Entertainment in London
Buying Books
Londoners are great readers. They buy vast numbers of newspapers and magazines and even of books especially paperbacks, which are still comparatively cheap in spite of ever-increasing rises in the costs of printing. They still continue to buy "proper" books, too, printed on good paper and bound between hard covers.
There are many streets in London containing shops which specialize in book-selling. Perhaps the best known of these is Charing Cross Road in the very heart of London. Here bookshops of all sorts and sizes are to be found, from the celebrated one which boasts of being "the biggest bookshop in the world" to the tiny, dusty little places which seem to have been left over from Dickens’ time. Some of these shops stock, or will obtain, any kinds of books, but many of them specialize in second-hand books, in art books, in foreign books, in books or philosophy, politic or any other of the various subjects about which books may be written. One shop in this area specializes solely in books about ballet!
Although it may be the most convenient place for Londoners to buy books, Charing Cross Road is not the cheapest. For the really cheap second-hand volumes, the collector must venture off the busy and crowded roads, to Farringdon Road, for example, in the East Central district of London. Here there is nothing so grand as bookshops. Instead, the booksellers come along each morning and tip out their sacks of books on to barrows(推车) which line the gutters(贫民区). And the collectors, some professional and some , who have been waiting for them, pounce towards the sellers. In places like this one can still, occasionally, pick up for a few pence an old volume that may be worth many pounds.
Both Charing Cross Road and Farringdon Road are well-known places of the book buyer. Yet all over London there are bookshops, in places not so well known, where the books are equally varied and exciting. It is in the sympathetic atmosphere of such shops that the loyal book buyer feels most at home. In these shops, even the life-long book-browser is frequently rewarded by the accidental discovery of previously unknown delights. One could, in fact, easily spend a lifetime exploring London’s bookshops. There are many less pleasant ways of spending time!
Going to the Theatre
London is very rich in theatres: there are over forty in the West End alone--more than enough to ensure that there will always be at least two or three shows running to suit every kind taste, whether serious or lighthearted.
Some of them are specialist theatres. The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where the great opera singers of the world can be heard, is the home of opera and the Royal Ballet. The London Coliseum now houses the English National Opera Company, which encourages English singers in particular and performs most operas in English at popular prices.
Some theatres concentrate on the classics and serious drama, some on light comedy, some on musicals. Most theatres have a personality of their own, from the old, such as the Theatre Royal (also called the "Haymarket") in the Haymarket, to the more modern such as the recently opened Baibican centre in the city. The National Theatre has three separate theatres in its new building by Waterloo Bridge. At the new Barbican centre the Royal Shakespeare Company has their London home-their other centre is at Stratfor-on-Avon.
Most of the old London theatres are concentrated in a very small area, within a stone’s throw of the Piccadilly and Leicester Square tube stations. As the evening performances normally begin either at seven-thirty or eight p. m., there is a kind of minor rush-hour between seven-fif and eight o’clock in this district. People stream out of the nearby tube stations, the pavements are crowded, and taxis and private cars maneuver into position as they drop theatre-goers outside the entrance to each theatre. There is another minor rush-hour when the performance finishes. The theatre in London is very popular and it is not always easy to get in to see a successful play.
Before World War Ⅱ, theatre performances began later and a visit to the theatre was a more formal occasion. Nowadays very few people "dress" for the theatre (that is, wear formal evening dress) except for first nights or an important performance. The times of performance were put forward during the war and have not been put back. The existing times make the question of eating a rather tricky problem: one has to have either early dinner or late supper. Many restaurants in "theatreland" ease the situation by catering specially for early or late dinners.
Television and the difficulty of financing plays have helped to close many theatres. But it seems that the worst of the situation is now over and that the theatre, after a period of decline, is about to pick up again. Although some quite large provincial towns do not have a professional theatre, there are others, such as Nottingham, Hull, Coventry or Newcastle, which have excellent companies and where a series of plays are performed during one season by a resident group of actors. Some towns such as Chichester or Edinburgh have theatres which give summer seasons. Even in small towns a number of theatres have been built in the last few years to cater for the local population.
Music in Britain
It is debatable whether the tastes of kings reflect those of their subjects. However, three English monarchs certainly shared their people’s linking for music. Richard Ⅰ(1157-1199), the "Lionheart", composed songs that he sang with his musician, Blondel. It is said that when the king was a prisoner in Austria, Blondel found him by singing a song known only to him and the king, who took up the tune in the tower of the castle in which he was secretly imprisoned. Henry VⅢ (1491-1547), notorious for his six wives, was a skilled musician and some of his songs are still known and sung. Queen Victoria (1819-1901) and her husband, Prince Albert, delighted in singing ballads. The great composer and pianist Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) was a welcome guest at their court, where he would accompany the Queen and the Prince when they sang.
The British love of music is often unfamiliar to foreigners, probably because there are few renowned British composers. The most famous is Henry Purcell (1658-1695), whose opera "Dido and Aeneas" is a classic. The rousing marching song "Lillibulero" attributed to Purcell, now used by BBC as an identification signal preceding Overseas Service news bulletins, was said to have "sung James Ⅱ out of three kingdoms" when he fled from Britain in 1688. Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) is known for his choral and orchestral works, some of which have been made more widely known by the famous violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), a composer with a very personal style, has become world-famous for such operatic works as "Peter Grimes" and "Billy Budd". Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was deeply influenced by English folk music, as is shown by his variations on the old tune "Green-sleeves" (which most people consider a folk song). In recent years there has been a great revival of folk music, and groups specializing in its performance have sprung up all over Britain. This phenomenon has its roots in the work of Cecil Sharp (1859-1924), who collected folk songs and dances.
Present-day concern with music is shown by the existence of something like a hundred summer schools in music, which cater for all grades of musicians, from the mere beginner to the skilled performer. These schools, where a friendly atmosphere reigns, provide courses lasting from a weekend to three or four weeks, and cover a wide range, from medieval and classical music to rock-and-roll and pop. There are also important musical festivals in towns such as Aldeburgh, Bath, and Cheltenham. Pop-music festivals draw thousands of people, especially young people. In the great cities there are resident world-famous orchestras and from all over the world great performers come to play or sing in Britain. In many towns there are brass bands, and the players are often such people as miners or members of the local fire brigade, for music in Britain is not just an elegant interest, it is above all democratic.
What can you learn about Farringdon Road