Manchester Engels while living and working in Manchester. Manchester was the meeting place of Engels and Karl Marx. The two began writing "The Communist Manifesto" in Chetham's Library. The library was founded in 1653 and lays claim to being the oldest public library in the English-speaking world. Elsewhere in the city, the John Rylands Library holds an extensive collection of early printing. The Rylands Library Papyrus P52, believed to be the earliest extant New Testament text, is on permanent display in the library. Charles Dickens is reputed to have set his novel "Hard Times" in the city, and while it is
Dadie Rylands involved in the theatre. He directed and acted in many productions for The Marlowe Society, and was chairman of the Cambridge Arts Theatre from 1946 to 1982. Rylands' 1939 Shakespeare anthology "Ages of Man" was the basis of John Gielgud's one-man show of the same title. Though Rylands specialised in directing university productions at Cambridge, he also directed Gielgud in professional productions of "The Duchess of Malfi" and "Hamlet" in London in 1945. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1961 and a Companion of Honour (CH) in 1987. Dadie Rylands George Humphrey