Geography (5) - Carlos Ruiz Zafón

About Carlos Ruiz Zafón:

Carlos Ruiz Zafón was born in Barcelona, Spain in 1964.

His first novel published was a thriller for young adults called "El Príncipe de la Niebla". It was hugely acclaimed in Spain and won the Edebé literary award for young adult fiction. This novel was recently translated into English in 2010 under the title of "The Prince of Mist". Carlos also wrote three other novels for young adults before trying his hand at adult fiction.

His first adult novel was "El Sombre del Viento" or "The Shadow of the Wind" in English. This book became critically acclaimed worldwide and won many international prizes for literature  It has subsequently been translated into over 35 languages.  

His novel "El Juego del Angel" ("The Angel's Game") was released a few years later as a prequel to "The Shadow of the Wind". It became the fastest selling book in Spanish history. 

Both of these novels are set in Barcelona around the time of the Spanish Civil War and focus on the lives of two young men who have an affinity for books.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón now lives in Los Angeles but visits Barcelona regularly.

Barcelona:

"The Shadow of the Wind" and "The Angel's Game" are both set in Carlos Ruiz Zafón's home city of Barcelona. 

The city is situated on the north-eastern coast of Spain. It has a big harbour which is the ninth largest port in Europe. This means that the city is a main centre of trade and commerce. 

Barcelona is also a beautiful city full of art and culture. The city is dotted with old cathedrals and pieces of Antonio Guadí's architecture.

Geography (4) - J.K Rowling

About J.K Rowling:


J.K Rowling was born in Yate, Gloucestershire in 1965. As a child she wrote fantasy stories which she told to her younger sister, Di.

She studied French and Classics at the University of Exeter and spent some time studying in Paris.

She came up with the idea for Harry Potter while on a train trip from Manchester to London.

Her stories centre around a teenage boy, Harry, who finds out that he is a wizard and heads off to study magic at a school called Hogwarts. Each book in the series follows Harry and his friends, Ron and Hermione, as they encounter new adventures in the wizarding world.


She uses a lot of her own experiences to help her with her writing. The first and most prominent of these was her own mother's death. Her descriptions in her novels of coping with loss and its affects are very real and profound. She also uses happier memories as inspiration in her books, such as the turquoise Ford Anglia that the Weasleys have. She based this on her best friend from school's car, which she used to drive around in a lot as a teenager.

Her books soon became a worldwide phenomenon. The last four books in the Harry Potter series consecutively broke records, both in the UK and the USA, as the fastest-selling books in history.

She now owns a house in Edinburgh, the city where she spent a lot of her time writing the Harry Potter series.


Edinburgh:

Edinburgh the beautiful capital city of Scotland, situated roughly in the centre of the country.


It is surrounded by a ring of extinct volcanic hills.The most famous of these is Arthur's Seat, a hill covered in rocky crags, that at 220m above sea level is the highest point of the city. Arthur's seat is a very popular tourist attraction in Edinburgh since it is very close to the city and relatively easy to climb. The formation itself resembles a crouched lion with the head and body made up of two extinct volcanoes. It was formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago and was eroded down into its current shape by glaciation during the ice age. In terms of geology, the hill is made up largely of basalt.

Geography (3) - Christopher Paolini

About Christopher Paolini:

Christopher Paolini was raised in Paradise Valley, Montana. After graduating from High School at the age of 15, Paolini began work on his first novel in the Inheritance Cycle, "Eragon".

Paolini set his stories in a mythical land of his own creation called Alegasia. The stories follow a young boy called Eragon, who discovers a dragon egg and grows up to become a key figure in the liberation of the country from the evil king, Galbatorix.
Paolini based one of the characters in the series on his own sister. This character was Angela the herbalist, who is a very smart and sarcastic person, but also slightly crazy.

Eragon was published by Christopher's parents' publishing company in 2002. Paolini designed the cover and drew the maps for the first edition of this book. He then spent the next year travelling around the United States promoting his novel in libraries, schools and book shops.

The step-son of a famous author, Carl Hiassen, found the novel in a book shop and fell in love with it. He brought it to the attention of the publishing house, Alfred A Knopf, who offered to publish the rest of the books in the series.

The Inheritance Cycle has become a worldwide best selling series. The last book in the series is due to be released in November after much anticipation from fans.

Montana:

The world of the text, Alegasia, is largely based on the geography of Paolini's home in Montana. He even named certain geographical features, such as rivers and mountain ranges, after the places he experienced in his childhood. For example, the Beartooth River in "Eragon" is named after the Beartooth Mountains that surround Paradise Valley.


Paradise Valley is in the upper section of the Yellowstone basin and is a beautifully scenic place. It is surrounded by snow capped mountains with large grass lands and rivers in the centre. The valley has lots of hot springs since it is situated very near to the Yellowstone caldera. A caldera is a huge bowl shaped depression formed when land collapsed after a volcanic eruption. The Yellowstone caldera is one of the largest in the world. 

Geography (2) - J.R.R Tolkien

About J.R.R Tolkien:

J.R.R Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa in 1892. At the age of three he, along with his mother and younger brother, returned to England. Shortly afterwards, Tolkien’s father died in South Africa, so the rest of the family remained in England.

Tolkien went on to study in Exeter Collage, Oxford where he received first class honours in his English degree.

At the age of sixteen he met Edith Mary Bratt, and fell in love with her. But their relationship was not approved of by her parents due to the fact that Tolkien was Catholic and Edith’s family were Protestant. As a result, Edith was sent to a country house and forbidden to see Tolkien. They became reacquainted in later years and were married just before Tolkien was sent off to fight in World War I.  

He fought at the Battle of the Somme during the First World War and his experiences of the war strongly influenced his writing. His works were also influenced by European mythology and legends and his strong Christian faith.

His most famous works include "The Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Silmarillion". These are all set in the fantasy world of Middle Earth and centre around the story of the One Ring. In "The Silmarillion", Tolkien tells the story of the creation of Middle Earth and how the Dark Lord Sauron forged the One Ring as a way of binding all the other races of Middle Earth to his will. "The Hobbit" is the story of a hobbit called Bilbo and his journey to the Lonely Mountain with a group of dwarves and how he discovers the ring along the way. "The Lord of the Rings" then focuses on his nephew, Frodo, and his quest to destroy the ring in the mountain of fire.

Bloemfontein and The Orange Free State:

At the time Bloemfontein was the capital of the Orange Free State. This was an independent Boer republic that had been settled by the Dutch. 

The Orange Free State was at the time a popular mining area for diamonds. Diamonds need specific conditions to form and these are only met in the mantle and at meteoric crater sites. There is a large meteor crater near the town of Vredefort, which used to be part of the Orange Free State. For this reason the area was very rich in diamonds in the late 1800s.

English Novel!

In English class we have been assigned the task of reading at least one novel on the list for the 2013 Leaving Cert. This is something that I will really enjoy, because reading is something that I love.When I looked at the list I found that I had already read five of the titiles; "The Road", "My Sister's Keeper", "Mister Pip", "Emma" and "The Book Thief". I spent a lot of time deliberating over which new books to read and managed to narrow it down to three; "The Grass is Singing", "1984" and "The Great Gatsby". I have ordered them and think that I will begin by reading "1984". I can't wait to get started!

Gorgeous Blueberry Puddings...

On Tuesday, Stephanie and I made our second American masterpiece in Home.Ec. Blueberry Puddings!! These are the most delicious desserts I have ever eaten! They are also, unlike most tasty dishes, extremely easy to make. We once again used Jamie Oliver's wonderful cookbook on American Cusine and as always he didn't fail us! To start off we chopped up some tinned pears, tossed them in brown sugar and spread them over the base of six ramekin dishes. We then made the pudding batter by beating the sugar, butter, vanilla, orange zest and juice, eggs and flour together using an electric beater. We then spread the batter over the pears, tossed the blueberries in sugar and scattered them over the top. We let them bake for half an hour, until they had risen and were nicely browned. At the end Stephanie and I sat down and scoffed the lot!

Technology Projects!

Since the start of the year we have done three practical projects in technology classes. The first of these was making a plastic keyring which we had to cut out using a hacksaw, file down and gloss. The next one, making a clock, was really enjoyable since we got to design our own centre-piece for the clock face (my piece was a geometric shape that loked slightly like a puzzle piece). We then got to make stickers for the numbers around the edge. Everyone's clocks looked really good and I was really pleased with how my clock turned out! I am now working on a key holder in the shape of a key. I'm having slightly more difficulty with this one since the teeth of the key are really hard to cut out!

Spanish Presentation: Antonio Gaudí

Yesterday I presented my project on the Spanish architect Antonio Gaudí to the class. Gaudí is a person who I greatly admire since I too aspire to become an architect. His designs were way ahead of his time and are still considered to be extremely creative, colourful and uniquely shaped. I would really like to go and visit Barcelona some time in order to visit some of his spectacular work. The places I would most like to visit are the Casa Batllo, the Park Guell and the Sagrada Familia (obviously!). I thought that the presentation went alright but I think I spoke to fast and forgot a few points.. Oh well, I really did enjoy doing the research!

History Project!

For my History Project I have decided to focus on Stuttgart, Germany since this is where my mum comes from. The city's history is very interesting and I am thoroghly enjoying doing this project so far! The Romans, Celts and Swabian Dukes all have left the city full of historical monuments and it also was very heavilly bombed in WWII due to the Mercedez-Benz, Bosch and Porsche factories in the area.