Coursework 2

Robin Hood

Robin Hood is one of the most famous heroes of English folk history. There are many stories, songs and films about him, but we don’t know the exact details of his life. People believe that he lived in the 13th century, in Sherwood Forest near the city of Nottingham. He had a group of followers called the Merry Men. In pictures of Robin Hood, he is often dressed in green and holding a bow and arrow. His great enemy was the Sheriff of Nottingham. Robin Hood was a hero and a villain. He stole money from the rich but he gave it to the poor.

J. K. Rowling (1965– )

Joanne Kathleen Rowling is the author of the Harry Potter books. She wrote her first story, called ‘Rabbit’, when she was six. Before she became famous, she worked as an English teacher. She had the idea for Harry Potter when she was on a train. It took five years to write the first book. She lived in Edinburgh and she often worked in cafés because she didn’t have much money, and it was warmer than at home! There are now seven books and you can buy them in 200 different countries and read them in 72 different languages. Rowling has sold more than 450 million copies of the Harry Potter books around the world. Now she writes crime stories for adults.

Ellie Simmonds (1994– )

The amazing Ellie Simmonds is a British Paralympic swimmer. She comes from Walsall, in the north of England. Ellie is only 1.23m tall but she is one of the world’s most successful athletes. She was the youngest British athlete at the Paralympics in Beijing in 2008, but she won two gold medals. She won two more gold medals at the London Paralympic Games in 2012. She broke her own world record at the European Championships in 2014. Ellie began swimming at the age of four. When she was at school, she got up at 5.30 every day and did two hours’ training before her lessons. After school, she trained for another hour and a half. Ellie smiles a lot, but she doesn’t like finishing second in a race! Today she is one of the most popular sportswomen in Britain.

Nelson Mandela (1918–2013)

Nelson Mandela is a hero for people of all races. He was born in 1918 in Mveso, South Africa. He studied law at university and then he worked as a lawyer in Johannesburg. At that time, the ‘apartheid’ system in South Africa meant that white people and black people lived completely separate lives, and black people didn’t have equal rights. Mandela protested against apartheid and the white government sent him to prison for life. But more and more people heard about Mandela and they started a campaign to free him and to stop apartheid. When the government freed him in 1990, after 27 years in prison, there were celebrations all over the world. In 1993 he won the Nobel Peace Prize and, the following year, he became the first black president of South Afric a.