Archives: Books
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Fonetik Spelin, Or, Reading is Fnu.
Words fail me. Certainly words like ‘ritten’ and ‘alfabet’. Mangled spellings abound in both of these well-meaning text books published a hundred years apart. The first is a very rare early example of a phonetic alphabet published by Pitman in…
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Europe Then and Now: The Works of Ye Learned, 1704, Vs. The Work of The Ignorant, 2019
As you may have read recently the European Union are planning to restrict the import and export of any cultural artefact manufactured over 250 years ago. It includes art, maps, prints, ornaments, furniture, jewellery and of course that most ‘umble…
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How To Pass The Driving Test; Or, Look out for that octopus!
It’s two years since I passed the Driving Test, which would be cool if I were 20 years old. As I’m considerably older than that it’s deeply unimpressive – but I’ve got an excuse. It was all those lessons, see….
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Eric Gill; or, The Writing on the Wall.
I was offered a very rare and valuable Eric Gill book recently and did not buy it. I could have made a good profit; I could also have been left with something I could barely give away. As I write…
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Quarrelling, Swearing and Drunkenness; or, Brighton Beach
Can you believe it? ‘… there was a time when a part of the beach at Brighton exhibited a scene of quarrelling, swearing and drunkenness, such as was seldom witnessed.’ So claims the introduction to this 1863 book, ‘Lectures on…
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