Charles Thomas Wooldridge Charles Thomas Wooldridge Charles Thomas Wooldridge (c.1866 – 7 July 1896) was a Trooper in the Royal Horse Guards who was executed in Reading Gaol for the murder of his wife and who, as 'C.T.W', was the dedicatee of Oscar Wilde's "The Ballad of Reading Gaol". The son of Eleanor (born c.1827) and Charles Wooldridge (born c.1824), Wooldridge was born in East Garston and joined the Royal Horse Guards in 1886. He married Laura Ellen "Nell" Glendell (1873–1896) in 1894 when his regiment was posted to Windsor. However, as his commanding officer had not given permission for the wedding to
The Big Ballad Jamboree The Big Ballad Jamboree The Big Ballad Jamboree is a novel by the American writer Donald Davidson, written in the 1950s and published posthumously in 1996. The story is set in the summer of 1949 in southwestern North Carolina. It follows the romance between Danny MacGregor, a hillbilly music singer, and Cissy Timberlake, a folk-music scholar and former singer. The novel's principal theme is the conflict between tradition and commercial prospects. Davidson was best known as a poet and "The Big Ballad Jamboree" was his only novel. "Publishers Weekly's" critic wrote: "the novel places a comic spin on the serious