The AnswerBank Articles

What are the origins of the pop video

A. In 1976 the kaleidoscopic images of Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' burst on to our screens and the birth of the 'pop video' was announced. But was it art Certainly it was not entirely new.00:00 Mon 30th Jul 2001

What's been happening at Somerset House

A. In the tradition of Covent Garden and Spitalfields Market, Somerset House - until recently government offices which had seen better days - has been refurbished and converted into a public area with00:00 Mon 30th Jul 2001

What exactly does masterpiece mean

A. There are three main meanings, of diminishing degrees of precision: first - and in its original sense and one that we don't really use today - a test-piece of work submitted to a craft00:00 Mon 23rd Jul 2001

What are 'Hayvend' machines

A. Hayvend machines are the kind of vending machine more usually associated with pub toilets, though these don't dispense anything cocktail-flavoured or ribbed. First appearing in 1995, and the idea00:00 Mon 23rd Jul 2001

Street Theatre: legitimate art form or public nuisance

A. Time was when all theatre was street theatre or held in public places such as the courtyards of inns The exceptions were those that took place in private residences and churches. In Britain00:00 Mon 23rd Jul 2001

What is the Royal Collection

A. The Royal Collection has largely been formed by succeeding sovereigns, consorts and other members of the Royal Family in the three and a half centuries since the Restoration of the Monarchy in00:00 Mon 16th Jul 2001

Why are publishers complaining Has fiction had its day

A. To look at the publishing industry in Britain today, you'd think things couldn't be healthier, with more books published year on year (currently about 120,000 new titles a year in the UK),00:00 Mon 16th Jul 2001

What is vaudeville

A. Vaudeville is the American version of British music hall and variety. It flourished from the last quarter of the 19th century to the mid 20th. Q. Where does the name come from A. The term00:00 Mon 16th Jul 2001

A kitsch too far: the return of the Green Lady

Q. The return of that Green Lady Surely not A. Yes, she's back. Vladimir Tretchikoff's Green Lady, J.H. Lynch's Tina (hugging a tree trunk she stares provocatively from the picture, lips slightly00:00 Mon 09th Jul 2001

Was Henry Root a real person

A. Henry Root, who retired at 45 having made a fortune in wet fish, was not a real person, though many thought - maybe still think - he was. Root was the alter ego of William Donaldson, author and00:00 Mon 09th Jul 2001

What is pulp fiction

A. Also known as 'dime novels' in the USA and 'penny dreadfuls' in Britain, pulp magazines, the original home of what became pulp fiction, contained series, short novels or novels in serial form.00:00 Mon 09th Jul 2001

Who was Lee Miller

A. Born in New York in 1907, Lee Miller became a model in Paris in the 1920s. She was lover, model and photographic collaborator of the Surrealist photographer Man Ray, and her other contacts in the00:00 Mon 02nd Jul 2001

What exactly is a first edition book

A. Collectors of first editions are looking for books they term 'first edition, first state', which means that it is the first edition, first print-run. Publishers, on the other hand, might call a00:00 Mon 02nd Jul 2001

Why are the descendents of Victor Hugo trying to suppress the publication of Cosette

A. What's eating the family of the 19th-century French novelist is the publication of a continuation to his masterpiece Les Mis rables (1862). Cosette or The Time of Lost Illusions was written by00:00 Mon 02nd Jul 2001

A rose by any other name, can you tell me about authors' pseudomyms

A. Aliases, noms de plume, pen names: writers have been masking their true identity since writing was invented, and more often than not, the reading public will be unaware that an author is hiding00:00 Mon 25th Jun 2001

What are audiobooks

A. It's kind of a contradiction in terms, but they are 'books' that you listen to. A more accurate term is spoken word publications, in that, while a lot of the recordings issued are adaptations of00:00 Mon 25th Jun 2001

What exactly is Modernism in literature

A. It would be hard to give a precise and succinct definition of the term Modernism, as there was, unlike movements such as the Surrealists or the Futurists, no organised group and no manifesto. 00:00 Mon 25th Jun 2001

Longest words

Q. Why is the word abbreviate so long A. There's no reason why words should necessarily reflect in some way the concept they express. Unless, of course, like whistle or splash, a word is an00:00 Mon 25th Jun 2001

Fifty ways to describe the weather

Q. Red sky at night... ... shepherd's delight A. ...Red sky in the morning, sailor's warning We've all heard this rhyme, and we in Britain are, it seems, obsessed with the weather. How many times00:00 Mon 25th Jun 2001

Kith and kin

Q. What's the difference between a first cousin, once removed and a second cousin A. A perennial problem this, as almost no-one seems to know how these relationships work. So, here goes: Second00:00 Mon 25th Jun 2001