Restaurants
Banks, John
Banks was a New Zealand National Party MP from 1981 to 1999 and has been Minister of Tourism; Sport, Fitness and Leisure; Local Government; and Civil Defence (he resigned his cabinet posts ... [more]
Caines, Michael
Caines is a transracial adoptee, born in Jamaica and raised in Exeter. He was trained as a chef by Raymond Blanc. In 1994 he lost his right arm in a car accident, but with hard work, dedica... [more]
Geisha
Geisha are professional entertainers in Japan, with their main centers in Tokyo and Kyoto. The tradition is centuries old and continues today, although the heyday of the geisha was before W... [more]
Grant, Julia
Grant was born George Roberts, the eldest of eight children. His mother was an alcoholic and his father a fisherman who was seldom home. From about the age of 12 he looked after his brothe... [more]
Hirst, Damien
Hirst was born Damien Brennan, and adopted by a car dealer and his wife (his birth father was a photographer). He did not do well in school art and was rejected by St. Martin's College (but... [more]
Iwasaki, Mineko (under Geisha)
Geisha are professional entertainers in Japan, with their main centers in Tokyo and Kyoto. The tradition is centuries old and continues today, although the heyday of the geisha was before W... [more]
Langstone, Frank
Langstone was the fourth of five children. His father deserted the family while he was still young and his mother died in 1890, leaving his sister to raise the family. Young Frank was place... [more]
Monaghan, Thomas
Monaghan's father died when he was four, and he and his younger brother were put into care by their mother so that she could attend nursing school. They remained in care, foster homes and o... [more]
Senser, Joe
Senser was raised in the Milton Hershey School in Pennsylvania. He played college basketball and football for West Chester University, then went to the Minnesota Vikings football team as ti... [more]
Thomas, R. David
Thomas was adopted as a baby but his adoptive mother died when he was five. His father remarried three times and Thomas had an unsettled childhood. He did not learn he was adopted until ... [more]
Tsuya-Giku (under Geisha)
Geisha are professional entertainers in Japan, with their main centers in Tokyo and Kyoto. The tradition is centuries old and continues today, although the heyday of the geisha was before W... [more]
Winfrey, Oprah
Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, and raised by her grandmother on a farm for the first six years of her life, then spent some years with her mother, during which time she was sex... [more]
