Antiquities & Oddities

//Antiquities & Oddities
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  • A family is curious about a legend surrounding a string of beads, handed down from Great-grandfather. Kept in a horn snuff-box with a clue - or a riddle -

    Our mystical meaning a secret shall be: Here's a key for a lock, find a key for the key.

    They must be kept in the house as long as the house remains in the family - and this was stated clearly in Great Grandfather's will. It was believed, once, that the string of beads - being a variety of colours - might be a form of cipher or code that contained a hidden message. But none yet have cracked the code...
  • A pictorial history of Australia by Charles Henry Kerry (1858-1928).  Kerry was a surveyor but changed to photography in 1875 and by using dry plate photography (a new process then)  he was able to delay processing his negatives. Until dry plate photography, negatives had to be processed immediately. This new method gave Kerry more time to do more scenic views. This volume is a revisit to many of Kerry's locations - tourist attractions, farms, events and occupations such as cattle farming and tree felling showing how much has changed and how much has NOT changed.  A fabulous collection of black and white and colour archival photographs with interviews and articles.
  • First published in 1952, it's obvious that even then there was a growing concern for the amount of road deaths.  This book sets out clearly and comprehensively the chief causes of road accidents: speed, DUI, failure to observe rules, faults and many others - and gives sound advice on how to avoid them.  Also included are sections on parking, heavy vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians. Nothing much has changed since this book's publication in 1952. The only thing needed to bring this book up to date is a section on switching off mobile phones while driving!
  • Seven more rounds of sparring, as Fletch and his fellow cons of Slade nick continue their struggle against the authority of Messrws MacKay and Barrowclough.  Cover features the late great Ronnie Barker as Fletch.
  • 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.
  • A fabulously sage collection of wisdom and observations from the most brilliant mind of his day. Just a sample: 'Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.' Or...'The daily newspaper! The educator of the people! God help us, it might be so. It educates into inattention, folly, sin, vacuity and foolishness. It saps concentration, dissipates aspiration, scrambles grey matter and irons out convolutions. Watch the commuter rush for his Dope when he reaches the station in the morning.' That was written in 1927 - so not much has changed. Hubbard, were he alive today, would probably say the same of television or the Internet.
  • Everything you thought you knew is wrong!  Such as..Henry VIII did NOT have six wives; Everest is NOT the world's tallest mountain; ALexander Graham Bell did NOT invent the telephone; and Strawberries, raspberries and blackberries are NOT berries. Great potential for trivia nights.
  • 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.
  • Being an Imagined Sequel to A Christmas Carol. Seven years after Scrooge was converted - to everyone's satisfaction - we see that Bob Cratchit has done well as the smug senior partner of Cratchit and Scrooge; Tiny Tim, cured of his ailment, is now a troublesome teenager; his sister Belinda, the remaining unmarried daughter of the household falls unsuitably in love; and Scrooge has given away most of his money, is crippled with gout and can't get upstairs, and so lives in the small cloakroom behind the Cratchit's front door. Cratchit, informed of his impending knighthood, tries to have Scrooge sent away - and now it's Bob who must learn a lesson in charity! Illustrated by Mark Summers.