UK MPs 2001–2005
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019

Keith Vaz


Frank Lucas (September 9, 1930 – May 30, 2019) was an American drug lord who operated in Harlem, New York City, during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was known for cutting out middlemen in the drug trade and buying heroin directly from his source in the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia. Lucas boasted that he smuggled heroin using the coffins of dead American servicemen, as depicted in the feature film American Gangster (2007), which fictionalized aspects of his life. This claim is denied by his Southeast Asian associate Leslie "Ike" Atkinson.

In 1976, Lucas was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 70 years in prison, but after becoming an informant, he and his family were placed in the Witness Protection Program. In 1981, his federal and state prison sentences were reduced to time served plus lifetime parole. In 1984 he was convicted on drug charges, and was released from prison in 1991. In 2012, he pled guilty to attempting to cash a $17,000 federal disability benefit check twice, and because of his age and poor health, received sentence of five years' probation.

Early life
Lucas was born and raised in La Grange, North Carolina, a suburb of Goldsboro, North Carolina, to Fred and Mahalee () Lucas, He said the incident that motivated him to embark on a life of crime was him witnessing his 12-year-old cousin's murder at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, for looking flirtatiously at a white woman. He drifted through a life of petty crime until one occasion when he got into a fight with a former employer with whose daughter he had been having an affair. In the fight, Lucas hit the father on the head with a pipe, knocking him unconscious. He then stole $400 from the company safe and set the establishment on fire. Later, Frank fled to New York City at the behest of his mother, who feared that he would either be imprisoned for life or lynched. Once in Harlem, he quickly began indulging in petty crime and pool hustling before he was taken under the wing of gangster Bumpy Johnson. Lucas' connection to Johnson has since come under some doubt; he claimed to have been Johnson's driver for 15 years, although Johnson spent just five years out of prison before his death in 1968. According to Johnson's widow, much of the narrative that Lucas claimed as his actually belonged to another young hustler named Zach Walker, who lived with Johnson and his family and later betrayed him.

Criminal career
After Johnson's death, Lucas traveled around and came to the realization that, to be successful, he would have to break the monopoly that the Mafia held in New York. Traveling to Bangkok, Thailand, he eventually made his way to Jack's American Star Bar, an R&R hangout for black soldiers. Here that he met former U.S. Army sergeant Leslie "Ike" Atkinson, who was from Goldsboro, North Carolina, and married to one of Lucas' cousins. Lucas is quoted as saying, "Ike knew everyone over there, every black guy in the Army, from the cooks on up."

When interviewed for a New York magazine article published in 2000, Lucas denied putting the drugs among the corpses of American soldiers. Instead, he flew with a North Carolina carpenter to Bangkok and:

However, Atkinson, nicknamed "Sergeant Smack" by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), has said he shipped drugs in furniture, not caskets. Whatever method he used, Lucas smuggled the drugs into the United States with this direct link from Asia. Lucas said that he made $1 million per day selling drugs on 116th Street though this was later discovered to be an exaggeration. Federal judge Sterling Johnson, who was the Special Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of New York at the time of Lucas' crimes, called Lucas' operation "one of the most outrageous international dope-smuggling gangs ever, an innovator who got his own connections outside the U.S. and then sold the narcotics himself in the street."

Lucas trusted only relatives and close friends from North Carolina to handle his various heroin operations. Lucas thought they were less likely to steal from him and be tempted by various vices in the big city. He stated his heroin, "Blue Magic", was 98–100% pure when shipped from Thailand. Lucas has been quoted as saying that his worth was "something like $52 million", most of it in Cayman Islands banks. Added to this is "maybe 1,000 keys [kilograms; or, 2,200 pounds] of dope on hand" with a potential profit of no less than $300,000 per kilo (2.2 lbs.).

This huge profit margin allowed him to buy property all over the country, including office buildings in Detroit and apartments in Los Angeles and Miami. He also bought a ranch of several thousand acres in North Carolina on which he ranged 300 head of Black Angus cattle, including a breeding bull worth $125,000.

Lucas rubbed shoulders with the elite of the entertainment, political, and criminal worlds, stating later that he had met Howard Hughes at one of Harlem's best clubs in his day. Though he owned several mink and chinchilla coats and other accessories, Lucas much preferred to dress casually and corporately so as not to attract attention to himself. When he was arrested in the mid-1970s, all of Lucas' assets were seized.

Arrests and releases
In January 1975, Lucas' house in Teaneck, New Jersey, was raided by a task force consisting of 10 agents from Group 22 of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and 10 New York Police Department detectives attached to the Organized Crime Control Bureau (OCCB). In his house authorities found $584,683 in cash, though Lucas contended that the officers executing the search departed with the full eleven million dollars temporarily stored in his attic, and documented only 5% of the currency seized. He was later convicted of both federal and New Jersey state drug violations. Thanks to nearly two years of detective work by the "Z-Team" (Eddie Jones, Al Spearman, and Benny Abruzzo) Frank Lucas was sentenced to 70 years in prison. Once convicted, Lucas provided evidence that led to more than 100 further drug-related convictions. For his safety in 1977, Lucas and his family were placed in the witness protection program. In 1981, after five years in custody, his 40-year federal term and 30-year state term were reduced to time served plus lifetime parole. In 1984, he was caught and convicted of trying to exchange one ounce of heroin and $13,000 for one kilogram of cocaine. He received a sentence of seven years and was released from prison in 1991. In 2012, while living in Newark, he pleaded guilty to attempting to cash a $17,000 federal disability benefit check twice. Due to his advanced age and his poor health, which included his restriction to a wheelchair, prosecutors agreed to a sentence of five years' probation.

Depictions in media

American Gangster (2007)
Lucas' life was dramatized in the Universal Pictures crime film American Gangster (2007), in which he was portrayed by Denzel Washington. Lucas was often on set during the filming providing advice, on how he carried his gun, for example.

In an interview with MSNBC, Lucas expressed his excitement about the film and amazement at Washington's portrayal, though he admitted only a small portion of the film was true, much of it fabricated for narrative effect. In addition, Lucas's former defense lawyer Richie Roberts criticized the film for portraying him in a custody battle while in real life Roberts never had a child. He also criticized the portrayal of Lucas as a seemingly noble individual.

Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. described the film as "one percent reality and ninety-nine percent Hollywood." In addition, Johnson described the real-life Lucas as "illiterate, vicious, violent, and everything Denzel Washington was not." Former DEA agents Jack Toal, Gregory Korniloff, and Louis Diaz filed a lawsuit against Universal, saying the events in the film were fictionalized and that the film defamed them and hundreds of other agents. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed by U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon. McMahon noted the intertitle at the end of the film was "wholly inaccurate", in that Lucas' cooperation did not lead to the convictions, and admonished, "It would behoove a major corporation like Universal (which is owned by a major news organization, NBC) not to put inaccurate statements at the end of popular films." She stated the film failed to meet legal standards of defamation because it failed to "show a single person who is identifiable as a DEA agent."

Many of Lucas' other claims, as presented in the film, have also been called into question, such as his being the right-hand man of Bumpy Johnson, rising above the power of the Mafia and Nicky Barnes, and being the mastermind behind the Golden Triangle heroin connection of the 1970s. Ron Chepesiuk, a Lucas biographer, said there was no evidence to confirm Lucas' claim that he once (in 2008, and not frequently, as some sources had suggested) used coffins to ship heroin. Associated Press entertainment writer Frank Coyle noted, "[T]his mess happened partially because journalists have been relying on secondary sources removed from the actual events."

The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
Lucas appears as a minor supporting character in the Warner Bros. Pictures/New Line Cinema/HBO Films co-production The Many Saints of Newark (2021). The film, a prequel to the HBO crime drama series The Sopranos, features Lucas (Oberon K.A. Adjepong) giving advice to upcoming mobster Harold McBrayer (Leslie Odom Jr.).

Television
 American Gangster, season 2, episode 5, featured Lucas.
 The Gangland episode "American Gangster" (November 1, 2007) features Lucas, Nicky Barnes, and The Council drug syndicate.
 Lucas was featured in the third episode of the first season of the Netflix documentary series Drug Lords, in which he told his side of the story.

Personal life

Lucas' wife, Julie Farrait, was also convicted for her role in her husband's criminal enterprise and spent five years in prison. After she was released, the couple lived separately for some years, and Farrait moved back to Puerto Rico. After several years, however, they reconciled, and according to a December 2007 Village Voice article, had been married for 40 years at the time.

Lucas fathered seven children. Lucas-Sinclair entered the witness protection program with Lucas in 1977. He started a website, Yellow Brick Road, containing resources for the children of imprisoned parents.

Lucas was known to be eclectic in his religious preferences, having converted to the Catholic faith while at prison in Elmira, which he stated he did because the prison chaplain assisted inmates being released on parole. He had Baptist affiliations as well.

Final years and death
In his last years, Lucas was confined to a wheelchair due to a car accident that broke his legs.

Lucas died at the age of 88 on May 30, 2019, in Cedar Grove, New Jersey.

See also
Frank Matthews (drug trafficker)
Louis Diaz

References

External links

Dateline NBC Producer describes sitting down for breakfast with Frank Lucas
Susannah Cahalan, "Ganging up on movie's lies", ''New York Post, November 4, 2007
American Gangster movie site

1930 births
2019 deaths
African-American Catholics
African-American gangsters
American gangsters
American drug traffickers
American crime bosses
Criminals from North Carolina
Criminals from Manhattan
Gangsters from New York City
People from La Grange, North Carolina
People from Harlem
People from Teaneck, New Jersey
People who entered the United States Federal Witness Protection Program
Federal Bureau of Investigation informants
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American people

Frank Lucas


Lee Toong Leon, better known as Leon Lee, is a Malaysian businessman, public speaker and entrepreneur based in Penang, Malaysia. He is the founder and current CEO of Zeon Properties Group, a Malaysian property consultancy firm with more than 500 personnel and agents in Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia. Leon has been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (Pingat Kelakuan Terpuji) in 2016 and the Meritorious Service Medal (Pingat Jasa Kebaktian) in 2010 by Penang State Governor, Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas for his services to the state. A King Scout since 2000, Leon also received the National King Scout's Merit Award in 2010.

Early life
Leon was born in George Town, Penang, Malaysia on 29 March 1982. He attended Penang Chinese Girls Primary School and Chung Hwa Confucian High School. Leon obtained his bachelor's degree in Computer Science from University of Northumbria at Newcastle.

Career
After graduating with his degree, Leon founded Zeon Computer (M) Sdn Bhd, a chain of IT stores providing IT supplies and solutions. The business spread to 5 branches all over Malaysia, employing more than 30 people and was eventually bought over by a public listed company.

He founded Zeon Properties in Penang in November 2012 and is the current CEO. It is positioned as a real estate agency that helps clients invest, sell, or lease residential and commercial properties in the market. Besides real estate and marketing, the company also specialises in real estate investment advisory, foreign direct investment, international project marketing, retail and planning consultancy. It sources for the best property and infrastructure opportunities, and works with investment partners to fund investment opportunities. It is also involved in the Malaysia My Second Home programme, property development and management, offering the best of services with the highest professionalism and efficiency to help enhance the property value over time. Just a year after the founding of Zeon Properties, Leon successfully negotiated with the publisher of the largest English daily in Malaysia - Star Media Group Berhad - and became the event partner of the corporation's long-running property fair, StarProperty.my Fair. After teaming up with Star Media Group for four years, Leon moved on to work with Guang Ming Daily, one of the largest northern region Chinese newspaper in Malaysia, to hold the Guang Ming Property Fair in 2017. Ten property developers rode the week-long fair to promote their projects, while Zeon Properties provided a myriad of entertainment to keep the attention of the crowd, including a cheongsam fashion show and live entertainment performances. Wanting to offer a plethora of properties for buyers to choose from, Leon negotiated with property developers and as of 2017, became the marketing partner of more than 90 property projects.

He was one of the earliest property marketing consultants in Penang to predict and measure the impact of vital infrastructure and transport links to the state's property sector, pointing to a doubling of property prices near the second Penang bridge in 2014: "In 2007, a terrace house in Batu Maung was worth about RM700,000. But now, a similar unit is priced at RM1.4mil".

Leon has been a keynote speaker at various international events including SP Setia's event in Singapore, The Star Property Fair and Guang Ming Property Fair. He has been featured in multiple international publications including Wall Street Select, Daily Herald and Digital Journal.

Leon is also the founder of Auto Mall in Penang.

Social life
Intertwining his social life with business networking, Leon currently serves the Consul-General of the People's Republic of China in Penang as its consular protection liaison officer. He is also the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese Youth Committee member. He has also been appointed as the Committee Member and Youth Committee Deputy Chief of Sichuan Overseas Exchange Association of the People's Republic of China.

He is a National Council Member of the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Malaysia (ACCCIM) Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce, National Chairman of the ACCCIM Young Entrepreneurs Committee, chairman of the Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce (PCCC) Young Entrepreneurs Section, PCCC General committee member and was head of property management of the Property Development, Construction and Management Committee.

He is the Deputy chairman of ASEAN Retail-Chains & Franchise Federation and Vice President of Penang's Fort Cornwallis 1786.

In 2018, he completed a Ministerial Workshop on "Forging Closer Partnership to implement 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda for Developing Countries", which was sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce, People's Republic of China. The same year also saw him being elected as the chairman of the Penang Scouts Council for the 2018–2020 term.

In 2017, he took part in the Youth Entrepreneurs Economy Workshop organised by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council at Beijing University.

He was the founder and first organising chairman of the Top 50 Enterprise Awards 2007 of the Young Entrepreneurs Association of Malaysia. He went on to become the association's Penang chairman.
He was also the president of Junior Chamber International United Penang in 2008. He is State Adviser of Malaysia Entrepreneurs Development Association and was its Penang chairman from 2010 to 2014.

Of note is the Zeon Charity Club, where he and his team launch social work from contributing to religious institutions to hosting birthday lunches and annual feasts in an old folks home in Penang and also distributing meals to the homeless at the gates of the Goddess of Mercy Temple in Jalan Masjid Kapitan Kling, George Town.

References

Other websites

Living people
Malaysian businesspeople
1982 births
People from Penang

Lee Toong Leon


Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford,  (born 17 August 1949), known professionally as Julian Fellowes, is an English actor, novelist, film director, screenwriter, and Conservative peer.
He is primarily known as the author of several Sunday Times bestseller novels; for the screenplay for the film Gosford Park, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2002; and as the creator, writer and executive producer of the multiple award-winning ITV series Downton Abbey (2010–2015).

Early life and education
Fellowes was born into a family of the British landed gentry in Cairo, Egypt, the youngest of four boys, to Peregrine Edward Launcelot Fellowes (1912–1999) and his British wife, Olwen Mary (née Stuart-Jones). His father was a diplomat and Arabist who campaigned to have Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, restored to his throne during World War II. His great-grandfather was John Wrightson, a pioneer in agricultural education and the founder of Downton Agricultural College. Peregrine's uncle was Peregrine Forbes Morant Fellowes (1883–1955), Air Commodore and DSO.

Fellowes has three older brothers: Nicholas Peregrine James, actor; writer David Andrew; and playwright Roderick Oliver. The siblings' childhood home was at Wetherby Place, South Kensington, and afterwards at Chiddingly, East Sussex, where Fellowes lived from August 1959 until November 1988, and where his parents are buried.

The house in Chiddingly, which had been owned by the whodunit writer Clifford Kitchin, was within easy reach of London where his father, who had been a diplomat, worked as an executive for Shell. Part of Fellowes' formative years were also spent in Nigeria, where his father helped run Shell operations during the transition from the colonial era to Nigeria's Independence. Fellowes has described him as one "of that last generation of men who lived in a pat of butter without knowing it. My mother put him on a train on Monday mornings and drove up to London in the afternoon. At the flat she'd be waiting in a snappy little cocktail dress with a delicious dinner and drink. Lovely, really."

The friendship his family developed with another family in the village, the Kingsleys, influenced Fellowes. David Kingsley was head of British Lion Films, the company responsible for many Peter Sellers comedies. Sometimes "glamorous figures" would visit the Kingsleys' house. Fellowes said that he thinks he "learnt from David Kingsley that you could actually make a living in the film business."

Fellowes was educated at several private schools in Britain, including Wetherby School, St Philip's School (a Catholic boys school in South Kensington) and Ampleforth College, which his father had preferred over Eton. He read English Literature at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was a member of Footlights. He graduated with a 2:1. He studied further at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Career

Television
Fellowes moved to Los Angeles in 1981 and played a number of small roles on television for the next two years, including a role in Tales of the Unexpected. He believed that his breakthrough had come when he was considered to replace Hervé Villechaize as the assistant on the television series Fantasy Island, but the role went to actor Christopher Hewett instead. He was unable to get an audition for the Disney film Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (1985) in Los Angeles, but was offered the role when he was visiting England. When he asked the film's director why he was not able to get an interview in Los Angeles, he was told that they felt the best actors were in Britain.

After this, Fellowes decided to move back to England to further his career, and soon played a leading role in the 1987 TV series Knights of God as Brother Hugo, the "ambitious and ruthless second-in-command" of a futuristic military cult.  Subsequently, in 1991 he played Neville Marsham in Danny Boyle's For the Greater Good and Dr. Jobling in the 1994 BBC adaptation of Martin Chuzzlewit. Other notable acting roles included the role of Claud Seabrook in the acclaimed 1996 BBC drama serial Our Friends in the North and the 2nd Duke of Richmond in the BBC drama serial Aristocrats. He portrayed George IV as the Prince Regent twice: first in the film The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982) and the second in the 1996 adaptation of Bernard Cornwell's novel Sharpe's Regiment, as well as playing Major Dunnett in Sharpe's Rifles. He also played the part of Kilwillie on Monarch of the Glen. He appeared as the leader of the Hullabaloos in the television adaptation of Arthur Ransome's Coot Club, called Swallows and Amazons Forever!.

Aside from acting, he launched a new series on BBC One in 2004, Julian Fellowes Investigates: A Most Mysterious Murder, which he wrote and introduced onscreen. He was the presenter of Never Mind the Full Stops, a panel game show broadcast on BBC Four from 2006 to 2007. He created the hugely successful and critically acclaimed period drama Downton Abbey for ITV1 in 2010. He won a Primetime Emmy for outstanding writing and a Broadcasting Press Guild award for writing Downton Abbey. He wrote a new Titanic miniseries that was shown on ITV1 in March–April 2012.

In April 2015, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Fellowes was at work on a new period drama series for NBC television, to be set in late 19th-century New York City, entitled The Gilded Age. Fellowes suggested that a younger version of Maggie Smith's Dowager Countess character from his Downton Abbey drama might appear in the new series, saying: "Robert Crawley would be in his early teens, Cora would be a child. A young Violet [the Dowager Countess] could make an appearance." As the title suggests, the series would be set during the time of America's so-called Gilded Age – the industrial boom era in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries – and portray the upper echelons of New York's high society during that period.

Production and writing for The Gilded Age was updated in January 2016 indicating that filming would start at the end of 2016. As reported in RadioTimes: "NBC's The Gilded Age is set to start shooting later this year, Fellowes tells RadioTimes.com. Asked whether he'd written the script yet, Fellowes replied, 'No I haven't, no. I'm doing that this year', before adding: 'And then hopefully shooting at the end of the year.'"

In April 2016, it was announced that Fellowes would be the producer of The Gilded Age when it was reported that Fellowes is "about to begin writing The Gilded Age for NBC, a sort of American Downton about fortunes made and lost in late 19th century New York, which he will also produce."

On 4 June 2016, Fellowes was asked by The Los Angeles Times, "Where does The Gilded Age stand?" Fellowes replied,
It stands really with me up to my neck in research, and I'm clearing the decks, so that when I start Gilded Age, I'm only doing Gilded Age. These people were extraordinary. You can see why they frightened the old guard, because they saw no boundaries. They wanted to build a palace, they built a palace. They wanted to buy a yacht, they bought a yacht. The old guard in New York weren't like that at all, and suddenly this whirlwind of couture descended on their heads. The newcomers redesigned being rich. They created a rich culture that we still have – people who are rich today are generally rich in a way that was established in America in the 1880s, '90s, 1900s. It was different from Europe. Something like Newport would never have happened in any other country, where you have huge palaces, and then about 20 yards away, another huge palace, and 20 yards beyond that another huge palace. In England right up to the 1930s, when people made money, they would buy an estate of 5,000 acres and they'd have to look after Nanny. The Americans of the 1880s and '90s didn't want too much of that.

In August 2016, Fellowes indicated that his plans for The Gilded Age would not overlap substantially with the characters in Downton Abbey since most of them would have been children in those earlier "prequel" decades. Writing for Creative Screenwriting, Sam Roads asked Fellowes, "Will there be any connection between The Gilded Age and Downton Abbey?" to which Fellowes stated:
I can't see it really. Someone asked if you would you see any of the Downton characters, but most of them would be children. They said that Violet wouldn't be a child, and I replied that "Yes, I suppose you could see a younger Violet", and this became a newspaper story. "Violet comes from Downton to appear in The Gilded Age!"

It might be fun, but I doubt at the beginning, because I want it to be a new show with new people.

Fellowes wrote an adaptation of the novel Doctor Thorne by one of his favorite writers, Anthony Trollope. The ITV adaptation aired on 6 March 2016.

A report in early September 2018 stated that Fellowes had two projects underway, both in development: the Netflix series The English Game and The Gilded Age for NBC. In May 2019, The Gilded Age moved to HBO.

Films
Fellowes wrote the script for Gosford Park, which won the Oscar for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen in 2002. He also won a Writers Guild of America award for it. In late 2005, Fellowes made his directorial début with the film Separate Lies, for which he won the award for Best Directorial Début from the National Board of Review.

In 2009, Momentum Pictures and Sony Pictures released The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt, for which Fellowes wrote the original screenplay. Other screenwriting credits include Vanity Fair, The Tourist and From Time to Time, which he also directed, and which won Best Picture at the Chicago Children's Film Festival, the Youth Jury Award at the Seattle International Film Festival, Best Picture at the Fiuggi Family Festival in Rome, and the Young Jury Award at Cinemagic in Belfast. His greatest commercial success was The Tourist, which grossed US$278 million worldwide, and for which he co-wrote the screenplay with Christopher McQuarrie and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

Other films in which Fellowes has appeared include Full Circle (1977), Priest of Love (1981), The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982), Goldeneye: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming (1989, as Noël Coward), Damage (1992), Shadowlands (1993), Jane Eyre (1996), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Regeneration (1997) and Place Vendôme (1998). He has continued his acting career while writing.  He unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Master of Lake-town in the 2012–2014 The Hobbit series.

Fellowes was the screenwriter and one of the producers for Downton Abbey, which was released in September 2019, and its sequel, Downton Abbey: A New Era. Most members of the cast of the television programme appear in the movie versions.

Novels
Fellowes's novel Snobs was published in 2004. It focuses on the social nuances of the upper class and concerns the marriage of an upper middle-class girl to a peer. Snobs was a Sunday Times best-seller. In 2009 his novel Past Imperfect was published. Another Sunday Times best-seller, it deals with the débutante season of 1968, comparing the world then to the world of 2008.
He also wrote several romantic novels in the 1970s, under the pseudonym Rebecca Greville.
In April 2016, a period novel, Belgravia, began being released in 11 weekly episodes, and is available, via an app, in audio and text format.

Theatre
As an actor, Fellowes began his acting career at the Royal Theatre, Northampton. He has appeared in several West End productions, including Samuel Taylor's A Touch of Spring, Alan Ayckbourn's Joking Apart and a revival of Noël Coward's Present Laughter. He appeared at the National Theatre in The Futurists, written by Dusty Hughes. As a writer, he penned the script to the West End musical Mary Poppins, produced by Sir Cameron Mackintosh and Disney, which opened on Broadway in December 2006. He wrote the book for the musical School of Rock which opened at The Winter Garden on Broadway in December 2015.  In May 2016 he was nominated for a Tony.

Writing credits

Parliament
On 13 January 2011, Fellowes was elevated to the peerage, being created Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, of West Stafford in the County of Dorset, and on the same day was introduced in the House of Lords, where he sits on the Conservative Benches.

Other interests
Fellowes is involved in volunteer work. He is Chairman of the RNIB appeal for Talking Books. He is a vice-president of the Weldmar Hospicecare Trust and Patron of a number of charities: the southwest branch of Age UK, Changing Faces, Living Paintings, the Rainbow Trust Children's Charity, Breast Cancer Haven and the Nursing Memorial Appeal. He also supports other causes, including charities concerned with the care of those suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He recently opened the Dorset office of the southwest adoption charity, Families for Children. On May 19, 2022, Julian Fellowes was awarded The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York, Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence. Prior Award winners include author Tom Wolfe, Louis Auchincloss, and David McCullough. Author Washington Irving founded the Society in 1835. Fellowes sits on the Appeal Council for the National Memorial Arboretum and is a Patron of Moviola, an initiative aimed at facilitating rural cinema screenings in the West Country. He also sits on the Arts and Media Honours Committee.

Family

On 28 April 1990, Fellowes married Emma Joy Kitchener (born 1963), daughter of The Hon. Charles Kitchener (1920–1982) and a lady-in-waiting to Princess Michael of Kent. She is also a great-great-niece of Herbert, 1st Earl Kitchener. He proposed to her only 20 minutes after meeting her at a party, "having spent 19 minutes getting up the nerve". On 15 October 1998 the Fellowes family changed its surname from Fellowes to Kitchener-Fellowes.

Fellowes publicly expressed his dissatisfaction that the proposals to change the rules of royal succession were not extended to hereditary peerages, which had they been would have allowed his wife to succeed her uncle as Countess Kitchener in her own right. He said: "I find it ridiculous that, in 2011, a perfectly sentient adult woman has no rights of inheritance whatsoever when it comes to a hereditary title." Instead, the title became extinct on her uncle's death because there were no male heirs.

On 9 May 2012, the Queen issued a Royal Warrant of Precedence granting Lady Fellowes the same rank and style as the daughter of an earl, as would have been due to her if her late father had survived his brother and therefore succeeded to the earldom.

Fellowes and his wife have one son, the Honourable Peregrine Charles Morant Kitchener-Fellowes (born 1991).

Lord Fellowes was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset in 2009. He is also Lord of the manor of Tattershall in Lincolnshire and president of the Society of Dorset Men. Their main family home is in Dorset.

His wife was story editor for Downton Abbey and works with charities, including the Nursing Memorial Appeal.

Arms

See also
 List of accolades received by Gosford Park
 List of accolades received by The Young Victoria
 List of awards and nominations received by Downton Abbey
 Burke's Landed Gentry 1965 edn, FELLOWES-GORDON of Knochespoch

Honours

Commonwealth honours
 Commonwealth honours

Scholastic

Honorary degrees

Memberships and Fellowships

References

External links

 Lord Fellowes of West Stafford profile, parliament.uk; accessed 12 May 2015.

 Interview with Bella Stander, Bookreporter.com
 Author Interview Podcast with Paula Shackleton, BookBuffet.com
 The Case of Charles Bravo
 Julian Fellowes's BAFTA Screenwriters' Lecture

1949 births
20th-century English dramatists and playwrights
20th-century English male actors
20th-century English novelists
21st-century British dramatists and playwrights
21st-century British novelists
21st-century English male actors
21st-century English writers
Actors awarded British peerages
Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge
Alumni of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winners
British expatriates in Egypt
British male television actors
Conservative Party (UK) life peers
Conservative Party (UK) people
Contestants on University Challenge
Deputy Lieutenants of Dorset
English film producers
English game show hosts
English male film actors
English musical theatre librettists
English romantic fiction writers
English male stage actors
English male television actors
English television producers
English television writers
Julian
Film directors from London
International Emmy Founders Award winners
Living people
Male actors from London
Male actors from Sussex
People educated at Ampleforth College
People educated at Wetherby School
People from South Kensington
People from Chiddingly
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Showrunners
Television personalities from London
Writers from London
Writers Guild of America Award winners
British male television writers
Literary peers
Downton Abbey
20th-century pseudonymous writers
21st-century pseudonymous writers
Life peers created by Elizabeth II

Julian Fellowes


A Clockwork Orange is an English dystopian novella written by Anthony Burgess and published in 1962.

Through the actions and experiences of the teenaged, charming but sociopathic, Alex, it explores mankind's violent nature. The novel is set in a not-so-distant future society with a culture of extreme youth rebellion and violence. It satirizes trends in youth culture that were around in the 1960s in the West, and to some extent still present today. The dramatic events throw a light on human free will to choose between good or evil, and the weakness of free will as a solution to evil. Alex and his three goons (friends who do bad things) do various crimes, mainly assaulting everyone: brutally for the men, and sexually for the women. He is sent to prison for murdering a woman whilst burgling her house.

Burgess experiments with language by writing in a Russian-influenced argot (slang) called "Nadsat" which is used by the novel's teenage anti-hero in his first-person narrative, and the younger characters. According to Burgess, the novel was a jeu d'esprit written in just three weeks.

In 2005, A Clockwork Orange was included on Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923, and it was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. The original manuscript of the book was bought by McMaster University. Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1971.

The best known adaptation of the novel to other forms is the 1971 movie A Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick, starring Malcolm McDowell as Alex. A 1965 film by Andy Warhol entitled Vinyl was also an adaptation of Burgess' novel.

Awards
2008 - Prometheus Award (Hall of Fame Award)

References

1962 books
Antisocial personality disorder in fiction
Crime fiction books
British novellas
Fiction set in the future
Rape in fiction
English novels

A Clockwork Orange


Angus William McDonald (February 14, 1799 – December 1, 1864) was a 19th-century American military officer and lawyer in the U.S. state of Virginia. He also served as a colonel in command of the Confederate States Army's 7th Virginia Cavalry during the American Civil War. McDonald was appointed to serve in a number of prominent political positions including a superintendent overseeing the construction of the Northwestern Turnpike and a commissioner representing Virginia in its boundary dispute with Maryland. McDonald was the grandson of Virginia military officer and frontiersman, Angus McDonald (1727–1778) and the father of United States Fish Commissioner Marshall McDonald (1835–1895).

Early life and education
Angus William McDonald was born on February 14, 1799, in Winchester, Virginia. He was the eldest child of prominent local planter Angus McDonald (1769–1814) and his wife, Mary McGuire McDonald (d. 1809) and the grandson of Virginia militiaman, frontiersman, and landowner Angus McDonald (1727–1778). McDonald was of Scottish and Dutch descent through his father, and of French and Irish descent through his mother. In 1809, following the death of his mother, McDonald and his younger brother and sister were sent by their father to "Glengarry" plantation near Winchester to live with their grandmother, Anna Thompson McDonald. By about the age of twelve, McDonald attended Winchester Academy where he was taught by Scotchman Mr. Hetterick. While attending the academy in Winchester, McDonald resided at the home of his uncle, Edward McGuire.

U.S. Military Academy and early military career
On July 30, 1814, McDonald entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, following his appointment by United States President James Madison. In October 1814, McDonald's father, a United States Army major, died following a forced march near Batavia, New York, during operations related to the War of 1812. McDonald initially gained admission to the academy's fourth class, but after much progress, he was permitted to pass during the middle of his third year from the second class into the first class, thus completing his education there in three years. Among his close friends at the academy was Ethan Allen Hitchcock, whom McDonald would name his second eldest son after.

McDonald graduated from the academy on July 17, 1817, and was subsequently promoted to the rank of third lieutenant in the 7th Infantry Regiment. On April 1, 1818, McDonald was further promoted to the rank of first lieutenant in the 7th Infantry Regiment. McDonald served in garrison at New Orleans in 1817 and at Mobile Bay, Alabama, in 1818. After several attempts at a transfer to a post within the American Frontier were unsuccessful, McDonald resigned his commission on January 31, 1819 and set out for the Western frontier to pursue a career in the fur trade.

Fur trading career
From Mobile Bay, he traveled to St. Louis in the Missouri Territory where he befriended a number of fur traders. McDonald then embarked as a clerk employed by the Missouri Fur Company, and within his first year with the company, he mastered several Native American languages and assumed the duties of a language interpreter. McDonald became a full partner of the company in his second year, but soon after, it went bankrupt and McDonald continued on by engaging in his own successful trapping and trading business on the Yellowstone River for another three years. During his experiences on the American frontier, McDonald formed associations with several Native American tribes and their chiefs, including "Tobacco", a powerful chief of the Mandan tribe. McDonald's athletic physique, confidence, and fearlessness earned him the sobriquet of "Big Knife" from various Native American tribes of the Missouri Territory. McDonald frequently returned to St. Louis with cargoes of furs and skins, which earned him large sums of money.

After about four years on the American frontier, McDonald became attracted by the prospects of settling and developing the southwestern frontier. He and ten of his colleagues crafted a plan to organize "a body of emigrants" on the American frontier and wrest Texas and the southwest from the United Mexican States and establish a sovereign state. McDonald returned to Winchester, Virginia, to recruit participants in his endeavor.

Law career and political appointments

Shortly before his would-be departure from Winchester, McDonald met Leacy Anne Naylor, the daughter of prominent Romney lawyer William Naylor. McDonald abandoned his plans to wrest Texas from Mexico and instead settled in Romney to study law. In a little over a year, McDonald was admitted to the bar and established his law practice in Romney. In addition to his law profession, McDonald served as deputy sheriff of Hampshire County. Shortly after his admittance to the bar, McDonald married Leacy Anne Naylor on January 11, 1827. McDonald and his wife resided in a log dwelling located on Lot 26 at the intersection of West Main and North Bolton Streets in Romney. The house, presently an American Civil War museum known as the Davis History House, had been purchased by Leacy Anne's father William Naylor, and she and McDonald raised their nine children there.  McDonald became well known in the legal profession and continued to engage in and grow his lucrative law practice for the succeeding 17 years, which allowed him to amass and invest in large tracts of land in the American West. He was appointed or elected prosecuting attorney of Hampshire County in 1836. His son, Angus William McDonald Jr., later joined his father in the legal profession.

Northwestern Turnpike superintendent
In 1832, McDonald was appointed state superintendent for the construction of the Northwestern Turnpike (present-day U.S. Route 50) through Hampshire and present-day Mineral counties under the leadership of his former West Point professor of engineering, Virginia Board of Public Works chief engineer Claudius Crozet. McDonald created many enemies in his role as superintendent due to his attunement to cost efficiency and his "haughty" nature. He succeeded in building the turnpike through fertile agricultural fields, as was the case of Joseph Kackley's farmland in Smokey Hollow, the most fertile field of which was lost due to both the old and new turnpike routes traversing it. McDonald also proposed building the turnpike through the garden of the Clerk of the Hampshire County Court, John Baker White. White won a court appeal resulting in the rerouting of the road. This rerouting remains evident today in the curve of Main Street in Romney in front of White's residence, now known as "Liberty Hall." McDonald was forced from his position as superintendent and was replaced by William S. Naylor on April 5, 1834.

Romney Literary Society
McDonald was a prominent member of the Romney Literary Society and served on the board of trustees governing Romney Academy following his appointment by the Virginia General Assembly on March 25, 1839.

Political activities
While McDonald did not bear any ambitions for political office, he became an active leader in support of political causes and positions he believed in. His personal political ideologies remained consistently states' rights-oriented despite the ever-shifting platforms of American political parties. Throughout his legal and later public careers, McDonald affiliated himself with the Democratic-Republican Party, the Whig Party, and finally, the Democratic Party.

Following the death of McDonald's wife Leacy Anne on February 3, 1843, he increased his participation and involvement in political activities. In keeping with the Virginia law requiring citizens to own a particular amount of land in order to exercise their right of suffrage, McDonald transferred tracts of land of the requisite amount of acres to young men belonging to the Whig Party to enable their vote in elections that McDonald was particularly interested in the outcome of. McDonald's maneuver made him many enemies in the opposing Democratic Party, and when he requested permission from Democratic United States President James K. Polk to raise a regiment of volunteers to fight in the Mexican–American War, his request was denied.

Virginia boundary commissioner

McDonald returned to Missouri in 1846, and took up residence in Hannibal where he had made several large investments. McDonald traveled between Virginia and Missouri, and on one of his stays in Hannibal, he met Cornelia Peake, whose sister, Susan Peake, was married to McDonald's brother, Edward Charles McDonald. McDonald and Cornelia married on May 27, 1847, in Hannibal, and in 1848 the couple returned to Romney where McDonald resumed his law practice. He sold the log dwelling in Romney to William Davis in 1849, although McDonald and his family continued to reside in Romney at least until 1850 In 1853, McDonald and his family relocated to "Wind Lea" in Paddy Town (now known as Keyser), a settlement along the North Branch Potomac River and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in western Hampshire County (now Mineral County). McDonald's wife, Cornelia, successfully persuaded the United States Post Office Department to change the name of Paddy Town to Wind Lea, after which it was changed again to New Creek Station following the McDonald family's departure. McDonald and his family returned to Romney before subsequently moving to McDonald's hometown of Winchester. In 1856, McDonald purchased "Hawthorne" at 610 Amherst Street in Winchester and he and his wife relocated there from Romney. "Hawthorne" had previously been owned by Virginia Governor James Wood and George Washington's nephew Lawrence Augustine Washington.

Shortly after his move to Winchester, McDonald was appointed by Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise as a commissioner representing Virginia in resolving a boundary dispute with Maryland. Maryland appointed Lieutenant N. Michler as its commissioner, and he and McDonald commenced their inquiry at a location along the Scarborough line, where McDonald discovered that Maryland had long been in possession of land that rightfully belonged to Virginia. McDonald communicated his discovery to the Virginia General Assembly in the Winter of 1859, after which the legislature authorized him to travel to England in order to conduct further research for boundary records in the archives of the State Paper Office. McDonald arrived in London in July 1860 and immediately began conducting his research. He was received by the Court of St. James's as merely a representative of a state of the United States, and not as a representative of a sovereign state, which prompted McDonald to decline an offer by George M. Dallas to present McDonald to Queen Victoria. McDonald remained in London for five months before discovering enough records and manuscripts to substantiate Virginia's land claim. He returned to the United States via New York in November 1860 and was welcomed on the night of his return to Winchester by a number of his friends, including United States Senator James Murray Mason. The boundary dispute between Virginia and Maryland would not be resolved until the Maryland v. West Virginia, , ruling by the United States Supreme Court, which held that the boundary between Maryland and West Virginia (which had seceded from Virginia in 1863) was the south bank of the Potomac River.

American Civil War
Prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War, McDonald sympathized with the secessionist cause, but his feelings softened during his trip abroad, where he found a "united republic" preferable to a cluster of sovereign states like Europe. Upon his return, McDonald renewed his secessionist sentiments and following Virginia's secession from the United States in April 1861, he traveled to Harpers Ferry to volunteer his services to the Confederate States Army. General Kenton Harper assigned McDonald to the duty of guarding the bridges and fords crossing the Potomac River downstream of Harpers Ferry. A company that included Captain Turner Ashby was assigned to McDonald, who divided it into small detachments that were sent out on scouting expeditions as far south as Washington City. Following the scouting expeditions, McDonald realized the need for a topographic corps and after selecting suitable men for this service, he organized the first topographic corps in Virginia. McDonald was commissioned as a captain of cavalry.

7th Virginia Cavalry command
McDonald served as the first colonel in command of the 7th Virginia Cavalry, which he formed later in the Spring of 1861. In June 1861, McDonald and his cavalry occupied Romney, but were defeated by Union Army forces in their defense of the town by July. McDonald's 7th Virginia Cavalry fought several Union Army companies of the 82nd Ohio Infantry under the command of Colonel James Cantwell in the Battle of Hanging Rocks Pass on September 24, 1861. On the evening of September 23, 1861, McDonald received information that Union Army forces planned an attempt to pass through the gap at Hanging Rocks early the next morning. Upon learning of this, McDonald and his 26 troops climbed to the top of Hanging Rocks in the early morning of September 24 in preparation for the arrival of Union troops. McDonald also sent a scouting party down the South Branch on the night of September 23. McDonald and his cavalry recaptured Romney from Union Army forces on September 24, thus causing Union Army forces to retreat to Keyser.

McDonald was forced to resign his command of the 7th Virginia Cavalry in late 1861 due to severe rheumatism. Following the aftermath of Major General Stonewall Jackson's Romney Expedition, McDonald traveled to Richmond, where he served as an advisor to the Confederate States War Department. McDonald's wife remained at "Hawthorne" with her eight children, two slaves, and three servants until June 1863, when she relocated to Lexington, Virginia, to live with McDonald.

Prisoner of war
In July 1864, while McDonald was residing in Lexington, he was arrested along with his son Harry by Union Army General David Hunter, who had previously caused damage to his property "Hawthorne" in Winchester. McDonald and his son, who was then aged 16, were taken prisoner. Harry escaped one or two days later, but McDonald remained captive and was hastily "tied and dragged" to the Maryland state line. McDonald was taken to Cumberland where he was handcuffed and placed in solitary confinement and then subsequently transferred to a military prison in Wheeling. At Wheeling, McDonald was treated cruelly and held handcuffed in a "dungeon" measuring seven by ten feet. McDonald was permitted a Bible in his cell, from which he derived "great peace and comfort" during his captivity.

Following his release from prison, McDonald was reunited with his children and resided with his daughter at her home in Richmond. His incarceration had further deteriorated his already poor health which had been in decline for a number of years. While it was his intention to return to his residence in Lexington, McDonald's nervous system continued to deteriorate and he died on December 1, 1864. His wife had been notified of her husband's declining health, but was unable to make it to Richmond until the day following his death. McDonald's funeral service was held the evening after his death on December 2 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church and he was interred with full military honors at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.

Children
McDonald and his first wife Leacy Anne Naylor had nine children together consisting of five sons and four daughters:

McDonald married for a second time to Cornelia Peake McDonald and together they had nine children consisting of seven sons and two daughters:

Publications

References

Bibliography

External links

1799 births
1864 deaths
American Civil War prisoners of war held by the United States
American deputy sheriffs
American fur traders
Military personnel from West Virginia
American people of Dutch descent
American people of French descent
American people of Irish descent
American people of Scottish descent
Angus McDonald family of Virginia and West Virginia
Burials at Hollywood Cemetery (Richmond, Virginia)
Confederate States Army officers
County and city Commonwealth's Attorneys in Virginia
Hampshire County, West Virginia, in the American Civil War
Interpreters
Northwestern Turnpike
Members of the Romney Literary Society
People from Hannibal, Missouri
People from Keyser, West Virginia
People from Romney, West Virginia
People from Winchester, Virginia
People of Virginia in the American Civil War
People of West Virginia in the American Civil War
Trustees of educational establishments
United States Army officers
United States Military Academy alumni
Virginia Democratic-Republicans
Virginia Democrats
Virginia Whigs
19th-century American politicians
West Virginia lawyers
American slave owners

Angus William McDonald


Diplomacy is the use of tact to gain strategic advantage or to find mutually acceptable solutions to a common challenge. It may include the phrasing of statements in a non-confrontational, or polite manner. Diplomacy often involves countries making an agreement with each other, such as a treaty. Diplomacy is the talk between the representatives of states, such as their heads of state. Sometimes, these talks are about trade or business, and sometimes they are about war and peace. Diplomacy happens a lot when two or more countries fight.

Diplomats are people that are sent from their home country, to meet with and talk to diplomats and leaders of foreign countries. An important type of diplomat is called an ambassador. An ambassador lives in a foreign country and works in an embassy to be available for meetings with the government of that country.

Literature and sources
 Black, Jeremy. A History of Diplomacy (U. of Chicago Press, 2010)
 Berridge, G. R. Diplomacy: Theory & Practice, 3rd edition, Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2005,
 Cunningham, George. Journey to Become a Diplomat: With a Guide to Careers in World Affairs FPA Global Vision Books 2005,
 Dorman, Shawn, ed. Inside a U.S. Embassy: How the Foreign Service Works for America by American Foreign Service Association, Second edition February 2003,
 Callieres, Francois De. The Practice of Diplomacy (1919)
 Fischer, Roger and Ury, William L. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (1991)
 Hill, Henry Bertram. The Political Testament of Cardinal Richeleiu: The Significant Chapters and Supporting Selections (1964)
 Kennan, George F. American Diplomacy (Walgreen Foundation Lectures) (1985)
 Kissinger, Henry. A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh, and the Problem of Peace: 1812-1822 (1999)
 Henry Kissinger. Diplomacy (1999)
 Kurbalija J. and Slavik H. eds. Language and Diplomacy DiploProjects, Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies, Malta, 2001, . The volume contains collection of paper presented at the international conference.
 Garrett Mattingly, Renaissance Diplomacy Dover Publications,
 Metternich, Clemens von. Mettetnich: The Autobiography, 1773-1815 (2005)
 Nicolson, Sir Harold George. Diplomacy (1988)
 Nicolson, Sir Harold George. The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity: 1812-1822 (2001)
 Nicolson, Sir Harold George. The Evolution of Diplomatic Method (1977)
 Nierenberg, Gerard The Art of Negotiating
 Rana, Kishan S. and Jovan Kurbalija, eds. Foreign Ministries: Managing Diplomatic Networks and Optimizing Value DiploFoundation, 2007,
 Rana, Kishan S.  The 21st Century Ambassador: Plenipotentiary to Chief Executive DiploFoundation,2004,
 Roeder, Larry W.  "Diplomacy, Funding and Animal Welfare", Springer, Hamburg, 2011
 Ernest Satow. A Guide to Diplomatic Practice by Longmans, Green & Co. London & New York, 1917. A standard reference work used in many embassies across the world (though not British ones). Now in its fifth edition (1998)
 Wicquefort, Abraham de. The Embassador and His Functions (2010)
 Jovan Kurbalija, Valentin Katrandjiev. Multistakeholder diplomacy : challenges and opportunities. Malta 2006,
 Igor Janev, Diplomacy, IPS, Belgrade, 2013,

Related pages
Conflict resolution
Diplomatic immunity
Foreign policy
International relations
Political science
Persona non grata

Other websites
Diplopundit

Diplomacy

Diplomacy


Klio: Beiträge zur alten Geschichte is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering ancient history, focussing on the history of Ancient Greece and Rome from the archaic period to Late Antiquity, as well as relationships with the Ancient Near East. Areas covered also include epigraphy, papyrology, archaeology and numismatics.  The journal is published by Walter de Gruyter and articles are in English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish.

History
The journal was established in 1901 as Beiträge zur alten Geschichte (English: Contributions to Ancient History). Since the 6th issue, it has been named Klio, after Clio, the muse of historiography. The first editor-in-chief was Carl F. Lehmann; in 1903 he was joined by Ernst Kornemann. The journal was published by Leipziger Dieterich-Verlag until 1944. After a first continuously numbered series of the journal from 1901 to 1923, a "New Series" was begun in 1925, which restarted at number one and came to an end with number 18 in 1944. In 1959, the first volume of a renewed series was published by Akademie Verlag (East Germany) as number 37 (as if the two previous series had been continuously numbered), although the journal Historia had been founded in 1950 in West Germany as a replacement. A third "major" journal, Chiron appeared from 1971. However, the importance of the pre-war series ensured that the full set was reprinted at the beginning of the 1960s, although not in the same format or at the same quality as the original publication.

Until 1992, Klio was edited by the government-controlled Zentralinstitut für Alte Geschichte und Archäologie. However, it also published works of Western historians and sometimes included Russian language contributions. Important articles appeared in Klio even after 1959, but the publications of East German scholars at this time were not always up to date or at the level of international research, as a result of the shortage of money and the enforcement of the state's ideological views.

In 1993 the journal received a new editorial board. The current editors are Manfred Clauss (Frankfurt am Main), Hans-Joachim Gehrke (Freiburg/Berlin), Peter Funke (Münster) and Christian Mann (Mannheim).

From 1903 until 1944 and again since 1999 (in a Neuen Folge - new series) the journal has published Klio-Beihefte (Klio Supplements), consisting of monographs, mostly published doctoral theses.

Editors

The following persons have been editors-in-chief:
 Carl F. Lehmann-Haupt (co-founder and first editor)
 Ernst Kornemann (1903-1927)
 Gert Audring (1988-1991)
 Hans-Joachim Gehrke (since 1993)
 Manfred Clauss (since 1993)
 Peter Funke (since 2011)
 Christian Mann (since 2018)

Abstracting and indexing
The journal is abstracted and indexed in Scopus.

References

External links

Multilingual journals
Classics journals
Academic journals established in 1901
Biannual journals
De Gruyter academic journals

Klio (journal)


Lost World Caverns, located just outside Lewisburg, West Virginia, is an underground natural series of caverns. In November 1973, the caverns were registered as a National Natural Landmark as they "feature terraced pedestal-like stalagmites, flowstone, curtains, rimstone, domepits, and waterfalls."

History
Originally named "Grapevine Cave", the only entrance was a long vertical drop into which farmers used to dump dead livestock and other trash. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University "discovered" the cave in 1942. It was surveyed in the 1960s and found to contain over a mile of interconnected passages that reach a depth of 245 feet below the surface. In 1967, the remains of a prehistoric cave bear (Arctodus pristinus) were unearthed in the cave.

In the early 1970s, a walking entrance was dug out, the trash was removed, walkways were installed and the cave was opened for tourism. In 1981, the gift shop and walking entrance were renovated. Since then subsequent owners have done extensive work on the lighting (making sure it does not allow the out-of-control growth of algae that old incandescent lamps cause) and many other cleaning and conservation projects as well as adding a dinosaur museum section to the gift shop.

In September 1971, Bob Addis set the unofficial World Record for "Stalagmite Sitting", staying atop the "Warclub" formation for 15 days, 23 hours, and 34 minutes with assistance from his "bucket man" Bob Leibman. The Greenbrier East Band provided in-cave fanfare for Addis's descent and shaky return to solid land from the top of the formation.

In 1992, the Weekly World News reported that Lost World Caverns was the home of "Bat Boy", and claimed that he was captured by the FBI in the caverns, where he reportedly survived by eating his weight in live insects every day.

In November 2021, musical group Sloppy Jane, released their album Madison, which was entirely recorded within the cavern.

Description
The "walking" tour section of the cave consists of a large chamber (1000 feet long, 300 feet wide, and 120 feet high) with many formations like the Bridal Veil, Goliath, Snowy Chandelier, Ice Cream Wall, Castle and, perhaps the most storied, the War Club, where Bob Addis made it into the Guinness Book of World Records by sitting atop the 28-foot formation for nearly 16 days. In addition to the "walking" tour, one can opt for a rougher guided "wild" tour through the remote sections of the cave, visiting sights like the Angel's Roost, Birth Canal, Keyhole, Glitter Pits, the Hall of the Mountain King and other passages and formations.

Lost World Caverns is a publicly accessible cave for those who want to experience and understand the karst topography within the Greenbrier River watershed.  Environmental interests such as local schools and the Greenbrier River Watershed Association encourage the public to take educational tours in order to understand the unique relationship between surface water and groundwater.  Surrounded by farmland on all sides, the cave interacts with a constant influx of air, water, clastic and other additives and pollutants.  The cave system is part of Greenbrier County's karst plateau or "Great Savannah" where the average number of sinkholes are 18 per square kilometer.

There are wooden walkways and the option of wild caving in the deeper "wild" portions of the system.  The cave drains into the Greenbrier River at Fort Spring through the Davis Spring, and there is much to be discovered about the underlying aquifers and science behind this drainage.  The public tour section contains a stratum of hex (six-sided) stones. Cavers on the Wild Tour are asked to respect the encroaching threat of white nose syndrome in the Appalachian bat population, and perform sterilization protocols with their gear and clothing before they come in.

The site is open daily, except for holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day.  As of December 2021, the standard self-guided tour rates are as follows: adults: $12, children 6–12: $6, under 6 free.  If planning to visit, one should wear shoes with sufficient tread and dress for a temperature of 52 degrees F.

Photo gallery

See also
List of National Natural Landmarks
List of National Natural Landmarks in West Virginia

References

External links

 Lost World Caverns NNL (NPS Website)

National Natural Landmarks in West Virginia
Caves of West Virginia
Landforms of Greenbrier County, West Virginia
Show caves in the United States
Geology museums in the United States
Natural history museums in West Virginia
Museums in Greenbrier County, West Virginia
Tourist attractions in Greenbrier County, West Virginia

Lost World Caverns