Monthly Archives: July 2014

Zebras in harness

Posted on July 31, 2014 by ActonBooks

This is the main attraction. This was the story that first stopped me in my tracks taken from that page of The Graphic published that August Saturday 119 years ago. I was distracted by so many other stories on that … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Did Dickens steal Sam Slick of Slickville?

Posted on July 30, 2014 by ActonBooks

It was not looking like a success. It was meant to be an amusing satiric picture postcard of a book about the exploits of lower middle class sportsmen who aped their betters. The writing was merely meant to wrap around … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jack Hargreaves; new viewers start here

Posted on July 29, 2014 by ActonBooks

Jack Hargreaves died 20 years ago. The name is so plain English. It is the sort of name you see rolling up the credits of a black and white movie from the forties. Jack Hargreaves is the source material of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Short and sweet

Posted on July 28, 2014 by ActonBooks

Best four-line obituary ever? Not so much a death  notice, more like the beginning of a novel.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

What are zoos for?

Posted on July 27, 2014 by ActonBooks

That page of The Graphic from 1895 just keeps on giving. Looking across from the pheasants shocker is another piece of news that has echoes today. Right now there is a half-hearted debate about what economists might call the moneytisation … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

More from The Graphic

Posted on July 26, 2014 by ActonBooks

There was more on that same page of The Graphic dated August 17th 1895 than just a review of a pheasant shooting handbook (see below). Right beside it was the news that a man who wrote the songbook of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Unmet Need

Posted on July 25, 2014 by ActonBooks

Oil is a risky business. It is not surprising to hear a geologist predict that ‘peak oil’ has past. Oil’s future will be inexorable decline. It would not shock you unduly to hear them say oil is now just “a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“The pheasant flies a great deal faster than he appears to do”

Posted on July 24, 2014 by ActonBooks

Reading this book review from 1895 will almost certainly anger practitioners of what is now called animal rights. It will cause bird protection societies to tut tut about how unfeelingly cruel were our ancestors. And of course the class warriors … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

These boots are made for… limping

Posted on July 22, 2014 by ActonBooks

On one of those million and one BBC websites there is a report of this singular phenomenon from the 19th century. The website claimed for a brief time there was a fashion among women to feign a limp in public … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Spare the rod

Posted on July 21, 2014 by ActonBooks

You have to hope this gathering worldwide storm of populism is not a glissando towards Nazi-ism. Sure, there is a quickening in the political pulse. The disconnected nomenklatura and all-too-connected social welfarists demand that the people get to eat cake … Continue reading →

Posted in Not history, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments