Hans Christian Andersen, Emile Zola & Sir Alec Guinness

These are out of sync and late as I have been in a rather nice no computer zone - full service will be resumed soon......

April the 2nd 742 is believed by some sources to be the date of birth of Charlemagne.

Hans Christian Andersen was born on April the 2nd 1805 in Odense, Denmark. Again you may have to indulge me a little here. A friend is working on a book about children's stories past and present; we were discussing Andersen just last week. When I was little girl I won my one and only life time prize  - a copy of The Little Matchstick Girl.  I assume as I associate the story with the peak of my winning things career I've always been enormously fond of it, sad as it is. I always come back to the story at Christmas or when I see snow.

This image courtesy of Wikipedia is by Andersen's first illustrator, Vilhelm Pedersen:

Andersen  visited England is 1847, on this visit he met Charles Dickens. He would come back ten years later and stay with Dickens for a period of five weeks. Again from Wikipedia :

Right, rant alert - I'll try to keep it brief. Another of my literary Titans. Emile Zola was born on April the 2nd 1840 in Paris. Again I could  go on for pages and pages but I probably won't. I personally can't recommend his work enthusiastically enough - he was enormously prolific. If you are looking for a top tip you could try L'Assommoir or Le Ventre de Paris. He was a childhood friend of Paul Cezanne, a friendship that would continue thought out their adult careers. This wonderful image courtesy of  Wikipedia :

Again here:

1889 - in April the 2nd Charles Hall patented an inexpensive means of producing aluminium.

On April the 2nd 1935 the Scottish inventor Robert Watson-Watt received the patent for radar.

Sir Alec Guinness and William Holman Hunt were also born on April the 2nd - 1914 and 1824 respectively.

Today is the Feast Day of.