The Last of Uptake

Published in 1942 by BT Batsford Ltd, The Last of Uptake does not take the knee to wartime economies.

Black Friday

I made a small purchase at a shop that does not observe Black Friday and has reassuringly high prices.

Hares and Rabbits

Pinch and a punch, it’s the first of the month. Wake up when Farming Today is on. That means before 6.00.

Naughty Frances

Fiona Moorhouse’s recent comments have started me thinking about the four Lord Bellews of the First Creation.

Schotterrasen

The munificent EU has bestowed another gift, the last probably, to Hammersmith of which we will treat later. Meanwhile what’s happening in the ‘hood?

Batsford

It is sometimes instructive to judge a book by its cover. Nobody could mistake the E Phillips Oppenheim cover in yesterday’s post for a treatise on bee keeping, unless the protagonists are being stung.

Good Crap

PG Wodehouse was prolific and successful but there was another genre in the first half of the last century – between the wars – and those authors made more money. Edgar Wallace and Somerset Maugham rivalled our subject today in popularity and earnings.

Cross Words

“Man chasing solution, endlessly in bind, shows spirit (5, 2, 6).” Times Crossword 27,831.

Bills

Don’t think I was ever on “The Bill”, when you have to report to the Head Master for a misdemeanour. Today there are three more Bills – eyes down, get ready to tick them off.

Loose Ends

I hate to write “unique” but Herald Investment Trust qualifies.