Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 February 8

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Doris Lessing in 2006
Doris Lessing

The Good Terrorist is a 1985 political novel by Doris Lessing (pictured), a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. The story examines events in the life of Alice, a naïve and well-intentioned squatter, who moves in with a group of radicals in London, and is drawn into their terrorist activities. Lessing began writing The Good Terrorist after the Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombed the Harrods department store in London in 1983. She had been a member of the British Communist Party in the early 1950s, but later grew disillusioned with it. Some reviewers labelled The Good Terrorist as a satire; Lessing called it humorous. Some focused on Alice's ambivalent nature, as highlighted by the novel's oxymoronic title, describing her as neither a good person nor a good revolutionary. Some were impressed by the book's insight and characterization, while others complained about its style and the characters' lack of depth. The novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and won the Mondello Prize and the WH Smith Literary Award. (Full article...)

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HMS Spiteful
HMS Spiteful

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Tom Brady in 2011
Tom Brady

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February 8

Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots
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Oenothera biennis

Oenothera biennis is a plant native to eastern and central North America and widely naturalized elsewhere in temperate and subtropical regions. It has a life span of two years, growing to 30–150 cm (12–59 in) tall. The flowers are yellow and only last until the following noon after blooming. They open visibly fast every evening producing an interesting spectacle, hence the common name "evening primrose."

Photograph: George Chernilevsky

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