"her producer husband Nigel Stonier also reside in Cheshire. The county has also been home to several writers, including Hall Caine (1853–1931), popular romantic novelist and playwright; Alan Garner; Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, whose novel ""Cranford"" features her home town of Knutsford; and most famously Lewis Carroll, born and raised in Daresbury, hence the Cheshire Cat (a fictional cat popularised by Carroll in ""Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"" and known for its distinctive mischievous grin). Artists from the county include ceramic artist Emma Bossons and sculptor and photographer Andy Goldsworthy. Actors from Cheshire include Tim Curry; Daniel Craig, the 6th James"
"Grinch The Grinch is a fictional character created by Dr. Seuss. He is best known as the main character of the children's book ""How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"" (1957). He has been played by many different actors, including: Boris Karloff, Hans Conried, Jim Carrey and Benedict Cumberbatch. The Grinch is depicted as a hairy, pot-bellied, pear-shaped, snub-nosed creature with a cat-like face and cynical personality. In full-color adaptations, he is typically colored avocado green. He has spent the past 53 years living in seclusion on a cliff overlooking the town of Whoville. In contrast to the cheerful Whos, the Grinch"
"Time"" list. Grinch The Grinch is a fictional character created by Dr. Seuss. He is best known as the main character of the children's book ""How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"" (1957). He has been played by many different actors, including: Boris Karloff, Hans Conried, Jim Carrey and Benedict Cumberbatch. The Grinch is depicted as a hairy, pot-bellied, pear-shaped, snub-nosed creature with a cat-like face and cynical personality. In full-color adaptations, he is typically colored avocado green. He has spent the past 53 years living in seclusion on a cliff overlooking the town of Whoville. In contrast to the cheerful Whos,"
"in the book ""Alice in Wonderland"" was inspired by a carving in Croft church. Another possible inspiration was the British Shorthair: Carroll saw a representative British Shorthair illustrated on a label of Cheshire cheese. The Cat Fanciers' Association profile reads: ""When gracelessness is observed, the British Shorthair is duly embarrassed, quickly recovering with a 'Cheshire cat smile'”. In 1992, members of the Lewis Carroll Society attributed it to a gargoyle found on a pillar in St Nicolas Church, Cranleigh, where Carroll used to travel frequently when he lived in Guildford (though this is doubtful as he moved to Guildford some"
"Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English writer of world-famous children's fiction, notably ""Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"" and its sequel ""Through the Looking-Glass"". He was noted for his facility at word play, logic and fantasy. The poems ""Jabberwocky"" and ""The Hunting of the Snark"" are classified in the genre of literary nonsense. He was also a mathematician, photographer and Anglican deacon. Carroll came from a family of high church Anglicans, and developed a long relationship with Christ Church, Oxford, where he lived for"
"Mock Turtle The Mock Turtle is a fictional character devised by Lewis Carroll from his popular book ""Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"". Its name is taken from a dish that was popular in the Victorian period, mock turtle soup. Carroll enjoyed such puns on Victorian fashions and etiquette, and showed this frequently. The description and drawing by John Tenniel gives comedic value to the Mock Turtle, as he is clearly an assemblage of creatures, therefore not a real turtle as his name rightly suggests. Alice encounters the Mock Turtle with the Gryphon. The Mock Turtle is a very melancholic character, because"
"James Finlayson (actor) James Finlayson (27 August 1887 – 9 October 1953) was a Scottish-born American actor who worked in both silent and sound comedies. Bald, with a fake moustache, Finlayson had many trademark comic mannerisms and is famous for his squinting, outraged, ""double take and fade away"" head reaction, and characteristic expression ""d'ooooooh"", and as the most famous comic foil of Laurel and Hardy. Born in Larbert, Stirlingshire, Scotland to Alexander and Isabella (née Henderson) Finlayson, he worked as a tinsmith before pursuing an acting career. After the death of both his parents, he emigrated to the U.S. in"
"Gertrude Chataway Gertrude Chataway (1866–1951) was the most important child-friend in the life of the author Lewis Carroll, after Alice Liddell. It was Gertrude who inspired his great nonsense mock-epic ""The Hunting of the Snark"" (1876), and the book is dedicated to her, and opens with a poem that uses her name as a double acrostic. Carroll first became friends with Gertrude in 1875, when she was aged nine and he was forty-three, while on holiday at the English seaside resort of Sandown. He made a number of pen and ink sketches of Gertrude as a young girl. He continued"
"to correspond with her, and to spend numerous seaside holidays with her, including several when she was in her late twenties. Gertrude Chataway Gertrude Chataway (1866–1951) was the most important child-friend in the life of the author Lewis Carroll, after Alice Liddell. It was Gertrude who inspired his great nonsense mock-epic ""The Hunting of the Snark"" (1876), and the book is dedicated to her, and opens with a poem that uses her name as a double acrostic. Carroll first became friends with Gertrude in 1875, when she was aged nine and he was forty-three, while on holiday at the English"
"to remark that ""she has often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat"". According to recent analysis by scholar David Day, Lewis Carroll's cat was Edward Bouverie Pusey, Oxford professor of Hebrew, and Carroll's mentor. The name Pusey was suggested by Alice's deferential address of the cat as ""Cheshire Puss"". Pusey was an authority on the fathers of the Christian Church, and in Carroll's time Pusey was known as the Patristic Catenary (or chain), after the chain of authority of Church patriarchs. As a mathematician, Carroll would have been well familiar with the other"
"a lot of his lines came from improvisation. March Hare The March Hare (called Haigha in ""Through the Looking-Glass"") is a character most famous for appearing in the tea party scene in Lewis Carroll's ""Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"". The main character, Alice, hypothesizes, ""Mad as a March hare"" is a common British English phrase, both now and in Carroll's time, and appears in John Heywood's collection of proverbs published in 1546. It is reported in ""The Annotated Alice"" by Martin Gardner that this proverb is based on popular belief about hares' behaviour at the beginning of the long breeding season,"
"Gladys Morgan Gladys Morgan (1898–1983) was a Welsh comedian, billed variously as the 'Queen of Comedy' or 'the Queen of Laughter', and was renowned for her toothless, ear-splitting, infectious laugh. Gladys Morgan was born in Swansea, Wales, in 1898 and, though her family was not theatrical, she was always interested in the stage and by the time she turned eleven she had her own song and dance act. She joined a children’s concert party called The Brilliant Gems, where one of her colleagues was Albert Burdon, who was later to become known as an actor and comedian. Four foot ten"
"were not frequently used and often discarded, including the head, hooves, and tail; and uses the non-muscular meat to imitate turtle meat. Tenniel's illustration shows the Mock Turtle with the body of a turtle, and the head, hooves, and tail of a calf. The complicated pun, then, is both word-play and picture-play. Mock Turtle The Mock Turtle is a fictional character devised by Lewis Carroll from his popular book ""Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"". Its name is taken from a dish that was popular in the Victorian period, mock turtle soup. Carroll enjoyed such puns on Victorian fashions and etiquette, and"
"a grotesque caricature of a Victorian gentleman: a rotund figure in cape and top hat (hiding his horns), with a perpetual enormous grin and ""pince-nez"" spectacles. Although his attitude is often cheerful, he is quick to reveal his more intimidating, malicious side. The Earl has a golem named , a pink umbrella with a small, talking jack-o-lantern at its tip. It usually talks excitedly or screams, adding its name to the end of almost every sentence. Lero, used by the Earl as a Mary Poppins-type flying umbrella, is very loyal to him and guards his sword. Road often takes Lero"
"for scornful laughter. From the evolved the , thence the , and ultimately the familiar English adjectival form, ""sardonic"". ""Risus sardonicus"" is an apparent smile on the face of those who are convulsing because of tetanus, or strychnine poisoning. From the ""Oxford English Dictionary"", ""A fixed, grin-like expression resulting from spasm of facial muscles, esp. in tetanus."" Also: [Convulsion of the] facial muscles may cause a characteristic expression called ""Risus sardonicus"" (from the Latin for scornful laughter) or ""Risus caninus"" (from the Latin for doglike laughter or grinning). This facial expression has also been observed among patients with tetanus. ""Risus"
"been commemorated by plaques elsewhere, including those at Teddington Studios, BBC Television Centre and Blackpool Comedy Carpet. Harry Worth Harry Bourlon Illingsworth (20 November 1917 – 20 July 1989), professionally known as Harry Worth, was an English comedy actor, comedian and ventriloquist. Unlike the brash humour of other comedians at the time, Worth portrayed a charming, gentle and genial character, totally bemused by life, creating comedic confusion wherever he went. Worth was born in Hoyland Common, West Riding of Yorkshire, the youngest child of a miner. He had ten siblings. When he was only five months old his father died"
"character to character without a hitch. His characters included the Old Maid, who sang; George, who was afflicted with a terrible stutter; Nettie, George’s sister with a cleft lip; the Sailor; Joe, usually the main figure in the act; and Happy, a character who never spoke, but only laughed at the other characters’ jokes. All six of these figures (the seventh is not among the group) are on display at the Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. As time passed, however, Vernon began to lose his eyesight, and, according to correspondence, he eventually went blind on Christmas morning, 25"
"Harry Worth Harry Bourlon Illingsworth (20 November 1917 – 20 July 1989), professionally known as Harry Worth, was an English comedy actor, comedian and ventriloquist. Unlike the brash humour of other comedians at the time, Worth portrayed a charming, gentle and genial character, totally bemused by life, creating comedic confusion wherever he went. Worth was born in Hoyland Common, West Riding of Yorkshire, the youngest child of a miner. He had ten siblings. When he was only five months old his father died from injuries resulting from an industrial accident. He left school at 14 and was a miner for"
"become familiar to millions as Eddie Yeats in ""Coronation Street"", appears as a workman. The then-popular BBC series ""Juke Box Jury"" is parodied as ""Hi-Fi Court"", and the UK version of the hidden camera series ""Candid Camera"" is parodied as ""You Can't Help Laughing!"" ""Private Eye"" magazine referred to the Queen and Princess Margaret as Brenda and Yvonne (respectively). The film also implies that the Queen is a fan of Yvonne's single. Some of the characters' names are borrowed from Lewis Carroll's poetry, chiefly the nonsense poem ""Jabberwocky"": Charlotte ""Brillig"", Tom ""Wabe"", Mrs ""Gimble"", Bobby ""Mome-Rath"", Jeremy ""Tove"", and The"
"Service in 1941, the manufacturers voluntarily agreed to adopt a readily available alternative process using hydrogen peroxide. Although the expression ""mad as a hatter"" was associated with the syndrome, the origin of the phrase is uncertain. Lewis Carroll's iconic Mad Hatter character in ""Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"" displays markedly eccentric behavior, which includes taking a bite out of a teacup. Carroll would have been familiar with the phenomenon of dementia among hatters, but the literary character is thought to be directly inspired by Theophilus Carter, an eccentric furniture dealer who did not show signs of mercury poisoning. The actor Johnny"
"and an Al Jaffee introduction. Milt Gross Milt Gross (; March 4, 1895 – November 29, 1953) was an American cartoonist and animator. His work is noted for its exaggerated cartoon style and Yiddish-inflected English dialogue. He originated the non-sequitur ""Banana Oil!"" as a phrase deflating pomposity and posing. His character Count Screwloose's admonition, ""Iggy, keep an eye on me!"", became a national catchphrase. The National Cartoonists Society fund to aid indigent cartoonists and their families for many years was known as the Milt Gross Fund. In 2005, it was absorbed by the Society's Foundation, which continues the charitable work"
"chin, bristly with the stubble of a coarse hard beard; and his complexion was one of that kind which never looks clean or wholesome. But what added most to the grotesque expression of his face, was a ghastly smile, which appearing to be the mere result of habit and to have no connection with any mirthful or complacent feeling, constantly revealed the few discoloured fangs that were yet scattered in his mouth, and gave him the aspect of a panting dog... he ate hard eggs, shell and all, devoured gigantic prawns with the heads and tails on... drank boiling tea"
"March Hare The March Hare (called Haigha in ""Through the Looking-Glass"") is a character most famous for appearing in the tea party scene in Lewis Carroll's ""Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"". The main character, Alice, hypothesizes, ""Mad as a March hare"" is a common British English phrase, both now and in Carroll's time, and appears in John Heywood's collection of proverbs published in 1546. It is reported in ""The Annotated Alice"" by Martin Gardner that this proverb is based on popular belief about hares' behaviour at the beginning of the long breeding season, which lasts from February to September in Britain."
"frequently in columns written for the Genii magazine by Vernon. Larry Grey Lawrence Grey (March 23, 1895 – May 5, 1951) was an English magician known for his card tricks. He also worked as an occasional actor and is known for voicing Bill the Lizard in Walt Disney's ""Alice in Wonderland"". Larry Grey was born on March 23, 1895 in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. In his youth, he emigrated to the United States, where he began practicing magic. One of his earliest tricks included Jumbo Cards, which inspired many of his later card tricks. Around 1918, Grey met"
"critical thinkers such as Denis Diderot were already asserting that too much literature had been published on dragons: ""There are already in books all too many fabulous stories of dragons"". In Lewis Carroll's classic children's novel ""Through the Looking-Glass"" (1872), one of the inset poems describes the Jabberwocky, a kind of dragon. Carroll's illustrator John Tenniel, a famous political cartoonist, humorously showed the Jobberwocky with the waistcoat, buck teeth, and myopic eyes of a Victorian university lecturer, such as Carroll himself. In works of comedic children's fantasy, dragons often fulfill the role of a magic fairy tale helper. In such"
"sentences his political enemy, Lord Clancharlie, to death in an iron maiden. Clancharlie's son, Gwynplaine, is disfigured with a permanent grin by comprachico Dr. Hardquannone, so that he will ""laugh forever at his fool of a father"". When the comprachicos are exiled, Gwynplaine is deserted. He discovers a blind baby girl, Dea, who has also been abandoned. Together, they are taken in by the mountebank Ursus. Years later, a now-adult Gwynplaine has become The Laughing Man, the freak show star of a traveling carnival. He and Dea have also fallen in love; he remains distant, believing himself unworthy of her"
"""The Wallypug of Why"" undeniably owes a great deal to Lewis Carroll. In the latter decades of the 19th century there were many ""Alice"" imitations, many of them very close to the original. Of these imitators Farrow is easily the best, and also the most prolific. The Wallypug is a genuinely original and endearing character, a ""nervous little nonentity who in theory rules the land of Why, but in practice is ruled by his subjects whom he addresses as 'Your Majesty.' Harry Furniss's drawings of the Wallypug with his crown tipped over one eye caught the character so well that"
"Lewis Chessmen from northern Europe are carved from walrus ivory. Because of its distinctive appearance, great bulk, and immediately recognizable whiskers and tusks, the walrus also appears in the popular cultures of peoples with little direct experience with the animal, particularly in English children's literature. Perhaps its best-known appearance is in Lewis Carroll's whimsical poem ""The Walrus and the Carpenter"" that appears in his 1871 book ""Through the Looking-Glass"". In the poem, the eponymous antiheroes use trickery to consume a great number of oysters. Although Carroll accurately portrays the biological walrus's appetite for bivalve mollusks, oysters, primarily nearshore and intertidal"
"Smirk A smirk is a smile evoking insolence, scorn, or offensive smugness, falling into the category of what Desmond Morris described as Deformed-compliment Signals. A smirk may also be an affected, ingratiating smile, as in Mr Bennet's description of Mr Wickham as making smirking love to all his new in-laws in the novel ""Pride and Prejudice"". The word derives from Old English ""smearcian"", via Middle English ""smirken"". It is from the same root as ""smile"", from Proto-Germanic ""*smar-"", but with a velar root extension ""-k-"" (with intensive or frequentative function) particular to English also found in ""talk"" (from the root"
"on the ""Chairman's Choice - Music Hall Greats"" album. His eldest son, Major Duncan McCallum, became MP for Argyll. Charles Coborn Colin Whitton McCallum (4 August 1852 – 23 November 1945), known by his stage name Charles Coborn, was a British music hall singer and comedian. In a long career, Coborn was known largely for two comic songs: ""Two Lovely Black Eyes"", and ""The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo."" He was born in Stepney, east London, and adopted his stage name from Coborn Road, near Mile End. He made his music hall debut on the Isle of"
"Caroll Spinney Caroll Edwin Spinney (born December 26, 1933) is a retired American puppeteer, cartoonist, author and speaker most famous for playing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on ""Sesame Street"" from its inception in 1969 until 2018. He is usually credited as Caroll Spinney but has sometimes been credited using the alternate spelling ""Carroll Spinney"" or under the name Ed Spinney. Caroll Edwin Spinney was born in Waltham, Massachusetts on December 26, 1933. His mother, a native of Bolton, England, named him Caroll because he was born the day after Christmas. He has been drawing and painting since he"
"setting of many of his books. He created and voiced the hardboiled detective parody character Guy Noir on his radio show. Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish poet and playwright known for his biting wit. Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927) was an English writer and humorist, best known for the comic travelogue ""Three Men in a Boat"". P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) was one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. Tom Sharpe (1928–2013) was a satirical novelist, best known for his ""Wilt"" series, as well as ""Porterhouse Blue"" and "" Blott on the Landscape"". Alan Coren (1938–2007) could"
"George Winslow George ""Foghorn"" Winslow (May 3, 1946 – June 13, 2015), born George Karl Wentzlaff, was an American child actor of the 1950s known for his stentorian voice and deadpan demeanor. He appeared in several films, some opposite such stars as Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Dean Martin, and Jerry Lewis. In the late 1950s, he retired from acting. Nicknamed ""Foghorn"" for his raspy voice as a slender child with dark blond hair and deep blue eyes, Wentzlaff, a Los Angeles native, broke into the entertainment business on Art Linkletter's family-oriented radio program, ""People are Funny"". Asked his"