Author Archives: ActonBooks

“He had no debt, no creditor”

Posted on April 11, 2018

There is a time when ‘principles’ become not a good thing but an obsession. Like jealousy or revenge, stubborn adherence to ‘principles’ taken to a point where they are self-harming can erode the mind. This old man does not sound … Continue reading →

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Sailing too close to the wind

Posted on February 22, 2018

Eupion Oil is slippery stuff. It’s one of many hydrocarbons bearing classical sounding names that they could so easily be diaphanously-clad minor spirits partying with old Zeus disguised as a bull. Not wishing to sound like a Tom Lehrer tribute … Continue reading →

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Climate change by any other name

Posted on February 1, 2018

Global warming started early — 1869 in fact — but our foolhardy ancestors denied the obvious signs of climate change… 

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Feelin’ alright? Not Feelin’ too Good Myself

Posted on January 25, 2018

Ailments can so easily be politicised. Where there is any kind of pain or suffering, weasel politicians smelling blood gravitate to the scene like the hyenas you always knew they were. It was so back in history when the British … Continue reading →

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This time it’s the gabby cabby

Posted on January 7, 2018

By coincidence another cab-related case from 1862 that I just had to share. This time it seems as if the boot is on the other foot. There is more than a hint of irony that after driving like a crazy … Continue reading →

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It’s the rich wot gets the pleasure

Posted on January 6, 2018

And the poor knew their place. This is the story from the Bow St Magistrate’s Court in 1862. It’s the tale of a cheapo toff who was embarrassed when a short-changed cabby chased him and shouted at him in the … Continue reading →

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Let them eat paint!

Posted on December 21, 2017

Around the end of the Napoleonic War, there was a rich gentleman on business in the West Country. As he was rich, he stayed in a nice hotel.  He liked a snack for his supper if he arrived back from … Continue reading →

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“Man of God, there is death in the pot!”

Posted on December 19, 2017

Ever wondered how an old timey cup of coffee tasted? What was it really like to take that first sip, on a day some hundreds of years before intensive farming methods, fancy new coffee plant varieties, modern methods of drying, … Continue reading →

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“Died from excessive tobacco smoking”

Posted on December 13, 2017

  Nearly 100 years before Sir Richard Doll’s proof that smoking and cancer were linked and way before the tobacco lobby cranked up its PR campaigns, a scientist in 1855 studying the adulterants and poisons that went into commonplace foods … Continue reading →

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Brits have always hit the Yuletide bottle

Posted on December 7, 2017

The British malaise, getting publicly legless over the holidays, seemed like a recent phenomenon until I saw this from the New Year, 1865…

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