Horrible Histories the Mad Miscellany

Horrible Histories the Mad Miscellany is another of the excellent books in the Horrible Histories library of books.

The book is precisely what it says it is: A distinctly dotty sort of a book which contains many and varied pieces of historical facts and information.

The book is separated into 31 different sections. Although the last section is a disclaimer which points out several key facts, such as an item in the book that is, in fact, a fiction, not a faction (sorry...) and there is also a very handy index, too.

What do we learn from Horrible Histories the Mad Miscellany? That the Romans used entire packs of attack dogs, which were dressed in canine suits of armour and then let off to do battle. Now, I must admit, I hadn't known that!

There's a section on gruesome games. It also helpfully points out why Romans called foreigners barbarians. Which I think I'd heard before, but can't swear to it.

It gives a page to the Roman gladiators, with each different type of gladiator illustrated with a very helpful line drawing. For those of us who believed that a 'gladiator is a gladiator' the news that there were, in point of fact, twelve different types or classes of gladiators might come as something of a surprise!

Pirates and their parrots also get their own section, as do some rather remarkable pirate flags. Some like those of Calico Jack and Henry Every both being variations on the traditional skull and crossbones, looked rather menacing, whilst others (Black Beard, for one) looked faintly risible, to be honest.

Also included is a remarkable set of rules by which pirates lived. Apparently the musicians on pirate ships were allowed Sundays as a day of rest. (Who knew pirate ships had musicians?)

There are also sections on historical hangings, murders and assassinations including the somewhat unsporting way that the Vikings dealt with Edmund, King of England. Although not mentioned in the book, I believe they performed the Blood Eagle on him. (Just check it out on Google...)

There's also duels that were deadly or dull, or sometimes both, and duels involving duelling women.

Historically greedy people are listed and seems to include mostly Roman Emperors. Funny, that!

There's also a section on medical matters including the cure for the common cold from the Middle Ages which called for mustard and onions to be inserted in the nose.

There's also a section of historically interesting rhymes including one about the Kaiser, and one about the murderer Mary Ann Cotton.

The book costs £9.99 from the Scholastic Press (ISBN 0-439-96803-8).

The Blackpool High Flyer

Driving or firing the Blackpool High Flyer was a plum job. The train went cross country from Yorkshire right through Lancashire to the North West coast of England, and the town of Blackpool.

But this was to be no ordinary journey. Jim Stringer, the steam detective, had thought that with his return from London, all the dangers and problems of being a railway detective were long gone and all in the past. But fate had different ideas!

It is only the quick reactions of Clive, the driver, that stopped a terrible catastrophe. Someone had left a millstone on the railway line. And one of the 512 passengers on the Whit Sunday Excursion Train to Blackpool dies as a result of the crash. Or did she die as a result of the crash? How, exactly, did she die? And who would have had a motive to kill her?

Was there a connection with the works outing that was taking place on the train? And if there was, what was the connection?

Jim Stringer thought that it was too much of a coincidence for the millstone to be placed on the track and for just one passenger out of 512 people on board to have died.

But how can Jim Stringer, now a former railway policeman, back in his more normal role of being an engine fireman, find out what had actually transpired?

If the same person had caused the death of the woman, how could they also have been responsible for the placing of the millstone on the railway line? And for what reason would they have wanted the woman passenger dead and what possible motive could they have had for placing the millstone on the railway line?

And who is it that means to see that this will be the last case that Jim Stringer, steam detective, will ever investigate? Are they linked to the mysterious person who left the millstone on the railway line? Or the person who had murdered the woman, if they were not the same person? Or is there another reason that Jim Stringer's life is in danger?

This is a very satisfying mystery novel as it does contain several concurrent mysteries. And all is certainly not what it seems!

It is written by Andrew Martin and published by Faber and Faber, the paperback version costs £7.99.

Where on Earth Can I...?

Where on Earth Can I...? tells you where you can do lots of different, interesting things, all over the world.

It is a fascinating book as it gives you many interesting and fantastic ideas of places you can go and visit and wondrous things that you can do in many different parts of the world.

It is separated into five different chapters. These are:

Natural Wonders
Animal Kingdom
Thrills and Adventures
Great Creations
Out of this World Experiences

There is then a further section on useful travel links, including a list of potentially useful websites.

Although the book is about fantastic and wondrous places you can visit and the exciting things you can do whilst you are there, the really curious thing is that there is not one illustration in the entire book! No photographs! Not even a single, solitary line drawing!

Even though one of the places to visit is described as being: "particularly photogenic". I am sorry, we, the readers, just wouldn't know about that. We haven't seen it, so do not know.

And there is a somewhat puzzling and bizarre omission in a book which is a travel guide. For although the author tells us of the excitement, the wonder and the joy of visiting or participating in -for example- an ancient goldmine, joining the running of the bulls, taking a tree top walk in Australia, staying in a rainforest reserve, seeing a synchronised firefly display, flying in a World War 2 Spitfire, visiting castles, or various film locations, dining in an underwater restaurant, etc., etc., the author -inexcusably, in my opinion, omits to mention the exact locations of these places, opening hours, booking information or even the contact details!

It's a curious book, interesting, but the rather shocking omissions will stop it from becoming a great book and a standard work for travellers, which is a pity.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary was not the first attempt at creating a dictionary of the English language, but it was the first serious attempt by someone who was a skilled lexicographer.

It was first published in the year of 1755. This new, latest edition, is not the full version, it is a special edited version produced by Jack Lynch, with selected highlights from the original work.

The original publication was 2,300 pages of definitions of words published in two volumes. So useful was it that it remained the definitive dictionary of English for at last 150 to 200 years. The Jack Lynch version is considerably smaller, one volume with only 646 pages.

The book starts with an introduction from Steven Leveen, the president of the Levnger Press, which explains why they decided to publish a new edition of the dictionary. There is also a fulsome three quarter page of acknowledgements from Jack Lynch, followed by 22 pages of introduction from Jack Lynch, including some basic guidelines of how to actually read the dictionary.

There is then a re-print of the original preface by Samuel Johnson, which goes much of the way to describe how and why he decided to take upon himself this Honorius responsibility to create THE English dictionary.

However, people must not form the conclusion that the dictionary only contains English words. There are numerous cross-references to Greek, Latin, French, Welsh, etc, throughout the dictionary, to help explain the derivation of the word in question.

The dictionary also has many words that are long gone from most people's everyday English. In fact some were heading a gentle decline even in the time of Dr Johnson himself.

As well as giving the definition of a word, Johnson also gave examples of it in use in literature, poetry, etc. A method still employed to this day in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Also we can see that some words have changed their usage over the year. For example, cadger meant a huckster, a person who brings butter, eggs, and from the market. We now have a totally meaning for that word.

To Cabbage was a slang (cant) word amongst taylors (sic) which meant to steal in cutting clothes.

I was intrigued to note that go-cart was included, though the description was somewhat different from the modern go-cart: "A machine in which children are inclosed (sic) to teach them to walk, and which they push forward without danger of falling."

There are other words that are no longer common, more's the pity! Belly-timber for food, and buffleheaded a man with a large head or someone who is dull and stupid.

Jack Lynch includes a bibliography and index, suggested reading material, etc.

In the UK it is published in hardback by Atlantic Press and costs £19.99.

Totally Weird and Wonderful Words!

Totally Weird and Wonderful Words is a book compiled and edited by Erin McKean, with rather splendid illustrations by Roz Chast and Danny Shanahan.

The book is published in paperback by the OUP at $14.95. (That's about £8.00) Why the OUP chose to put only the Dollar price on the cover is anyone's guess. As is the decision by the OUP to employ American English spelling in their books, but please do not get me started on THAT one!

As you would expect, the book is a mixture of odd, bizarre and entertaining words.

Is it a draffsack of odd and old words?

Or a logomachy, perhaps?

Read this book and you will discover words that you probably never even had the vaguest idea even existed.

Learn that a loon-slatt was a Scottish coin, that a lolling-lobby was a derisive term for a monk, that a gallinipper is a large mosquito, that dromaeogathous means having the palate of an emu, that dretch means to trouble in sleep, or to be troubled in sleep.

If someone has a fear of the dark it could be said that they are suffering from nyctophobia.

The book is a lot of fun and should while away the time should you be feeling somewhat wabbit.

Draffsack = a bag of garbage

Logomachy = fighting about words

wabbit = A Scottish word meaning exhausted or slightly unwell

Wales... land of song, land of… drink?

In the mid 1980s I was a member of a Student Union railway society. The room we were using for a meeting was required by an other group and we wanted to continue the meeting in a neighbouring pub, but this suggestion was howled down by one of the more vociferous members of our railway society, a mature student and former bank worker from South Wales.

He would not, he shouted, enter ANY place that allowed the consumption of "the Demon Drink!" (Yes, he used that exact phrase!)

There was an awkward silence, when everyone stared at him, somewhat aghast. "You are serious, aren't you?" I asked him, eventually. "Never more so!" He retorted.

An older member of the railway society, a somewhat grizzled former railwayman (who had fired and driven steam trains for a living in the 1960s) who was another mature student, said: "Well, you don't have to join us in the pub, you know? Just go home, if you'd prefer."

He stormed off with a "harrumph" and never again attended a meeting of the railway society. No great loss, it has to be said, as he wanted everything to be run his way or not at all!

But this brings me to the dichotomy of thought in Wales with regards to drinking. There seems to be those who still to this day refer to beer or alcohol as "The Demon Drink" or who consider the consumption of alcohol as a part and parcel of everyday life in Wales.

The Thirsty Dragon is a book by Lyn Ebenezer which covers this dichotomous attitude to beer.

To the Bards of old, beer was the very lifeblood of their Bardic traditions, but to the chapel patriarchs, beer was the enemy of man, and the drinking of beer was to be rooted out and stopped.

The book details present and past breweries, and also distilleries, too, and includes a very useful map detailing the locations of past and present breweries.

The book covers the history of the consumption of alcohol, starting with Mead, which was almost certainly the first alcoholic drink brewed and consumed in Wales and in the rest of the British Isles. The author speculates on how the first batch of mead came to be. Perhaps it was an accident, with wild yeast somehow managing to get into a pot of honey, which was accidentally allowed to get rainwater in, too. The rest, as the author says, is history.

Mead was used as part of the feasting celebrations to mark a wedding. The author points to a link between the consumption of mead at such a festive celebration and the wedding honeymoon. In fact, in Welsh the honeymoon is called 'mis mel', the literal translation of which is 'honey month.'

The book then covers wedding and honeymoon traditions from all over Europe and beyond. The book deals with how very important mead was in commerce and in war.

The book also covers the efforts (sometimes seen as somewhat hysterical and, to be frank, rather silly) of the temperance movement which wanted nothing more nor less than the total eradication of the consumption of alcoholic drinks throughout the whole Principality of Wales.

The book points out that there as been, in recent years, an upswing in the brewing of mead and that it is making a good showing at the Royal Welsh Show and other agricultural shows throughout Wales.

It also covers the involvement of the church in brewing beer, and wine. It covers the later brewing traditions in Wales and raises some interesting facts. Apparently it was a Welshman who invented Guinness, and at one point Mr Arthur Guinness was giving serious consideration to moving his whole brewery, lock, stock and barrel, to Wales! Incidentally, as late as the 1950s, adverts for Guinness in Wales were written in Welsh. Which is as it should be. "Guinness yw Gwin y Gwan" or "Cato Pawb! Fy Nguinness i" where just two examples.

The book also touches on the Welsh tradition of cider making and on the new Welsh whisky distilleries that are springing up, including Penderyn, which rivals many a Scotch distillery for flavour, it has to be said.

It devotes the latter part of the book to the newer Welsh breweries that have come to the fore in recent years and mentions the fact that the Wetherspoon chain is selling locally brewed Welsh beer in its Welsh pubs.

The book is well illustrated with both archive and contemporary photographs. It also tells the story of the only union never to even contemplate strike action, the Welsh Union of Tipplers, founded in 1952 and still going strong.

This is an eclectic book which is not without humour, yet which contains several serious messages, too.

It is published in paperback by Carreg Gwalch at £5.50, and is 116 pages in length.

The Gardener's Pocket Bible

The Gardener's Pocket Bible, by Roni Jay, is an excellent book. It is a little bit bigger than 'average' pocket size, but would probably fit quite snugly inside the leg pocket of a pair of cargo trousers! Often beloved of gardeners.

The book is 178 pages in length and is described by Roni Jay as a collaborative effort between Roni Jay, her mum and dad, Jill and Tony, their friend Will, who is a professional gardener, Laurie Taylor (he was the proof-reader, I think) and James Belsey, to whom she also dedicated the book.

With six people involved, one might expect this book to be a sort of camel of a gardening book, you know, the elderly joke about a camel being a horse designed by a committee?

Not a bit of it! The book is eminently readable and highly useful. It is broken down into easy to use sections and there is much information not found in books many times the size and many times the paperback) price of £7.99 (Check out Amazon, it is £6.39, though do check for p&p there.)

For example, the book will tell you if you can or cannot compost couch grass, the correct way to propagate plants, how far apart you should plant your vegetables, whether or not some insects should be discouraged or actually encouraged to live in your garden.
I have often found gardening books to be irritatingly vague about some aspects of gardening. "Avoid planting before the spring frosts" they say. Well, that's all very well, but when is the last spring frost, usually?
Roni tells you! In fairness, she warns that you can' always be certain, bit she gives a table of relative dates for Spring frosts. In Plymouth it is mid April, whilst in Birmingham late May, and Liverpool early April. (She explains why and the explanation is fascinating.)

The book also covers Autumn frosts, what you can plant, how you can plant them and where you can plant them; how to propagate plants, when you should deadhead, how to prune and which plants need pruning and when; how to garden perfectly sensibly even if there is a hosepipe ban; how to feed, mulch, weed and stake; how to feed your plants, how to make and store your own compost, what fruit to grow, how to grow and keep hedges; how to take up wildlife gardening and how to keep the wildlife you don't want out of your garden, as much as possible! And much more, besides.

The book also contains inset pocket facts which are always interesting and very often exceedingly useful, too.