Antiquities & Oddities

//Antiquities & Oddities
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  • Collected and published by the "Boy's Own" paper. In this volume: The Sword Tyrfing; How Egil Skallagrimson Saved His Head; Thor's Adventures in Outgarth; The Griffin's Egg; Frithiof The Bold; Thor Loses His Hammer; Helga and Sigrun; The Deeds of Orm Storolfson; The Rival Scalds; Audun and the Bear; Gunnar The Hero; Snowfair; The Burning of Njal; Brand, The Generous; Kari, The Avenger; King Ragnar Lodbrok and Crow, the Goat-Girl; The Weird Valley; Nornagest; The Death of the Niflungs; Frodi's Meal; Half and His Heroes; The Wooing of Frey's Wife; King Rakni's Treasures; The Battle That Never Ends; Rolf Kraki and His Kemps; Nanna's Lovers.
  • Six adventures with Simon Templar - The Saint. This volume includes: The Helpful Pirate; The Bigger Game; The Cleaner Cure; The Intemperate Reformer; The Uncured Ham; The Convenient Monster.
  • No matter how conservative science can explain somethings, strange phenomena continues:  Yeti sightings, the Loch Ness Monster, spontaneous human combustion and encounters with angels are just a very few of the explorations of this author.
  • Warne's Star Series. This volume also appears under the titles of The Percys; A Mother's Influence and Ever Heavenward. (Not to be confused with Stepping Heavenward.) First published in 1870, we learn that Mr. Percy has decided to send his older children to school hours away in New York City, resulting in many changes to his whole family. Mrs. Percy is broken-hearted but agrees to let them go, as her husband is convinced that the trials and temptations of school will help the children grow in their Christian faith. Through personal letters, we learn about life at boarding school and its challenges, as well as events back at home. With realism and humor, the author draws the reader into to this loving family and makes one feel at home among them. They are not without their struggles andtroubles but comic relief is provided by twin brothers Rio and Lio and the clumsy Daisy. Mrs. Percy is the real hero of the story, as she guides her flock, teaching them love for God above all.
  • An English family moves to the New World of Australia. First published in 1864.
  • Can one think of Torquay without the image of Basil Fawlty cropping up? This charming guide book covers not only the Torquay of 1920 but also delves into history, folklore and local customs. With beautiful colour plate illustrations by Frederick J. Widgery. Reprinted in 2016.
  • The hilarious story of how Graham 'Screw' Turner established a bus touring company using old converted double-decker buses. From humble beginnings in London 1973, Screw, together with a crew of colonial larrikins, builds up a fleet of 100 deckers. Screw, Spy, Bill Speaking, Wombat. Filthy, Grilly, Budgie, the mysterious Graham James Lloyd and other incorrigible crew members lead their unsuspecting punters on riotous escapades to the far flung, exotic corners of the world. Today, Graham 'Screw' Turner is one of Australia's wealthiest men and is the CEO of Flight Centre, which he began in the 1980s.  With caricatures by Bill Leak and cartoons by Warren Brown. Illustrated with black and white photographs and newspaper clippings.
  • Tony makes an impression wherever he goes - he knows all the right people, wears all the right clothes, is seen in all the right places and is always in the society columns.  Yet there are some odd stories also circulating...a messy divorce case...blackmail and Mob involvement...a very peculiar wedding...He's a rogue, a rascal and a reprobate.  Patrick Dennis tells a good story and has a sly dig at society pretensions and the cult of so-called celebrity at the same time.
  • No collection of nautical fiction would be complete without the inclusion of Tom Cringle's Log, a novel that - together with the works of Marryat - became a cornerstone of the genre on its publication some 150 years ago. Told in an irresistible and immediate style, the story follows the life of young midshipman Tom Cringle: his imprisonment in occupied Germany by Napoleon's forces, his West Indian cruise on the Torch, a British man-of-war, his daring escape from West Indian pirates and his ultimate promotion to the officer ranks. Edited by Ernest Rhys.
  • A story of sibling devotion told from The Mill On The Floss. This excerpt of Tom and Maggie's early years was first published as a stand-alone in 1909. Little Maggie worships Tom and wants his approval - but Tom is unpredictable; sometimes he acts as if he loves Maggie and other times he is very unpleasant to her. Tom is sent to school to get a proper education and Maggie misses him greatly.  But when his school days are done, Tom may have learnt to love his studies; he has made a very good friend; and Maggie is becoming a young lady.
  • A thrilling story of a strange caravan - a group of British colonists in the Raj travel in a wheeled house pulled by a steam-powered mechanical elephant in 1867 - that penetrates the Terai, the immense forest that stretches across India at the foot of the mighty Himalayas. In this forest wild men, wilder beasts and even more adventures are encountered in the aftermath of the Sepoy rebellion.
  • Considered a must for every child's Christmas stocking. Tiger Tim's annual has stories, games, puzzles, cartoons, jokes and riddles - something for all ages and just the thing to keep children occupied in the post-Christmas aftermath, especially in England.
  • For eleven-year-old Badge the world is bounded by the high ridges that enclose his valley home, deep in the heart of Tasmania. He delights in the wild life that surrounds him, and cares little for the world Outside. But one day visitors arrive from Outside - Russ, a splendid cousin from America, and his friend Dr Heftman, who have come to study the local natural history: and they bring a new interest into Badge's life. He had once been shown one of the country's rarest animals, the nearly extinct Tasmanian tiger, coming to a pool to drink: and he had promised never to reveal its whereabouts. But, carried away by the admiration of his cousin, he tells the secret: and then faces a terrible dilemma, for now Russ will want to carry the rare animal away from the free life of the wilds into captivity.
  • A drama takes place in a small town in Northern England following the life of a young doctor who has returned from the Congo to take over his uncle's practice. Very likely to have been based on Wallace's own time in the Congo reporting on the brutality and violence of Belgian colonialism, this novel follows the young doctor as he fights the intolerance, ignorance and religious fanaticism of his local townsfolk.
  • Trying to be remarkable is painful whereas trying to be remembered is simply humiliating. The Sandman believes that in this, his second book, he has captured his fourth most humiliating experience to date. The Sandman (real name Steve Abbott), a noted radio host and comedian on Triple J Radio, is a master of ironic - often dubious - social adaptations. His methods for fitting in can be plausible and ridiculous at the same time and as a misfit with an overwhelming desire to please, can capture the essence of Australian beach culture.  
  • Wells' own novelisation of the 1935 film inspired by The Shape of Things To Come.  When Dr Philip Raven, an intellectual working for the League of Nations, dies in 1930 he leaves behind a powerful legacy - an unpublished 'dream book'. Inspired by visions he has experienced for many years, it appears to be a book written far into the future: a history of humanity from the date of his death up to 2105. The Shape Of Things To Come provides this history of the future, an account that was in some ways remarkably prescient - predicting climatic disaster and sweeping cultural changes, the Second World War, the rise of chemical warfare and political instabilities in the Middle East.
  • An A-Z of eccentrics and eccentricities for teenagers. Featuring: the artist who exhibited an exploding bull; the Russian admiral who invented the circular battleship; the Duchess who rode through London in a boat on wheels; the Marquis who erected a tombstone to his leg and many more. A real collection of eccentrics, nutters, enthusiasts and ideas-people - and all crazy in the best possible way.
  • This is the life of a Canadian trapper in the early 1800s. Charlie Kennedy lives in the arctic colony known as the Red River Settlement with Indians, Scotsmen, and French-Canadian settlers. His father, an old fur trader, hopes to convince his son to become a clerk by recounting the dangers of the trapper’s life, but the stories only inspire the boy more to explore the vast Canadian wilderness. A variety of circumstances lead to Charlie trapping in the vast forests, on a journey with voyagers down perilous rivers, and surviving all sorts of scrapes and adventures with a new acquaintance, Jacques Caradoc, and an Indian named Red Feather. Many of Charlie’s exploits are taken from the real-life experiences of R.M. Ballantyne’s own time with the Hudson Bay Company in Canada. Just as Ballantyne had done, Charlie learns to shoot mercury from his rifle through a two inch board in 39 degree below zero temperatures. Discover the strenuous and vigorous life of a trapper through the eyes of Charlie and his friends.
  • From the Author's Note: The stories in this volume record happenings in men's lives which interested me during years of wandering among the bushmen and natives of Cape York Pensinsula; the pearlers, trochus and beche-de-mer getters of the Coral Sea; the native islanders of Torres Strait; the beach-combers of the Great Barrier Reef...with two exceptions all are transcripts of fact or are largely based on fact...I hope Colonel Woodman, Bert Vigden of Thursday Island, Bert Jardine of Somerset and others will not mind their names being mentioned. My old mate Dick Welch, I know, will not; neither will "Scandalous" Graham. "Scandalous" may swear a lot and say harsh things about me, then quietly show the book in almost every shearing shed in New South Wales and Queensland, That is, if he's "out of trouble."  It doesn't get any better than that!

  • The word freak can easily conjure up the image of a squalid Victorian side show exhibit; yet behind the peep-show curtains, the medical textbooks and screaming headlines, these are people who were thrust into a prying, probing limelight because they were different.  In this volume: John Merrick, the Elephant Man; Tony Albarran, the Elephant Boy; Maurice Tillet; David Lopez, the 'Devil Boy'; Alice, The Faceless Child; Helen Keller, who possessed the ability of 'eyeless sight'; Matthew Manning, who progressed from bending cutlery and automatic writing to psychic healing; Greta and Freda Chaplin, who spent 20 years in pursuit of the love of a lorry driver;  Louise, the Four Legged Woman; Siamese twins Daisy and Violet Hilton, who married and lived with their husbands successfully, as well as featuring in Tod Browning's famous film Freaks; Norman Green, the Human Mole who lived beneath his family's home for eight years unbeknownst to all except his wife; wild children and many more.  Black and white photographs.
  • 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.
  • Written in 1913, this hefty novel commences:  "I was an unwanted child - unwanted as a girl at all events.  Father Dan Donovan, our parish priest, has told me all about it.  I was born in October.  It had been raining heavily all day long.  The rain was beating hard against the front of our house and running in rivers down the window panes.  Towards four in the afternoon the wind rose and then the yellow leaves of the chestnuts in the long drive rustled noisily, and the sea, which is a mile away, moaned like a dog in pain." Mary O'Neill, unwanted by her wealthy father for not being a boy, is married off to an impoverished - yet titled - man. Mary is determined to try and love her husband - she may yet please her father - but then she meets a real gentleman, in every sense of the word, and is torn between her true feelings, duty and her marriage vows.
  • The year is 1793, the darkest days of the French revolution, and little Charles-Léon is ill. The delicate son of Louise and Bastien de Croissy is recommended country air, but travel permits are needed - and impossible to come by. Louise's friend, Josette, believes she knows a way out. For Josette is convinced that her hero, the Scarlet Pimpernel, will come to their rescue. She refuses to believe that he only exists in her imagination. 'I say that the Scarlet Pimpernel can do anything! And I mean to get in touch with him,' she vows, and sets forth into the Paris streets...
  • The classic children's fantasy adventure that was first published in 1863. Tom, a poor orphan, is employed by the villainous chimney-sweep, Grimes, to climb up inside flues to clear away the soot. While engaged in this dreadful task, he loses his way and emerges in the bedroom of Ellie, the young daughter of the house who mistakes him for a thief. He runs away, and, hot and bothered, he slips into a cooling stream, falls fast asleep, and becomes a water baby.  In this new life, he meets all sorts of aquatic creatures, including an engaging old lobster, other water babies, and at last reaches St Branden's Isle where he encounters the fierce Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid and the motherly Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby.  After a long and arduous quest to the Other-End-Of-Nowhere, Tom achieves his heart's desire. Illustrated by Harry G. Theaker.
  • The First Fleet Re-enactment.  A fleet of square riggers left London on April 27 1987 and arrived at Sydney Cove on January 26 1988.  The author was a full-voyage trainee on that re-enactment voyage.
  • Or: Twenty Reasons Why Growing Old is Great!  Virginia takes the reader on a wacky journey where growing old is not a loss but a gain. If your memory's going, you can forget all the ghastly men you slept with...you can have the fun of comparing all your ailments with other oldies...and you can be a legitimate bore since you're in your 'anecdotage'. Includes fun little verses as well. A really good guide to growing old disgracefully.
  • This mystery thriller written at the turn of the century begins thus: "Two o’clock - two o’clock in the morning. The bells had just chimed the hour. Big Ben had boomed forth its deep and solemn note over sleeping London. The patient constable on point-duty at the foot of Westminster Bridge had stamped his feet for the last time, and had been relieved by his colleague, who gave him the usual pass-word, “All right.” The tumultuous roar of traffic, surging, beating, pulsating, had long ago ceased, but the crowd of smart broughams and private hansoms still stood in New Palace Yard, while from the summit of St. Stephen’s tower the long ray of electricity streamed westward, showing that the House of Commons was still sitting. The giant Metropolis, the throbbing heart of the greatest empire the world has known, was silent. London, the city of varying moods, as easily pleased, as easily offended as a petted child; London, the dear, smoke-blackened old city, which every Englishman loves and every foreigner admires; London, that complex centre of the universe, humdrum and prosaic, yet ever mysterious, poetic and wonderful, the city full of the heart’s secrets and of life’s tragedies, slept calmly and in peace while her legislators discussed and decided the policy of the Empire. The long rows of light on the deserted terrace and along the opposite shore in front of St. Thomas’s Hospital threw their shimmering reflection upon the black waters of the Thames; the cold wind swept roughly up the river, causing the gas-jets to flicker, so that the few shivering outcasts who had taken refuge on the steps of the closed doorway of Westminster Station, murmured as they pulled their rags more tightly round them. Only the low rumbling of a country wagon bearing vegetables to Covent Garden, or the sharp clip-clap of a cab-horse’s feet upon the asphalt, broke the quiet. Except for these occasional disturbances all else was as silent on that dark and cloudy night in late October as if the world were dead."