Vicki simon biography of william hill

See also: Jardine Matheson

Jardine, Matheson & Co., later Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., forerunner of today's Jardine Matheson Holdings, was a Far Eastern company founded in 1832 by Scotsmen William Jardine and James Matheson as senior partners. Trafficking opium in Asia, while also trading cotton, tea, silk and a variety of other goods, from its early beginnings in Canton (modern-day Guangzhou), in 1844 the firm established its head office in the new British colony of Hong Kong then proceeded to expand all along the China Coast.

By the end of the nineteenth century, Jardine, Matheson & Co. had become the largest of the foreign trading companies in the Far East and had expanded its activities into sectors including shipping, cotton mills and railway construction.

Further growth occurred in the early decades of the twentieth century with new cold storage, packing and brewing businesses while the firm also became the largest cotton spinner in Shanghai.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949, doing business in the country became increasingly problematic. As a result, foreign businesses gradually withdrew from the mainland with Jardines leaving in 1954 to reconsolidate its business in Hong Kong. The firm would not return to mainland China until 1979, following the reform and opening up of the country.

Background

The British and other nations had traded informally with China since the beginning of the seventeenth century. Chinese silk and tea gradually became popular in Britain, but imperial China had little need for British manufactured imports such as woollens. Concerned at what they saw as the encroachment of "barbarians" in their Celestial Kingdom, successive Chinese emperors issued numerous edicts restricting trade with foreigners under what was known as the Canton System. From the middle of the eighteenth c

I just received the sad news that one of my favorite historical mystery authors recently passed away. From the press release:

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Born Victoria Ellen Straface in Washington, DC on July 25, 1948, Vicki graduated from the University of Maryland in 1970. In 2012, she earned a Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA, a program for which she was also a professor from 2000-2023. Thompson was a deeply respected and admired mentor who championed her students and delighted in watching their writing journeys take shape.

Starting in 1985, Vicki published 20 historical romance novels before pivoting to historical mysteries in 1999 with the USA Today bestselling Gaslight Mystery series. The series follows socialite-turned-midwife Sarah Brandt and Detective Sergeant Frank Molloy as they solve murders and fight injustice in turn-of-the-twentieth century New York City. Thompson first fell in love with New York during visits to the city when her daughter attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The twenty-seventh Gaslight Mystery was published in April 2024.

While continuing to write the Gaslight books, Thompson started The Counterfeit Lady novels, a new historical series, featuring Elizabeth Miles, a young con woman who uses her skills to right wrongs and help those in need in early 1900s New York City. The seventh book was published in December 2023 and featured the harrowing days leading to women finally securing the right to vote in 1920, a story Thompson was proud

Here's a quick cycling trivia question concerning two people who have been very much in the news of late - what have Paul Kimmage's Rough Ride and Lance Armstrong's It's Not About The Bike; My Journey Back To Life got in common?

The answer is, they're both past winners of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award, in 1990 and 2000 respectively; in fact they're the only cycling titles to have won the coveted award, but there are two more on the long list for this year's prize, announced today.

Those are Victoria Pendleton's Between the Lines – The Autobiography, written together with Donald McRae, plus the work by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle, The Secret Race – Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs, which gives a rather different account of Lance Armstrong's time at US Postal than his own book, co-written with Sally Jenkins, ever did.

You could argue there are actually two and two thirds bike-related books on this year's longlist given there are two triathlon-related titles as well - Matt Fitzgerald's Iron War – Dave Scott, Mark Allen & the Greatest Race Ever Run, and A Life Without Limits – A World Champion’s Journey, by Chrissie Wellington, with Michael Aylwin.

The shortlist for the prize, worth £24,000 to the author plus a free £2,000 bet with William Hill, will be announced on 26 October, with the winner revealed at Waterstone's Piccadilly on 26 November.

William Hill spokesman Graeme Sharpe said: “2012 was a memorable sporting year thanks to the Olympics and the Paralympics, the Ryder Cup and the US Open to name but a few of the highlights, and it is a year which has also produced a strong crop of memorable sporting books. It has been difficult enough to narrow the contenders down to a manageable longlis

Public, single-sex school in Hong Kong

Queen's College (Chinese: 皇仁書院; pinyin: Huáng rén shūyuàn) is the first public secondary school founded by the British colonial government in Hong Kong. It was initially named The Government Central School (Chinese: 中央書院; pinyin: Zhōngyāng shūyuàn) in 1862 and later renamed Victoria College (Chinese: 維多利亞書院; pinyin: Wéiduōlìyà shūyuàn) in 1890, and finally obtained the present name of Queen's College in 1894. It is currently located in Causeway Bay.

Brief history

The history of the college can be traced back to the Chinese village schools that were believed to have existed prior to the founding of British Hong Kong as a colony in 1842.

In August 1847, the British colonial government decreed that grants would be given to existing Chinese village schools in Hong Kong. It appointed an Education Committee in November of that year to examine the state of Chinese schools in Victoria, Stanley and Aberdeen, the aim being to bring the schools under closer government supervision. Following its examinations, the Committee reported that 3 Chinese village schools, namely Taipingshan School (28 pupils), Chungwan School (18 pupils) and Sheungwan School (21 pupils) were operating actively within Victoria City under Chinese masters Mr. Chuy Shing-cheung, Mr. Leung Sing-Than and Mr. Mak Mai-chun, respectively. The books used in these schools included the Three Character Classics (三字經), and the Four Books and the Five Classics (四書五經). This marked the beginning of the establishment of public education in Hong Kong. Subsequently, government intervention in the provision of education in Hong Kong increased, and in 1857, it established new schools, including West Point School, to meet the ever-increasing demand for education in the burgeoning entrepôt.

In 1860, the British sinologist Rev. Dr. James Legge proposed that th