Antiquities & Oddities

//Antiquities & Oddities
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  • As with the commander of an army, or the leader of any enterprise, so it is with the mistress of a house. A founding text of Victorian middle-class identity, Mrs Beeton's Book of  Household Management is today one of the great unread classics. Mrs Beeton was only 22 when she compiled this thorough and authoritative volume, written in response to the lack of such books for the newly married housewife of 1860 - and who might not have the good fortune of a parent or guardian to guide her through the initial lessons of marriage, housekeeping, cookery and the myriad necessary knowledge of the day. Over a thousand pages long, it offered advice on subjects as diverse as fashion, child-care, animal husbandry, poisons and the management of servants. There's no stuffy moralising here;  it's a mix of domestic advice with discussions of science, religion, class, industrialism and gender roles as well as ranging widely across the foods of Europe and beyond, actively embracing new food stuffs and techniques. Alternately fashionable and frugal, anxious and blusteringly self-confident, Household Management highlights the concerns of the ever-expanding Victorian middle-class at a key moment in its history.
  • An ebullient play inspired by the stories of the homeless men 'on the wallaby' who roamed the Australian roads in search of work during the Great Depression.  The story traces the misfortunes of the O'Brien family, waterside workers in Port Adelaide.  The effect of eight years' of unemployment, birth, separation, strikes and subsistence on the family are seen in the light of the political strategies of the time.  It also incorporates the death of the old music hall theatre and the rise of the age of mass communication.
  • Book 3 of the Stories From History series. Contains William Of Normandy; Hereward The Wake; The Bridal Of Norwich; In The New Forest; Emperor And Pope; The Adventures Of Robert Guiscard; The First Crusade; Richard The Lionheart; More Adventures Of King Richard; Marco Polo; St. Thomas Of Canterbury; The Abbot Of Bury St. Edmonds; St. Francis; The Coming Of The Friars; On Pilgrimage; King John And The Barons; The Builder; The Prince Of Wales; Robert Bruce; William Tell; Merchants And Pirates; Six Brave Men; The Manor of Oakthorpe; Dick Whittington; Five Hundred Years Ago; For St. George And England; Saint Joan; Prince Henry Of Portugal; Moors And Christians; The Tale Of An Old Book.  Handsomely illustrated with black and white plates and engravings.
  • In this volume: The Adventure of 'The Three Dead Smugglers', Rose Macaulay; The Strange Adventures of A Sun Umbrella, Kay Martin; Netball For Girls, Cicely M. Read; The Disappearance Of Daisy Cheyne, M.B. Sandford; A Treasure From The Snow, Elsie J. Oxenham; A Caravan Holiday, Bertha Leonard; Lawn Tennis Hints, W. Haines Jull; The Lucky Leaf, Florence Bone; The Toy Theatre, A. Waddingham Seers; Dragon House and Trial By Jury, Katharine L. Oldmeadow; A New Hobby, L.G. Fitzpatrick; Curio Collecting, Ethel Talbot; A Castle In Spain, Guy Stirling; The Princess Nuala, Katherine Tynan; Book Parties and The Tree Of Liberty, Violet M. Methley; A Handful Of Three, E.L. Haverfield; Touch-Ball, R.L.G. Goodchild; The Witch's Spell, E.E. Cowper; Hidden Treasure, Jessie Leckie Herbertson; Decoration In Water Colour, Grace Lodge Clifton-Shelton; Keeping A Nature Diary, A. Waddingham Seers; All The Veronicas and Experiments In Sweet Making, Alice Massie; Three Rainy Day Games For Juniors, Doris Wood; Hints To Amateur Actors, C. Bernard Rutley; A Visit From Bashio Bazouks, Kay Martin; Let's Have A Play, Katharine Oldmeadow; Twilight Speaks, Blanche Jones;   A Fool's Errand, Catherine A. Morin and Maud Morin; Athletics For Girls, Frank N. Punchard.
  • A missive of death called young Laura back to Storm House after eight years in Paris. Her proud, beautiful mother had committed suicide by leaping off Cliff's Edge. Laura had been sent away to school when her mother discovered her love for Armand, her stepfather's poor nephew. Now Armand  also returned to Storm House, but he had changed into a brooding, secretive person.  Her home had become a deadly trap - boulders hurtled out of nowhere, the vicious mastiffs got loose and attacked her and a ghostly vision of evil appeared in her room. Laura knew someone in this strange, decaying mansion  wanted her dead and would stop at nothing until her lifeless body was flung from the treacherous cliffs!  Gothic horror/romance at its highest.

  • The legendary Robin Hood will never go out of style - he fights for the poor and for justice. This collection traces him from the day of his outlawry, his meeting with Little John, the forming of his band of men of like mind, outlaws all; the embarrassment of the Sherrif and the eventual return of King Richard.  Illustrations by R.C. Smith.
  • Frederic Slaney Poole (1845-1936), son of Judge  Thomas Slaney Poole, stepped off the St. Vincent at Port Adelaide on November 30, 1867  to work at the Poonindie Native Institution, was priested in 1869, and became incumbent of Robe, a vast parish. Before becoming headmaster  Christ Church Grammar School, Mount Gambier, he travelled to London and married Rebecca Scott. In 1874 be became incumbent of St John's, Halifax Street, Adelaide. Tall, thin, bearded and a keen sportsman, Poole was a popular preacher, fearless in denouncing commercial and sexual immorality, and with 'the reputation of being a man without cant … who is not above taking an occasional glass of whisky, and who would not express unbounded indignation if asked to participate in a game of billiards or cards'.  He was a lecturer in the classics; he conducted a school for choirboys; was chaplain to the Adelaide hospital, gaol and destitute asylum; and  was one of South Australia's first clerical Freemasons, helping to establish the Grand Lodge of South Australia in Adelaide in 1884. His descendant Cynthia has told his incredible story of his life, from horseback priest to Canon.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Slaney_Poole
  • Very scarce story collection for girls. In this volume: Poor Miss Robinson, Katharine Tynan; The Great Winter, R.D. Blackmore;  Twilight Wind, Thora Stowell; Marcia Of The Mill, Estrith Mansfield; Two Gardens (poem), Lilian Holmes; Sky-High, Margaret Lillie; Felicity's Revenge, E.L. Haverfield; The Shepherdess (poem), Alice Meynell; Concerning Theodosia, Christine Chaundler; The Mocking Fairy (poem), Walter de la Mare; Violeting, Miss Mitford; Signal No. 52, Brenda Girvin; Sheep And Lambs, Katharine Tynan; Eleanor's Valentine, Margaret Stuart Lane; Our Dutch Garden, Lilian Quiller Couch; Uncle Jasper, Winifred Letts
  • From the Carpenter's World Travels series.  A fascinating look at life as it was here - in 1926! With 126 photographs and enticing chapter headings, such as: Life on the Sheep Station; The Three R's in Australia; Gold Diggings in Creek and Desert; Social Pests; Kangaroos and Danc9ng Birds and Mutton and Butter for London Tables. Illustrated with fabulous black and white photographs.
  • An English family moves to the New World of Australia. First published in 1864.
  • David is the art student son of the Minister for Communications.  He knows his father has a chance of becoming Prime Minister but he also knows that his father's brother is a homosexual living with a flamboyant young actor.  Even a touch of scandal will bring ruin.  So it strikes David as odd when his battle to live away from home is successful on condition that he becomes his uncle's lodger.  Set in the England of the late 1960's.  The author, Martyn Goff, was one of the creators of the Booker Prize and he wrote several novels on the theme of homosexuality at a time when homosexuality in Britain was a criminal offence.
  • There was a person sitting on the kitchen table - a person about eighteen inches tall - looking for all the world like a large, fat cucumber. And it was talking...Perhaps there's nothing unusual about a cucumber. But a cucumber that talks, that suddenly appears in the kitchen and starts throwing its weight around (about being a KING cucumber)...Then to discover it's planning revenge on rebellious cucumber subjects (living in OUR basement...) and it expects us to lend a hand in the massacre...It's enough  to disrupt any family. And especially ours!  A children's book? Maybe - but have a look and seeing what the grown-ups on  Goodreads remember about it! Translated by Anthea Bell. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/252879.The_Cucumber_King?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=lB0Ziy5MGJ&rank=1
  • Set in England prior to the coronation of Elizabeth II.  Mrs 'Arris is a charlady, hard-working, cheerful and always obliging.  When she sees the beautiful Dior gown that one of her titled ladies will wear to the Coronation festivities, Mrs. 'Arris is determined to have one too.  And she can - if she gives up catching the bus...and going to the cinema...and going to the pub for a drop of gin with her neighbour...and if she takes on extra work and does some sewing from home...She faces all manner of obstacles and snobbery and unwittingly does some good on her journey, but she is determined.  Made into a beautiful film, Mrs.  'Arris Goes To Paris with Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Ada 'Arris. and Omar Sharif - and recently remade.
  • With loads of features and stories from Norman Collin, Noel Streatfield, Eleanor Farjeon and Hilton Brown; loads of articles and puzzles; projects and cartoons; riddles and jokes; fabulous colour and black and white illustrations.
  • The building of a road to link the Sudan with Southern Transjordania, part of which crosses the Sinai Peninsula, is being sabotaged. The local natives are being supplied with weapons and ammunition to stop construction and Cedric Collington of the Foreign Office wants help in finding out who the smugglers are and how the guns are getting into the country. Air Commodore Raymond sends Worrals and Frecks to Alexandria to investigate.  Drug smugglers, shady gun and ammunition deals, mysterious strangers and desert sheiks all play their roles in the adventures of the two heroines.
  • A series of books encompassing visual images of the decades and the changes the world underwent. These are not just iconic images of famous events and people, but images of everyday people doing everyday things all over the world. The 1930s: Old dreams turned to dust and new dreams turned into nightmares. The nations of Europe marched to war, Strikes and lockouts, 'talkies' and skyscrapers, dictators and New Deals...a unique collection by the world's finest photographers. The 1940s: A decade divided: the world at war, its triumphs and tragedies, victories and victims. Peace, rest, recovery and rebuilding. New hopes and new problems - the tumult of history through the eye of the camera. The 1950s: A world in the icy grip of the Cold War. The Shadow of the Bomb. Little Rock and Notting Hill, the Hungarian Uprising, Suez and Cyprus. The conquest of space - all the triumph and tragedy of a tense and violent age. The 1960s: The Swinging Sixties, a maelstrom of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, Pop and the Pill, the Maxi and the Mini, the Stones and the Beatles, Sharpeville, Dallas, Vietnam - the agony and the ecstasy, captured as only the camera can. The 1970s: Terrorism and violence from Beirut to Belfast, from Cyprus to Soweto, from Munich to Mogadishu. The Ayatollah Khomeini, Tricky Dicky Nixon, General Ami, Pol Pot - a young Michale Jackson and an ageing Elvis - explosively revealed by the camera's silent witness.
  • Short articles of a Fifties vintage: cigarettes, awful food, marriage,  trying to keep up appearances, life, death, growing up, getting a job and becoming a young man...not to mention a Dutch Reformed religious upbringing. Many of de Vries' quirkies have become part of the vernacular: Nostalgia ain't what it used to be and Deep down, he's shallow....or  his comparison of a conscience to a car brake... because it doesn’t work in emergencies, only when one is morally parked.  His first   novel, The Tunnel of Love, became a Broadway play and a movie with Doris Day and Gig Young. Chapters include: Flesh and the Devil; A Cold Potato; Requiem for a Noun; Life Among the Winesaps and more with equally intriguing titles. He had a fabulous gift for spotting cant, fatuousness, snobbery and grandly silly dialogue.