Antiquities & Oddities

//Antiquities & Oddities
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  • Frances is sent from her small Welsh village and warm, loving family to Maidenhurst School for Girls for education and a little smoothing out of her tomboy edges. There she makes friends, unwittingly makes enemies, has plenty of adventures, gets into trouble and develops 'crushes' on teachers and older girls in the school.  She also teaches some of her school mates the meaning of 'honour' and courage. Written in 1925, the word 'love' as used by Frances and other characters when referring to teachers or older girls simply means a wish to emulate or intense admiration, being a common expression of the time.
  • Our story open thus: In the first quarter of the thirteenth century, the evil doings of King John were yet fresh in the minds of men all over England, and the indirect consequences of his evil deeds were still acutely felt, and nowhere more than in Bedfordshire, where the scene of our story is laid. The county itself has much altered in appearance since that period. Great woods, intersected by broad, soft green lanes, overran its northern portion. Traces of these woods and roads still survive in Puddington Hayes and Wymington Hayes, and the great broad "forty-foot." South of this wild wooded upland, one natural feature of Bedfordshire remains unchanged. Then, as now, the Great Ouse took its winding, sluggish course from southwest to north-east across the county, twisting strangely, and in many places turning back upon itself as though loath to leave Bedfordshire. Some fifteen miles from point to point would have taken it straight through the heart of the little county, whereas its total course therein is more like fifty. One poetic fancy likens the wandering stream to a lover lingering with his mistress...

     
  • Book III of The Saint vs Crown Prince Rudolph. The Saint had decided to turn over a new leaf.  But he hadn't reckoned with Prince Rudolf - nor with his old adversary's hankering for diamonds! Why would a man as rich as Rudolph care about the comparatively small value of the Montenegrian Crown jewels?
  • 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.
  • An omnibus edition of thirteen Conan tales adapted by Roy Thomas and presented as graphic novels. This volume includes: Cimmeria; The Jewels Of Gwahlur; Beyond The Black River; The Children Of Jebbhel Sag; The Blood Of The Gods; Child Of Sorcery; The Scarlet Citadel; The Flame Knife; The Ghouls Of Yanaidar; The Curse Of The Monolith; The Lair Of The Ice Worm; Black Tears; Hawks Over Shem; The Hyborean Age. Artists: Barry Windsor-Smith; Dick Giordano; John  Buscema; Tony Dezuniga; Alfredo Alcala; Ernie Chan; Frank Brunner; Gene Colan; Pablo Marcos; Carmine Infantino and Tim Conrad. Adapted from the stories by Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter and Christy Marx. Front cover art by Earl Norem. Back cover art by Keith Parkinson.
  • First published in 1851, this novel tells a large part of the early history of the differences between the eastern settlers and the American Indian and the clashes of difference between what it thought to be right or wrong at that time. Described as gritty and often brutal, it is the tale of Haller, who  meets up with the mysterious Seguin after picking up with some prairie merchants. He instantly falls in love with Seguin's daughter Zoe. The innocent romance progresses to the point that he wishes to ask for her hand in marriage but Seguin will only permit it if Haller helps him to rescue his other daughter Adele from the  Navajo Indians who abducted her when just a child. Not only are the Indians hostile - the adventurers must also battle the elements, hunger, thirst and wild animals.
  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Ronald Searle ( St. Trinians, Down With Skool, How To Be Topp, et al)  describes several fantasy, fictional and overwhelming  encounters with Toulouse-Lautrec - with illustrations!