Where are you from?

[Richard Roman]

Tell us a little about your home town here!

[Nicholas Kitto]

I'm from Newhaven, originally. Famous for being the last English town Oscar Wilde ever saw, and the only English town Henry Miller (who also shares my birthday) ever saw. It was formerly the port for the fastest route between London and Paris. It's a place of escape, a gateway to the Paradise of Normandy. Nothing much ever happens there.  But there is Brighton, 25 minutes in one direction, and Eastbourne, 25 minutes in the other, and its location, nestling between the English Channel and the South Downs makes it quite striking, and  I often think of it, in the Metropolis of Changchun.

 And at least I am not from The North. I have that consolation.

[Richard ridealgh]

I come from Manchester.
1) Manchester i/ˈmæntʃɛstər/ is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England with an estimated population of 498,800 in 2010. Manchester lies within one of the United Kingdom's largest urban areas; the Greater Manchester Urban Area which has a population of 2.2 million.People from Manchester are known as Mancunians and the local authority is Manchester City Council.

2) The city is notable for its culture, music scene, scientific and engineering output, media links and sporting connections. Manchester's sports clubs include Premier League football teams, Manchester City and Manchester United.Manchester was the site of the world's first railway station, and the place where scientists first split the atom and developed the first stored-program computer. Manchester is served by two universities, including the largest single-site university in the UK, and has one of the country's largest urban economies. Manchester is also the third-most visited city in the UK by foreign visitors, after London and Edinburgh, and the most visited in England outside London.

3) Much of Manchester's history is concerned with textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. The great majority of cotton spinning took place in the towns of south Lancashire and north Cheshire, and Manchester was for a time the most productive centre of cotton processing,and later the world's largest marketplace for cotton goods.

4) Music - Bands that have emerged from the Manchester music scene include The Smiths, the Buzzcocks, The Fall, Joy Division and its successor group New Order, Oasis, Doves and Ten. Manchester was credited as the main regional driving force behind indie bands of the 1980s including Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, James, and The Stone Roses. These groups came from what became known as the "Madchester" scene that also centred around The Haçienda nightclub developed by founder of Factory Records Tony Wilson. Although from southern England, The Chemical Brothers subsequently formed in Manchester. Ex-Stone Roses' frontman Ian Brown and ex-Smiths Morrissey continue successful solo careers. Notable Manchester acts of the 1960s include The Hollies, Herman's Hermits, Davy Jones of the Monkees and the Bee Gees, who grew up in Chorlton.

5) Literature - In the 19th century, Manchester featured in works highlighting the changes that industrialisation had brought to Britain. These included Elizabeth Gaskell's novel Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life (1848),and The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, written by Friedrich Engels while living and working in Manchester.Charles Dickens is reputed to have set his novel Hard Times in the city, and while it is partly modelled on Preston, it shows the influence of his friend Mrs Gaskell.

6) Sport - Manchester is well known for being a city of sport. Two Premier League football clubs bear the city's name, Manchester City and Manchester United, the 2012 Premier League champions and 2011 Premier League champions respectively.

7) Famous people - Daniel Adamson (1820–1890): engineer born in Durham who designed the Manchester Ship Canal. Adamson was one of the directors of the Manchester chamber of commerce and a Justice of the Peace for Cheshire and Manchester. He was buried in Withington.
Sir John Alcock - Aviator who, with fellow British aviator Arthur Brown, made the first nonstop transatlantic flight 
Anthony Burgess (1917–1993): Manchester-born and educated author, poet, playwright, musician, linguist, translator and critic, most famous for his novel A Clockwork Orange.

And a whole lot more here...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_Manchester.

My home!

[Richard Roman]

WELL, i am from leeds in the uk (originally from Liverpool) but as my home has been there for nearly 40 years, here are some facts:

1.world’s largest fish and chip shop is Harry Ramsden’s near Leeds

2.on October 14 1888 Louis le Prince recorded the very first moving images with a Leeds back garden as his subject? The French inventor made films of a Roundhay garden, and subsequently of a nearby bridge. They were shown to a limited viewership in Hunslet and Leeds. He disappeared mysteriously two years later, before he could establish his rightful position as the true pioneer of the moving picture

3.Middleton Colliery Railway on the outskirts of Leeds is the oldest continuously operated railway in the world? Its construction began in 1755.

4.

Temple of Horus… in Leeds

Temple Works is a former flax mill, built between 1836 and 1840 and was based on the Temple of Horus at Edfu in Egypt. At the time it was said to be the biggest single room in the world. An unusual feature of the building is that sheep used to graze on the grass-covered roof.

This served the purpose of retaining humidity in the mill to prevent the linen thread from becoming unmanageabl

5.

Famous Leeds people:

Alan Bennett Great playwrite and humourist- wrote The History Boys - based on the local school just near where I live)

Peter O'Toole (actor)

Andrew Rawnsley (political polemicist)

Barbara Taylor Bradford (Famous writer)
Ernie Wise (Comedian)
Herbert Henry Asquith (Ex prime minister)
Jeremy Paxman (Very well known tv interviewer)
Joseph Priestley (not sure if this is the writer or the scientist)
Keith Waterhouse (great comic writer)
Leonard Hutton (one of the all time great cricketers)
Mel B (The Spice Girls!)