Antiquities & Oddities

//Antiquities & Oddities
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  • In this volume: Bobbit's Chair, E.E. Cowper; Daphne's Sunset Tiles, Brenda Girvin; Captain Betsy, Dorita Farlie Bruce; The Family Tradition, Shirley Grey; Someday, S.M. Hills; Madge's Burglar, Marjory Royce; Judy And The Treasure, Agnes Frome; Miss Connington, Alice Massie; The Relief Of Fox Lake, C Bernard Rutley. Colour plates and line drawing illustrations.
  • The madcap story of Patrick's adoption at the age of ten by his zany, unconventional Auntie Mame.  And life with Auntie Mame was never ever dull! Sparklingly witty, irreverently satirical, this 1955 novel manages to remain timelessly relevant in its cutting send-up of conformity and conservatism.  Patrick reminisces his way through life with Mame in the glittering Roaring Twenties, surviving the Great Depression, her marriage and widowhood, World War II and into his first forays into romance. Based on a real Aunt. Cover shows Rosalind Russell in the 1958 film of the same name.
  • From 'Did Harry Potter kill Hitler' to 'Can we play cricket in your bookshop?', here's a bewildering, slightly alarming and definitely hilarious selection of the most ridiculous conversations from the shop floor! And these gems and gold nuggets have been supplied from booksellers across the world...and truly, they border on the realms of fantasy. Notable weird things include a request for a book on the workings of an internal combustion engine suitable for a three-year-old, the lost ferret and speculation that The Hungry Caterpillar was possibly bulimic...honestly, no-one could invite this stuff....
  • Ross was regarded as one of Australia's greatest humorists, writing about a great Australian institution - the suburban family - and his tales of family life in the burbs  at Oxalis Cottage were an instant hit in Australia's Daily Telegraph. This collection of columns include  such philosophical questions as: should mistresses go out to work? Are koalas vicious? Why do good looking authors write bad books? Do wine connoisseurs get drunk? These posers, and more, are covered in Campbell's hilarious low-falutin' , soft-bitten Aussie style.
  • For years they thought it was just them - irritated and tormented by everything around them, from call centres to nose studs, from speed bumps to ringtones. Then along came  the television series Grumpy Old Men and they knew they were not alone. It turns out that 35-54 year old men are the grumpiest lot in history. Grumpier than their parents, who were just glad to have survived the war and lived long enough to collect their pensions. Grumpier than their children, who don't care about anything except iPods and  tattoos. This book extends the hand of friendship to the young, the old and the women who identified with Grumpy Old Men. It is now a modern movement and its members are proud of the title. Sir Bob Geldof: If you aren't grumpy, that means you're contented with the world. And who the **** could be that? Featuring Rick Stein, Jeremy Clarkson, Arfur Smith, Rick Wakeman and more.
  • Nash has more sly and wry observations, this time on the nuclear family.  Chapters include: Man Is The Father of the Child - But He Never Quite Gets Used To It; Daddy, I Want A Pet Of My Own, I Promise To Take Care Of It and Around The House or What Parents Think About When They Aren't Thinking About Their Children.  The following is a sample of the poem, Children's Party - and no doubt many fathers can relate to Mr Nash's observations...

    May I join you in the doghouse, Rover?

    I wish to retire till the party’s over.

    Since three o’clock I’ve done my best

    To entertain each tiny guest.

    My conscience now I’ve left behind me,

    And if the want me let them find me…

    Of similarities there’s lots,

    ’Twixt tiny tots and Hottentots.

    I’ve earned repose to heal the ravages

    of these angelic-looking savages...

  • All the stars of the screen are featured in this annual, together with the film releases of the year and all the glamour of the premières attended by Royalty. There's Doris Day, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Tina Louise, Bob Hope, Yul Brynner and many more. There's articles on horror films, interviews and candid pics of the famous and those who worked behind the scenes.  Cover shows Doris Day and Richard Widmark. Illustrated.
  • No home was complete with an annual, affordable, all-round reference work: The Pear's Cyclopaedia. It covered World Events (from 2234 B.C. to present day); A Citizen's Guide to local and central laws, the United Nations, various Societies and recent legislation; The Gazetteer of the World, with maps and descriptions of other countries; Everyday Information, such as common abbreviations, synonyms and antonyms and entries of general interest, bank rates, conversion tables, exchange rates, postal information and how to address persons of rank; Home and Personal covered beauty, health, cooking, gardening, sports, radio, television, care of domestic pets and poultry and so much more. Publication of this vital handbook began in 1897 and ceased in 2017  as the internet finally won.
  • Volume 1 contains some of Poe's better-known and many of his lesser-known tales, including: The Gold-Bug; The Adventure of One Hans Pfaall; The Balloon Hoax; Von Kemelen And His Discovery; Mesmeric Revelation; The Facts In The Case Of M.Valdemar; MS. Found In A Bottle; A Descent Into The Maelstrom; The Black Cat; The Fall Of The House Of Usher; The Pit And The Pendulum; The Thousand-And-Second Tale Of Scheherazade; The Premature Burial; The Masque Of The Red Death; The Cask Of Amontillado; The Imp Of The Perverse; The Island Of The Fay; The Oval Portrait; The Assignation; The Tell-Tale Heart; The Domain Of Arnheim; Landor's Cottage; William Wilson; Berenice; Eleonora; Ligeia; Morella, Metzgengerstein; The Murders In The Rue Morgue; The Mystery Of Marie Roget; The Purloined Letter.
  • Three naive teenage sisters, after the death of their mother, move from a small village to try to make their way in the big city. They make many mistakes yet find help in the most unexpected places, but hanging over them - still - is the mystery of their brother who went missing as a small boy. First published in 1887. Illustrated by John. E. Sutcliffe.
  • A Tale of Rome, in the time of Marcus Aurelius...very few major historical characters will appear here. This story concerns itself with the back streets of Rome; the artisans, the growers and the makers; where hucksters and tricksters rubs shoulders with priests and philosophers.  The Encyclopedia of the Novel describes it as a 'playfully comic' depiction of Ancient Rome. So don't worry too much about any historical inaccuracies you may find, it's all in good fun!
  • An aging spinster has her head turned by a charismatic opportunist and is initially flattered - but misgivings soon set in. One night she finds herself lost in the cold, wet fog alone with him and through the help of a blind girl makes her escape. She is taken in to convalesce at a farm called Tetherstones, located near some old druid stones, a scene of a past tragedy and home to family secrets. The master of Tetherstones is a large brute of a man, more gladiator than farmer, and the heroine finds herself strangely attracted by him. Is a new start possible for either one of them or will the past win out?
  • Hundreds of hopefuls congregate at a cattle call for Broadway dancers. Sour director, Zach and his brusque assistant whittle down the ranks until they're left with 16 dancers. Each one has a story - some are tragic, some are comic - and explain their love of dance. Tension mounts when Cassie - once both a big star and the director's lover but now desperate for a part - auditions. But Zach must choose only the best for his show. Musical.  
  • Don't feel like a novel?  Then this is the perfect 'dip into' bedside book. There's humour, drama, history, poetry, satire... something for everyone in this volume of treasures from the Post: Reprieve For Jemmy And James/Apology For Printers/Adventure With A Tar Barrel, Benjamin Franklin; The Black Cat, Edgar Allan Poe; Assassination of President Lincoln, Official Gazette; Good-by, Jim, James Whitcomb Riley; The Man Who Could Not Be Cornered, George Harris Lorimer; The Sergeant's Private Madhouse, Stephen Crane; Carrie Nation And Kansas, William Allen White; The Passing Of 'Third Floor Back', Jerome K. Jerome; The Ransom Of Red Chief, O. Henry; The Great Pancake Record, Owen Johnson; The Nickelodeons, Joseph  Medill Patterson, The Mishaps Of Gentle Jane, Fred R. Bechdolt; Sad Days At Old Siwash, George Fitch; A Piece Of Steak, Jack London; The Bolt From The Blue, G.K. Chesterton; The First Birdman, J.W. Mitchell; Words And Music/A Little Town Called Montignies St. Christophe/Speaking Of Operations, Irvin S. Cobb; Alibi Ike, Ring W. Lardner; Consider The Lizard, Eugene Manlove Rhodes; Who's Who - And Why? Post Ads; In Alsace, Edith Wharton; Turn About, William Faulkner; A Victory Dance, Alfred Noyes, Pershing At The Front, Arthur Guiterman;  Scattergood Baines - Invader, Clarence Budington Kelland; Beyond The Bridge, Joseph Hergesheimer; Tutt And Mr Tutt - In Witness Whereof, Arthur Train; Tact, Thomas Beer; Babylon Revisited, F. Scott Fitzgerald; Three Poems, Edna St. Vincent Millay; The Terrible Shyness Of Orvie Stone, Booth Tarkington; Tugboat Annie, Norman Reilly Raine; Room To Breathe In, Dorothy Thompson; Everybody Out, George S. Brooks; Wildfire, Elsie Singmaster; Lightning Never Strikes Twice, Mary Roberts  Rinehart, The Devil And Daniel Webster, Stephen Vincent Benét; Money, Gertrude Stein; Hundred-Tongued Charley, The Great Silent Orator, Alva Johnston; Dygartsbush, Walter D. Edmonds; Pull, Pull Together, J.P, Marquand; The Child By Tiger, Thomas Wolfe; The Hunting Of The Haggis, Guy Gilpatric; Poems, Ogden Nash; My Father Was The Most Wretchedly Unhappy Man I Ever Knew, Gene A. Howe; The Atom Gives Up, William L. Laurence; City In Prison, Joseph Alsop; How The British Sunk The Scharnhorst, C.S. Forester; The Immortal Harpy, Hobert Douglas Skidmore; Solid Citizen, Pete Martin; The Last Night, Storm Jameson; A Few Kind Words For Uncle Sam, Bernard M. Baruch; Vermont Praise, Robert P. Tristram Coffin; Is There A Life After Forty? Robert M. Yoder; Note On Danger B, Gerald Kersch; The Murderer, Joel Townsley Rogers; The Colonel Saved The Day, Harold H. Martin; Old Ironpuss, Arthur Gordon; A Ballad Of Anthologists, Phyllis McGinley; The Ordeal Of Judge Medina, Jack Alexander; Death On M-24, John Bartlow Martin; The Secret Ingredient, Paul Gallico; I Grew Up With Eisenhower, R.G. Tonkin; The Devil In The Desert, Paul Horgan. Illustrated. Cover art by Norman Rockwell.
  • Said Sir Gilbert Parker: 'Who the original of ‘Donovan Pasha’ was I shall never say, but he was real. There is, however, in the House of Commons today a young and active politician once in the Egyptian service, and who bears a most striking resemblance to the purely imaginary portrait which Mr. Talbot Kelly, the artist, drew of the Dicky Donovan of the book. This young politician, with his experience in the diplomatic service, is in manner, disposition, capacity, and in his neat, fine, and alert physical frame, the very image of Dicky Donovan, as in my mind I perceived him; and when I first saw him I was almost thunderstruck, because he was to me Dicky Donovan come to life. There was nothing Dicky Donovan did or said or saw or heard which had not its counterpart in actual things in Egypt. The germ of most of the stories was got from things told me, or things that I saw, heard of, or experienced in Egypt itself. The first story of the book—‘While the Lamp Holds Out to Burn’—was suggested to me by an incident which I saw at a certain village on the Nile, which I will not name. Suffice it to say that the story in the main was true. Also the chief incident of the story, called ‘The Price of the Grindstone—and the Drum’, is true. The Mahommed Seti of that story was the servant of a friend of mine, and he did in life what I made him do in the tale. ‘On the Reef of Norman’s Woe’, which more than one journal singled out as showing what extraordinary work was being done in Egypt by a handful of British officials, had its origin in something told me by my friend Sir John Rogers, who at one time was at the head of the Sanitary Department of the Government of Egypt.'

     
  • Gabrielle Van Der Mal, a young gifted and strong willed Belgian girl, becomes Sister Luke and as a nun must remove all traces of her former self and sublimate herself as a devoted bride of Christ with no room for her personal desires and aspirations. She dedicates her life to the care of the sick as she battles to reconcile the demands of her Order with her pride as a nurse. She must face the heart-breaking and terrifying task of nursing the insane and finds her faith tested in Africa where she finds herself at odds with headstrong Dr. Fortunati, operator of a remote Congo hospital, with whom she gradually builds respect. She is ordered not to take sides in World War II, even as she witnesses the horrors of the Nazi invasion of Belgium and risks her life aiding the escape of British airmen and this order causes the final conflict within Sister Luke. 
  • What a world of dreams is this Pompeii, where each one seeks to be what he is not... Pompeii, pleasure ground of the wealthy, decadent and rife with corruption. A cast of characters to rival any soap opera: Clodius, poor yet noble, in love with Julia, the daughter of  nouveau riche merchant Diomed, who is trying to forget that his grandfather was ever a slave; Glaucus, the young and wealthy Greek playboy who falls in love with Ione, a wealthy orphan under the wardship of Arbaces, High Priest of Isis, who will stop at nothing to secure Ione and her fortune for the temple; Nydia, the blind slave girl who sells her flowers and yearns for Glaucus; Lydon, the gladiator, the darling of Pompeii, fighting to win enough money to buy the freedom of Medon, his father; there is Apaecides, Ione's brother who learns of Christ from Olinthus, the sail maker...and still more in the cast that make up the last days of the city that was believed to be the wickedest place on earth.