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Made a start on this article. More details as I can find them. -- Fraserspeirs ( talk · contribs) 20:49, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)
I am a great fan of Raban's work, particularly with regard to his writing style. I have mainly read his earlier books and, with so little biographical information about him, have attempted to put together a biography (still somewhat limited) gleaned from articles and interviews. I feel that he should have far more prominence in the literary world, particularly in England, than he currently has, since he is one of the best living authors of his generation. All his books are available on Amazon at the amazon.co.uk site Ivankinsman 08:44, 11 April 2007 (UTC)
Daqu ( talk · contribs) Removed so-called article that offers no reason for its existence. (I'm sure it has one, but it doesn't belong in Wikipedia until it begins by explaining itself, not Mr. Raban's biography.)
Jonathan Raban here. I'm flattered by, and grateful for, the work put into this article by its several contributors. May I make a couple--or three--flyspeck points? Missing ISBN number for "Surveillance" is 978-0-375-42244-7. I did an honours degree in English at Hull, not one in English and Drama. Hull U. also awarded me an honorary D. Litt in 2005 (ref: www.hull.ac.uk/05/pdf/aboutus/news/may/index.pdf+Raban+hull+doctorate&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us). Bibliography is a bit incomplete. It misses out "God, Man and Mrs Thatcher" (1989), also three early critical books: "The Technique of Modern Fiction" (1968), Mark Twain: Huckleberry Finn (1968), and "The Society of the Poem" (1971). It'd be wrong of me to edit an article about me, but I'd be happy to see someone else make some or all of these very minor corrections. Best to all, Nabarj 23:43, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
Jonathan, having been born in England myself, allow me to quibble a bit: Shouldn't that be British subject, rather than citizen? ( Myersdtm 17:13, 3 June 2007 (UTC))
Myersdtm: No, I just checked my passport. Under "nationality" it says: "British Citizen." Nabarj 00:05, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
Jonathan, quite right of course. My passport says the same. I'd forgotten about the Nationality Act and all that. This idea of being a subject rather than a citizen was drummed into my cranium (unfortunately, not to be dislodged) when I was growing up in Surrey. Thanks for taking the time to respond. Love your work! ( 66.191.160.194 14:38, 4 June 2007 (UTC))
I've no idea why wikipedia signed me out during the above edit. ( Myersdtm 14:43, 4 June 2007 (UTC))
Artur - please leave in Waxwings (novel) and Surveillance (novel) and Coasting (book) so that they connect through to the plot summary pages. If you take novel out, they go through to the definitions of these words. Plus, how is the German Wikipedia article coming along? Ivankinsman ( talk · contribs) 09:30, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
Hello ... I stumbled across this article while doing some WikiGnome cleanups on Waxwings (novel) ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views), and felt that you nuggets deserved my 2¢ worth.
First of all, I found this Discussion page unreadable because there were (a) no headings to break up the threads, and (b) no indentations to separate comments from replies ... I started by adding a {{
talkheader}}
(which is the Very First Thing that you should do when you create a Talk page) ... this provides a Click here to start a new topic link to create meaningful section headers for new threads.
In the absence of any meaningful subject/headlines, I considered things like, Vandalism - page blanked and Comment by the article's subject, but decided to KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) instead ... I used the date of the first comment in each thread as the headers when I broke up the discussions into sections.
Kudos to you all for signing your posts! ... I did not have to use any {{
unsigned2}}
templates to identify your contributions. :-)
I have modified some of your signatures using {{
User}}
... this provides the wikilinks to the user's Talk page and their Contributions ... it just reduces the number of places you have to click to find out this information, and using it yourself is purely a courtesy ... OTOH, using the ":" (
colon) for indentation in replies is considered Good Etiquette for being able to follow conversations ... each one used moves your comment one level to the right.
Anywho, I'm going to follow some more "What links here" links in articles related to this author, make some more cosmetic improvements, and then I plan to MOVE ON.
In the mean time, Grasshopper, just remember ... there was a time when I knew even less about this wiki-stuff than you do at this very moment, so don't be afraid to Be BOLD! ... that's how you learn.
Happy Editing! — 68.239.79.82 ( talk · contribs) 20:34, 17 May 2007 (UTC)
If I were a pleasant, polite person like Jonathan Raban is (I'm not), and I didn't know what Wikipedia was, and I stumbled upon an article about me on the Internet, and all of a sudden I'm being yelled at about Wikipedia policies, I'd be entirely disillusioned. I of course agree that Mr, Raban is a notable person and an entirely suitable subject for an article, and I agree he shouldn't write his own article, but there's no cause to be incivil or unwelcoming. Ben-w 07:51, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
For the record (Raban here), I checked with Wikipedia before contributing to the Talk page and was assured that it was in order to do so. I wouldn't dream of trying to edit the article itself. In fact I don't feel "yelled at", and think the guidelines set out by USER:68.239.79.82 are entirely appropriate. I'd instinctively distrust any article written or edited by its subject. But I gratefully appreciate Ben W's concern for my injured sensibility, which is probably a lot tougher than he seems to think!
Nabarj
20:05, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
This is a good website and for some reason Jonathan Raban is not on it. I am trying to get him listed as have no idea why a writer of his calibre does not feature. This was the reply from the British Council so I will keep people posted:
'We currently have over 200 authors on the waiting list to be added to the Contemporary Writers site. The site is primarily in support of our work overseas and therefore includes authors we work with plus major prizewinners from the UK and Commonwealth. I keep a note of authors that we consider should be added to the site (plus those that have asked to be added to the site) and an editorial board meets twice a year to decide whether they should be included or not. After we have prepared the author entry we contact the author for approval. We can only add between 5-10 authors every month so the waiting time can be considerable. Having followed your link to the Wikipedia page, I would agree that Mr. Raban is entirely qualified to be added to the site, and as such will add him to the waiting list. Hopefully, we can add him as soon as possible.' Ivankinsman ( talk) 18:47, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
This article has been revised as part of
a large-scale clean-up project of multiple article copyright infringement. (See
the investigation subpage) Earlier text must not be restored, unless it can be verified to be free of infringement. For legal reasons, Wikipedia cannot accept
copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material; such additions must be deleted. Contributors may use sources as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or
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guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously. --
Yoenit (
talk)
23:12, 29 October 2010 (UTC)
Jonathan Raban Article
Can I also ask why you have removed the information I wrote about Jonathan Raban? I SPENT A HUGE AMOUNT OF MY OWN TIME AND EFFORT WRITING THIS PROFILE. I am sick of editors like you and MoonRiddenGirl simply deleting articles and/or stripping them down to their bare bones. Why was this article not put to a general forum of editors to review before you changed it? What give you the right to simply delete important and interesting biographical information relevant to an author and simply leave boring, bare facts? Who can I appeal to on this issue - I know that whatever I say to you or Moonriddengirl will simply be ignored. I also am fully confident that you will remove this from this talk page as part of your totalitarian editing policies. Ivankinsman ( talk) 09:51, 21 November 2010 (UTC)
I was reading EW's article and noted that:
Family background
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh was born on 28 October 1903 to Arthur Waugh (1866-1943) and Catherine Charlotte Raban (1870-1954), into a family with English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Huguenot origins. Wondering if there is a blood connection with JR? Ivankinsman ( talk) 19:06, 2 December 2011 (UTC)
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I think the article is great but could give more emphasis to sailing. Raban was a sailor and his books Coasting and Passage to Juneau are innovative in dealing with yachting in a political and historical perspective. 74.14.15.161 ( talk) 12:15, 18 April 2023 (UTC)