Sleep is good, books are better
The peculiar life & times of Flaming June: "The most wonderful painting in existence". A world renown Pre-Raphaelite piece of art - that will take us from Clapham Common to Puerto Rico, but carefully avoiding Andrew Lloyd Webber's lefty granny.
H.G. Wells out of copyright - watch this space It's not often that an advert (left) tempts me to blog, but as it's about H.G. Wells, I'll make an exception with a brief post. " Leading classic book publisher Wordsworth Editions has released eight H.G. Wells titles, seven of which – including The War Of... Continue Reading →
Happy Birthday, J. R. R. Tolkien - 125 today If you have time today, raise a glass of your favourite beverage to “Ronald” Tolkien, philologist, and Oxford professor. 125 today. You might also know him as J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. And the man... Continue Reading →
Mozart tops the charts, despite inability to tour According to this piece in Atlas Obscura, the artist who sold the most CDs in 2016 wasn't Beyonce, Adele, or Bowie ... it was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). If true, that's an impressive achievement given that the artist has been unable to tour for 225 years due... Continue Reading →
Christina Rossetti (1830 - 1894) On 5 December 1830, the English poet and writer, Christina Rossetti was born. Having a big reputation in a past century doesn't guarentee that anyone reads you today. For proof of this see a previous blog post The 100 Best Novels, a list from 1898, many names on this list are... Continue Reading →
Vocabulary you'll need to survive in Victorian London Perusing the Public Domain Review you may eventually stumble upon The London Guide & Stranger’s Safeguard against the Cheats, Swindlers, and Pickpockets (1819). 'A comprehensive guide to help the unwitting visitor avoid falling victim to the various and nefarious crimes abound in early 19th-century London.' The book... Continue Reading →
Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of H G Wells! To celebrate here are four classic illustrations from his 1897 "scientific romance" War of the Worlds (see below). H.G. didn't like the original drawings, so these are taken from the 1906 edition. Pen and ink drawings from Henrique Alvim Corrêa. I have a... Continue Reading →
I recently learned that some of Marie Curie’s notebooks are still radioactive. Researchers wishing to view them must sign a disclaimer. Many people know that Marie Curie won a Nobel prize for her pioneering research on radioactivity. But perhaps it's not so widely known that she won that illustrious prize twice and, altogether, Marie Curie’s... Continue Reading →
What do your favourite books say about you? There is a quiz in The Independent newspaper that attempts to calculate how old you are based on your favourite books. Feel free to give it a try. As I mostly favour Long 19th Century books I was expecting it to estimate my age at about 150... Continue Reading →
Hoydon = A romping girl. Definition taken from The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose. I only remember coming across the word "Hoydon" once, and that was in an early scene in Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy): They leant over the gate by the highway, and inquired as to the... Continue Reading →
The Long Victorian 