Tarmac Group mixed concrete, asphalt and contracting businesses in the United Kingdom. Projects undertaken by or involving Tarmac Construction prior to demerger of that business in 1999 included the Preston Bypass completed in 1958, the St Albans Bypass completed in 1960, the Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel in Egypt completed in 1981, the Thames Barrier, the Joint European Torus and Drax Power Station all completed in 1984, the Merry Hill Shopping Centre completed in 1985, the Albert Dock refurbishment completed in 1988, the Conwy Road Tunnel completed in 1991, the Channel Tunnel completed in 1994, the Medway Road Tunnel completed in 1996, the Swindon
The World Is What It Is The World Is What It Is The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul is a biography of the Nobel Prize-winning author V. S. Naipaul by Patrick French. It was published in 2008 (by Picador in the UK and Knopf in the USA). The title is a quotation from Naipaul's book "A Bend in the River". "The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it." French deals with Naipaul's family background and his life from his birth in 1932 until his second marriage