Billy Elliot.ppt

Billy Elliot By Melvin Burgess The WriterMelvin Burgess Writer of acclaimed and often controversial childrens fiction, Melvin Burgess was born on 25 April 1954 in Twickenham, Middlesex. He grew up in Infield, near Crawley in Sussex, and moved to Reading, Berkshire at the age of twelve. After leaving school with two A-Levels in Biology and English, he enrolled on a six-month journalism course. He moved to Bristol at the age of 21, and began writing, between periods of work and unemployment. He continued writing after he moved to London in 1983, experimenting with short stories, radio plays and childrens fiction. His first published book, The Cry of the Wolf (1990), was short listed for the Carnegie Medal.  Back ground The story begins in 1984, when many British workers were fighting the government. Margaret Thatcher’s government wanted to close a lot of coal mines in England, Wales and Scotland. The miners wanted to keep their jobs. Some went on strike and refused to work. Other workers continued to do their jobs. The government had to send the police to protect them. The strike continued for a long time before everybody went back to work. But a few years later, nearly all the coal mines in the UK were closed and thousands of workers lost their jobs. Billy Elliot - Synopsis BILLY ELLIOT is the coming-of-age story of a young boy, Billy, who through his unexpected love of dance, embarks on a journey of self-discovery in the world of picket lines, cultural stereotypes, a family in crisis and a headstrong ballet teacher. When eleven-year-old Billy stumbles across a local ballet class that comes to share the village hall with his boxing club, something in the magic of the movements captures his imagination, and hes soon ditching his boxing gloves to sneak in at the back of Mrs. Wilkinsons lessons. With a sharp eye for talent, Mrs. Wilkinsons zest for teaching is revived when she sees Billys potential. Rather forgetting the other ballerinas, shes drawn into teachin