Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
Overview
 
Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
2008 Summer Paralympics
The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games, the thirteenth Paralympics, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to September 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao....

in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

. Great Britain sent a delegation of around 400, of which 212 were athletes, to compete in eighteen sports at the Games. The team was made up of athletes from the whole United Kingdom; athletes from Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, who may elect to hold Irish citizenship
Irish nationality law
Irish nationality law is the law of the Republic of Ireland governing citizenship. A person may be an Irish citizen through birth, descent, marriage to an Irish citizen or through naturalisation. Irish nationality law is currently contained in the provisions of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship...

 under the pre-1999 article 2 of the Irish constitution
Constitution of Ireland
The Constitution of Ireland is the fundamental law of the Irish state. The constitution falls broadly within the liberal democratic tradition. It establishes an independent state based on a system of representative democracy and guarantees certain fundamental rights, along with a popularly elected...

, are able to be selected to represent either Great Britain or Ireland
Ireland at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
Ireland competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. Ireland sent 45 athletes, competing in 9 sports. The country's flagbearer at the Games' opening ceremony was Patrice Dockery.-Medallists:-Athletics:...

 at the Paralympics. Additionally some British overseas territories
British overseas territories
The British Overseas Territories are fourteen territories of the United Kingdom which, although they do not form part of the United Kingdom itself, fall under its jurisdiction. They are remnants of the British Empire that have not acquired independence or have voted to remain British territories...

 compete separately from Britain in Paralympic competition.

Britain finished second in the medal table, behind host nation China
China at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
China was the host of the 2008 Summer Paralympics, held in Beijing. China's delegation included 547 people, of whom 332 were competitors. The athletes, 197 men and 135 women, ranged in age from 15 to 51 and competed in all twenty sports. Two-hundred and twenty-six of the competitors participated in...

, winning 42 gold medals and 102 total medals, equalling the team's position in the medal table
2004 Summer Paralympics medal count
The 2004 Summer Paralympics medal table is a list of National Paralympic Committees ranked by the number of gold medals won by their athletes during the 2004 Summer Paralympics, held in Athens, Greece, from September 17 to 28, 2004...

 at the 2004 Athens Games
2004 Summer Paralympics
The 2004 Summer Paralympics were held in Athens, Greece, from September 17 to September 28. The twelfth Paralympic Games, an estimated 4,000 athletes took part in the Athens programme, with ages ranging from 11 to 66. Paralympic events had already taken place during the 2004 Summer Olympics as...

.
Quotations

Manhattan is not altogether felicitous for fiction. It is not a city of memory, not a family city, not the capital of America so much as the iconic capital of this century. It is grand and grandiose with its two rivers acting as a border to contain the restless. Its skyscrapers and bleak, rotting tenements are a gift for photographic consumption, but for the fictional imagination the city's inchoate density is a special challenge.

"Locations: An Introduction" (p. xvi)

The private and serious drama of guilt is not often a useful one for fiction today and its disappearance, following perhaps the disappearance from life, appears as a natural, almost unnoticed relief, like some of the challenging illnesses wiped out by drug and vaccines.

"Guilt, Character, Possibilities" (p. 227)

Sex, without society as its landscape, has never been of much interest to fiction.

Guilt, Character, Possibilities" (p. 235)

Writing is not "the establishment of a professional reputation" as if one were a doctor or lawyer; it is not properly in the sentence with creation of a family and the purchase of a home.

"John Cheever|Cheever, or, The Ambiguities" (p. 244)

Biographers, the quick in pursuit of the dead, research, organize, fill in, contradict, and make in this way a sort of completed picture puzzle with all the scramble turned into a blue eye and the parts of the right leg fitted together.

"Katherine Anne Porter" (p. 299)

How certain human beings are able to create works of art is a mystery, and why they should wish to do so, at a great cost to themselves usually, is another mystery. Works are not created by one's life; every life is rich in material.

"Katherine Anne Porter" (p. 300)

She never liked the constant presence of her husbands or lovers and did not like, she soon found out, to be alone — a dilemma in one shape or another common to most of mankind.

"Katherine Anne Porter" (p. 302)

 
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