Antiquities & Oddities

//Antiquities & Oddities
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  • Norman Lindsay kept a small warm corner of his long artistic life for his cats. He not only collected them and kept a horde of them in the stables and sheds, the gardens, bush and architectural nooks of Springwood - allowing the occasional prince to share the master's studio - but he drew them with humour and delightful observation.  While The Magic Pudding made Lindsay's kookaburras famous, this other small anabranch of his art  meandered own without public scrutiny amid the controversy, furor and celebration of his paintings and pen  drawings. Some of the collection presented here were done with quick delight over the behaviour of one of his Springwood friends, others were drawn as cartoons for The Lone Hand or The Bulletin and others were done as Christmas cards or jokes. They all express the pleasure and delight his feline friends gave him. His long time friend, poet and author Douglas Stewart, introduces the drawings with an affectionate memoir of Lindsay and his cats.
  • 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.
  • The mystery of the Man behind the Iron Mask has intrigued people for over 250 years, inspiring as much fantasy as serious conjecture. This is the story of the story, so to speak; an account of the theories and counter-theories, from the claim that he was the twin brother of Louis XIV to the recognition that he was Eustache Dauger, with diversion by way of such candidates as the Duke of Monmouth, Richard Cromwell, Molière, Nicholas Fouquet, an Armenian archbishop, an Italian astrologer and many more. Complete and comprehensive, this is a presentation of all the known facts of the prisoner's existence chronologically, as they have been discovered, together with all the myths as they have flourished from the preposterous stories put about by his gaoler in 1669 to the alleged discovery of his skeleton in a tower in Cannes in 1977. As the various stories are revealed, the reader may accept or reject the assorted evidence and develop his own views before the author presents his own conclusions. Illustrated.
  • A collection of writings by various authors detailing the search for the Great Southland Terra Australis dating from accounts as far back as the 1400s. In this volume: The Early Voyagers, William Howitt; The Voyage Of Luis De Torres, R.H. Major; The Voyage of Francis Pelsart, John Pinkerton; The Voyage of Tasman, from Dr Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia; The Wreck Of The Vergulde Draeck, R.H. Major; In Search Of A Wreck, Matthew Flinders; Dampier And The Buccaneers, Samuel Bennett; First Voyage Of Captain Cook, Roderick Flanagan; The Voyage Of Captain Marion, Matthew Flinders; The Voyage Of Captain Furneaux, Reverend J.E.T. Woods; La Perouse, And The Voyages In Quest Of Him, William Howitt; The Voyages Of Bass And Flinders, from Dr Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia; Founding A Country, Roderick Flanagan; Troubles With The Natives, Samuel Bennett; Captain John Hunter In New South Wales, Samuel Bennett; John Batman And The Settlement Of Port Phillip, from Batman's Journal; The Story Of William Buckley, William Westgarth; An Emigrant's Adventures, Anonymous; In The Goldfields, Kinahan Cornwallis.
  • This is a real fantasy trip around the Pacific Islands as Reed retells these beautiful fanciful stories and legends: from New Zealand: The Sky Father and The Earth Mother; The Sea Fairies and Hinemoa and Tutanekai; from Hawaii: The Little People Of Hawaii and The Goddess Of The Volcano; from Tahiti: The Children Who Became Stars; from Samoa: The Sandpiper And The Crab; from Tonga: How Maui Brought Fire To Tonga; from Niue: The Woman Who Was Swallowed By A Whale; from Cook Islands: The Gift Of The Eel God; from Chatham Islands: The Sea Monster; from Fiji: The Giant Bird and The Spirit-That-Changes-People; from the Solomon Islands: The Foolish Canoe Paddlers and Why The Moon Has A Dirty Face; from New Britain: The Wise Brother And The Foolish Brother; from New Guinea: How The Turtle Got Its Shell and The Snake And The Cockatoo; from New Hebrides: Six Men Who Tried To Catch A Sunbeam;  from Nauru: Young Spider In The Sky; from Caroline Islands: The Mouse Who Was Hungry; from Marshall Islands: The First Sail; from Paulau Islands: The Boy Who Came From The Sun Egg.  Illustrated by Stewart Irwin.
  • The author talks mostly about people he claims to know, like his neighbours in his imaginary suburban street, Crawlie Crescent.  And Maisie the Barmaid.  His Uncle Duncan.  And the everyday, absurd family events that were a part of the Australian suburban landscape of the sixties.  Collie worked for the Australasian Post for ten years, in which his column Corn Beef and Collie was a regular feature. Typical Aussie humour at its best.  Illustrated by 'Vane'.
  • At twenty-nine, Bettger was a failed insurance salesman. By the time he was forty he owned a country estate and could have retired. What are the selling secrets that turned Bettger’s life around from defeat to unparalleled success and fame as one of the highest paid salesmen in America? Here he reveals his personal experiences and explains the foolproof principles that he developed and perfected. He shares instructive anecdotes and step-by-step guidelines on how to develop the style, spirit, and presence of a winning salesperson.  He covers: the power of enthusiasm; how to conquer fear; the key word for turning a skeptical client into an enthusiastic buyer; the quickest way to win confidence; the seven golden rules for closing a sale. This was first published in 1951 and the times have changed - but people don't. There is plenty that is still applicable today.
  • 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.
  • The irrepressible Wolfe has a satiric 'go' at the pretensions of Bauhaus art, attitudes and architecture. 'Starting from zero', 'bourgeois', the Cubists, Fauvists, Secessionists and every 'ism' comes under the gun, including Post-Modernism. Wolfe follows architectural design from Europe to America where Bauhaus was embraced in earnest and explores, with due irony,  the vast contradiction between the bare, spare impersonal and abstract Bauhaus architecture and the exuberant, muscle-flexing populace that it serves.  Illustrated with black and white photos

  • Subtitle: Being Two Hundred Pictures of the English Inn from the Earliest Times to the Coming of the Railway Hotel. Somewhat misleading - this is not a book of two hundred pictures, but two hundred observations on the history of the English inn and its role in society, travel, festivals, portentous solemnity, a place of repose...The observations come from a fantastic diversity of names: John Bunyan, Samuel Pepys, Daniel Defoe, James Boswell, Disraeli, Dickens, Washington Irving, Thomas de Quincey, Shakespeare,  Sir Walter Scott, 'George Eliot', Chaucer, Anthony Trollope and many more.  The theme of the observations is as diverse as the contributors: from the 'gallant' in the tavern to the arranging of duels; from gluttons to gourmands; from highwaymen to harridans; from cockroaches to cleanliness and - of course - hosts and hostesses.
  • Book XX of  Doctor series. From the author of the practically-infamous Doctor series of books, film and television comes a brilliant solution to the bunglings of the National Health Service: The Lady With The Lamp.  The legendary Florence Nightingale returns to Earth, determined to reorganise the NHS, as she memorably reorganised the medical chaos of the Crimean War. And more:  the late Sir Lancelot Spratt also returns to stop the NHS closing his beloved St. Swithin's Hospital.  He's not having it. The combined effect of these ghostly visitations is that of a UFO landing on the Ministry of Health. Meanwhile, the wild Professor Whapshott is recreating the human race with his gene-loaded mega-mosquitoes...
  • Yes, everything you thought you knew is STILL wrong! As made famous on QI - Quite Interesting with Stephen Fry. You'll be amazed at which country has the lowest age of consent; and that you should definitely NOT urinate on a jellyfish sting to ease the pain; and you will also discover when a spiral staircase is not a spiral staircase.  Great potential for trivia buffs.

  • Lower only wrote the one novel,  Here's Luck, in which Gudgeon and Son battle the great Australian icons - the police, the wife, the booze and the races.  Here is a selection of his whimsical newspaper columns of the 1930s, short tales which were a showcase for Lower's natural Aussie anarchy.  You can get the low-down on Banking; The Cruel Tactics of the Emu; The Terrors of Wealth; The Perils of the Bathtub and What Bread Is and How To Use It among other wits and wisdoms on life.
  • 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.

  • A Grumpy perspective on the daily grind. Whether we are celebrity chef or hapless waiter, engineer or oily rag, commissioning editor or TV producer, all of us have a whole daily wagon-load of s**t to deal with in the name of work. From boardroom to boredom, from 'what's the point?' to PowerPoint, from 9 to 5 to P45. And that's what this book from uber-grump Stuart Prebble is all about; the utter everyday relentless crapulence of working for 'the man', or indeed 'the woman'.   It's not possible in a book of this size to include ALL the grumps arising from the working day - the office politics, the shortcomings of IT, the interminable meetings and some of your colleagues' weirder habits, but he is giving it a go. Grumpy? I'll say we are. Illustrated by Noel Ford.
  • Mikes visited Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaya, Siam (Thailand) India and Turkey. At once he came up against an awkward truth - if you are in the East then it stops being the East. The glamour of the Orient is automatically transferred to California - or even to Illinois. So he stopped bothering about points of the compass and concentrated on the people instead. Contrary to expectations, he found them pretty scrutable. Like Londoners,  New Yorkers and residents of the village of Siklos in Hungary, they seemed to Mikes to be endearing and funny. None of them liked being oppressed, although some liked oppressing other people when they got the chance. Most of them said they detested Europeans, which often seemed to mean Americans but at the same time  were as friendly as could be. They enjoyed criticising themselves but didn't like other people criticising them. In such familiar circumstances, Mr Mikes felt free to be as funny as he liked and so he has been - as well as being humorous and wise. English humor. Illustrated by Nicholas Bentley.
  • The Granny on the Roof-rack...and other tales of modern horror. Over 100 contemporary Australian legends reproduced just as they spread via word-of-mouth, the media, social media and the Internet. The stories range from the funny, to the bizarre and definitely to the terrifying. Told with tongue in cheek and a large grain of salt, topics included in this volume: The Baby In The Microwave; An Elephant On The Mini; The Frozen Chook At The Checkout; Kid(ney) Napping; and of course, the infamous Granny On The Roofrack.
  • 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.
  • With quirky, offbeat and vibrant imagery, Judy Olausen explodes the mother myth, exposing the too-often ignored reality of the Eisenhower-era homemaker. Mother offers a very funny, wickedly satiric collection of portraits of that most sacred institution: Mom - eager to please, ready to serve and blissfully sweeping the unmentionable under the rug.  Outlandish yet surprisingly meaningful, Olausen turns the lifetime homemaker into a surreal icon of domestic submission.  Photographing her own mother using 1950s-inspired props, Olausen presents tongue-in-cheek images of Mother As Coffee Table, Mother As Door Mat and Mother in Camouflage.
  • The Magic Pudding is a pie...except when it's something else, like a steak, or a jam doughnut, or an apple dumpling, or whatever its owner wants it to be. And it never runs out. No matter how many slices you cut, there's always something left over. It's magic. But the Magic Pudding is also alive. It walks and it talks and it's got a personality like no other. A meaner, sulkier, snider, snarlinger Pudding you've never met. So Bunyip Bluegum finds out when he joins Barnacle Bill and Sam Sawnoff as members of the Noble Society of Pudding Owners, whose members are required to wander along the roads, indulgin' in conversation, song and story, and eatin' at regular intervals from the Pudding. Wild and woolly, funny and outrageously fun. Illustrated by Norman Lindsay.
  • 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.
  • Kenneth Horne first went on the air in Britain in 1940  when, as a member of the R.A.F. he was instructed by his superior to organise a broadcast. After the war he combined a successful career in industry with radio and television work. Round The Horne was the last radio programme to reach a listening audience of 15 million people. Round the Horne was based on a revue format and contained parody and satire by larger-than-life characters including the camp pair Julian and Sandy, the disreputable eccentric J. Peasmold Gruntfuttock, and the singer of dubious folk songs, Rambling Syd Rumpo, who all became nationally familiar. The cast included Kenneth Williams (Carry On) Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Bill Pertwee (Dad's Army) all of whom had the ability to switch between characters - a talent described by the radio historians Andy Foster and Steve Furst as 'a cast of thousands played by the same four accomplished actors'. Horne's role was that of 'straight man' to the inspired lunacy that was swirling around him. The writers were comedians Barry Took, Marty Feldman  and script writers Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke (Man About The House, George And Mildred, Never The Twain). This book contains several selected scripts and the Rambling Syd Rumpo Song Book together with information of the cast and 'characters'. With cartoon illustrations by Hewison.  
  • An annual for under tens, with stories and puzzles, poems and articles by Jean Matheson, Claire Moore and others. With colour plates, black and white illustrations and monochromatic comics.
  • A treasure trove of childhood past with stories by Noel Streatfield, Sir Edmund Hillary, Michael Westmore and more. There's puzzles and quizzes, short stories and articles, pictures in colour and black and white.
  • A story of Viking days. In the middle of the banqueting hall, where Jarl Halfdene stood watching the crowd on the beach, and looking at him in the old man's arms eyes. "In your trust, Jarl Halfdene!" he said at last in solemn tones." "As the death of the band!" As solemnly he replied, "Halfdene!" and looking as earnestly into Birkabegn's face, as he pressed the little child to his breast. The crown of the gilt raven, which was held in readiness, grasped the hilt of his long sword, and hurried out into the gathering darkness. A little while after King Birkabegn was gone Hablok was crying piteously, and all Jarl Halfdene's coaxing and endeavors to console him were useless, but he was wearied out, and before the last ship had pushed off from the beach, he lay sound asleep in Halfdene's arms. The old man still stood watching the dark line on the sea, and the old men were left behind, and two or three nobles and councillors in the care of the kingdom. These nobles were called jarls, and the most trusted and beloved among them at King Birkabegn's court was Jarl Halfdene. Right well he deserved to be so; For King Birkabegn's father, then to Birkabegn himself, he had a trusty right hand, and he was shown as wise as he was honorable and loyal; and the king knew that no harm could ever be his little son while he was in Jarl Halfdene's care.

  • Here the greats of English seafaring - and probably a little pirating on the side - come to life through their letters. This volume  includes letters from Drake to Queen Elizabeth; Hawkyns; Walsingham; Admiral Vernon; Nelson; Lord Howe;Captain Hardy and so many more.   This is live history, as it happened.