User:Ivankinsman

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My name is Ivan Kinsman and I am an English national.

I have an M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of St Andrews (1981-85).

I am currently working as a lecturer in Kielce, Poland, where I live with my wife and son.

To date I have made contributions to:

Literature

• all the main articles for the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey-Maturin 21-book series, including the plot summaries, the characters and the ships in these historical novels.
• the biography of Jonathan Raban and synopses for Soft City, Arabia Through the Looking Glass, Old Glory: An American Voyage, Coasting (book), Hunting Mister Heartbreak: A Discovery of America, Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meanings, Waxwings (novel) and Surveillance (novel). I consider Coasting his finest travelogue.

• work on the William Boyd (writer) article and plot summaries'sources/external links for his novels: Brazzaville Beach, A Good Man in Africa, An Ice-Cream War, The New Confessions, The Blue Afternoon, Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928-1960, Armadillo (novel), Any Human Heart, and Restless (novel). I consider Brazzaville Beach one of the best novels written in the latter half of the twentieth century.

• the biography of Sebastian Faulks, literary themes, bibliography and plot summary/background of Human Traces, On Green Dolphin Street, Engleby and Charlotte Gray. Birdsong (novel) and Charlotte Gray (novel) are definitely in my top 15 novels.

• the entire plot summary and literary analysis section of The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. I have done this because I found there were too many different versions on the net, many of which were incorrect. I have also included a stub on The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild, the Great.

• a plot summary for Tess of the d'Urbervilles and the literary themes section for Thomas Hardy.

• the George Orwell main article (additions dated 21st April, 2007 in history), with a particular focus on his personal life.

• the biography of Laurie Lee and the plot history and summary of Cider With Rosie and As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, in my opinion one of the greatest travel books ever written.

• the biography of Eric Newby, one of my favourite travel writers and the articles for The Last Grain Race, Love and War in the Apennines and A Small Place in Italy.

• Aldous Huxley's main literary themes in his novels

• the plot summary and literary themes section for Robert Graves' classic Good-bye to All That.

• the work and literary influences section of the Jane Austen article (and some minor additions to the film versions of her novels).

• the main article for the writer, Andrew Sinclair and his wife, Sonia Sinclair (formerly Sonia Melchett).

• Contribution to Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation. This brillian best seller describes the US' obsession with junk food, the global growth of fast food enterprises like McDonald's and KFC, and the transformation of the US food industry into a vast industrial concern run by massive agribusinesses, which treat their hourly-paid workers more like animals, and the animals more like numbers instead of living creatures. I have also contributed to the stub on ConAgra and IBP, Inc., two of the US' largest meatpacking (i.e. slaughterhouse) companies.

• contribution to the J.R.R.Tolkien article regarding his rather complex friendship with C.S.Lewis.

Non-literature

• The personal life section in the article on Gordon Brown.
• Bruschetta - tradition and recipe.
• Tina Brown - Talk Magazine, The Diana Chronicles and newspaper columnist.
• Goldman Sachs' role in the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis.
• Insert of Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker into Salomon Brothers article.
• Contribution to the Fanny Craddock article.
• The 2008 campaign of violence against white commercial farmers and black farmers supporting the MDC in Zimbabwe by Robert Mugabe's war veterans and other assorted thugs. See Land reform in Zimbabwe
• The main article page on John Sauven, Executive Director of Greenpeace

Poland

• I am currently working on the chapter summaries of Professor Norman Davies' God's Playground, Volumes I and II.
• Richard Butterwick - Dr Butterwick is a living eminent Polish historian.
• Van den Budenmayer in Krzysztof Kieślowski's classic film Three Colours: Blue and entries regarding his marriage.

E-mail address: ikinsman@hotmail.com

This user is a member of the Novels WikiProject, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of narrative fiction known as Novels, novellas, novelettes and short stories. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.