Well, by George, Bobbie - you got there, with Annette and Cynthia nipping at your heels. TM, really, I t hought you'd get one or two, but not seven - lol. George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 - 2 November 1950) was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays. He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938), for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film Pygmalion (adaptation of his play of the same name), respectively. Shaw turned down all other awards and honours, including the offer of a knighthood. Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor, best known as the lead vocalist and a founder member of the Rolling Stones. Jagger studied business courses at the London School of Economics, and had seriously considered becoming either a journalist or a politician, comparing the latter to a pop star. Jagger's career has spanned over 50 years, and he has been described as "one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock & roll". In 1989 Jagger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2004 into the UK Music Hall of Fame with the Rolling Stones. Multiple Silver, Gold and Platinum albums and records. Kevin Spacey, CBE (born Kevin Spacey Fowler; July 26, 1959) is an American actor, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in the early 1990s, culminating in his first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Usual Suspects (1995), followed by an Academy Award for Best Actor for American Beauty . During a career which has earned Spacey several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, his other starring roles include Seven (1995), L.A. Confidential (1997), Pay It Forward (2000), K-PAX (2001), and Superman Returns (2006). He was the artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London from 2004 to 2014. He currently stars as Frank Underwood in the Netflix series House of Cards. Sandra Annette Bullock (born July 26, 1964) is an American actress and producer. She rose to fame in the 1990s with roles in films such as Demolition Man (1993), Speed (1994), The Net (1995), While You Were Sleeping (1995), A Time to Kill (1996), and Hope Floats (1998). In the new millennium, Bullock starred in Miss Congeniality (2000), Two Weeks Notice (2002), The Lake House (2006), and the critically acclaimed Crash (2004) and Gravity (2013). Bullock had initially turned down the role of Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side three times due to a discomfort with portraying a devout Christian. She was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actress, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Motion Picture Drama, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role and Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress. The Blind Side also received an Academy Award for Best Picture nomination. So, there is our foursome!! Fearsome, huh?? I think so. So, for Bobbie: For Cynthia: And for Annette: Thanks to all for my Birthday wishes and for playing. See you next week. Now I'm off to check out Cynthia's question!! Nancy.

grelobe, that is so interesting. Is that the case throughout Italy or only in certain areas? No, itÂs a matter of laws, I donÂt know why I wrote my mother has ever dreamt to use her husbandÂs surname because as a matter of fact in Italy women canÂt choose. When a man and a woman get married, each of them keep their last names, and thatÂs that. So my mother has got to sign, official papers, cheques and so on, with her own surname because sheÂs not recognised by the Italian amministration with her husbandÂs last name. I found out that my English teacherÂs father is Italian (after two years, more or less) and Piaggio is her own surname. She told me that her mother usually gets angry when sheÂs in Italy, because here she canÂt sign with her husbandÂs surname, but she must use her own, and sometimes they argue, in a friendly way I guess, about the fact that in my teacherÂs mother opinion, my teacher should sign with her husbandÂs surname instead with her own. Of course when she's in England , in Italy , I repeat she can't by law. I donÂt know the grounds of this law, and for sure I donÂt think it is because women in Italy have always been taken into a higher consideration than in other countries,(quite the other way around), for instance women in Italy were allowed to vote in 1945, in GB they were in 1917, and in U.S.A. Another peculiar thing is, that now parents can choose to surname their children with the fatherÂs one or the motherÂs one or , with both, with an hyphen bertwen them grelobe

So - shortlist prediction time! The shortlist comes out on Wednesday; I have read (or tried to read) ten of the thirteen. That's enough to make a stab at it. And I reckon that this is the best longlist I've seen for several years. 4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster - I'd be surprised and upset if it wasn't shortlisted Days Without End by Sebastian Barry - didn't finish it, but I think it'll be shortlisted. History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund - I enojoyed it, but I don't think so. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid - I'm going to try to read this before Wednesday - I'll let you know. Solar Bones by Mike McCormack - I don't think so, but I'd be delighted if it were. Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor - I don't think so, but I wouldn't object Elmet by Fiona Mozley - not read yet. The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy - not read yet Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders - interesting. I didn't really like it, but it might be shortlisted. Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie - abandoned - didn't like it. Autumn by Ali Smith - liked it - it might be shortlisted Swing Time by Zadie Smith - abandoned - didn't like it. But it'l probably be shortlisted. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead - overhyped, in my opinion, but will probably be shortisted. So - I suspect the shortlist will be 4-3-2-1, Days Without End, Ministry of Utmost Happiness (just because it's her first since The God of Small Things, which won the Booker), Underground Railroad, Lincoln in the Bardo and Swing Time. The shortlist I'd like to see, based on the ones I've read, would be 4-3-2-1, Solar Bones, Reservoir 13, Autumn, Days Without End and either History of Wolves or Exit West, if I like it. So, on to Exit West.

Yes indeed. The Remains of the Day won the Booker Prize, and is probably his most well-known book, due to the film with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. It's a wonderful book, but can seem a bit dense. Never Let Me Go was shortlisted for the Booker, and is my personal favourite of his. It was also made into a film with Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield. We discussed Never Let Me Go here on RP a few years ago. But I would strongly recommend reading the book, then reading the discussion. (Here is another link, which has additional more recent comments, but truncates some of the original comments.) All his books are very good, but these two, in my opinion, stand above the others.