Book Review by George S: Pal Joey began in the late 1930s as a series of short pieces in the New Yorker. Each of them was a letter from ‘your Pal Joey’ to a former associate, now a successful band-leader in New York. Joey is a singer (‘the poor man’s Crosby’ he calls himself at … Continue reading
The White Company (1892) by Arthur Conan Doyle
Book review by George Simmers: In 1891, at the same time that the first Sherlock Holmes short stories were appearing each month in the Strand Magazine, Doyle’s The White Company was being serialised in the Cornhill Magazine, a rather more staid and traditional publication. Sherlock Holmes made Doyle famous and made him money, but The … Continue reading
Great News about Steel City Readers Book!
Dear Reading 1900-1950 readers, Great news from Reading Sheffield: We have reached our fundraising target of £12,500 to support the publication of Mary Grover’s new book, Steel City Readers. Based on the memories of our Sheffield interviewees, Steel City Readers is about reading for pleasure in Sheffield between 1925 and 1955. The money we have … Continue reading
Captain Bulldog Drummond (1946) by Gerard Fairlie
Book Review by George Simmers: In 1937 Herman Cyril McNeile who, as ‘Sapper’ had written the Bulldog Drummond thrillers, died. His friend Gerard Fairlie, who had collaborated with him on the novelisation of a Drummond film script (The series of Drummond movies were very popular in the 1930s) took over the profitable franchise. Captain Bulldog … Continue reading
Bulldog Drummond (1920) by ‘Sapper’
Book Review by Jane Varley: This is the novel in which Hugh Drummond D.S.O., M.C. demobbed British officer bored with peace – and the reader – first encounter the international collection of crooks who plan to stage a coup in Great Britain and other capitalist countries and install a Bolshevist regime in order to gain … Continue reading
Apologies – Missing Events links!
Dear All, I realise that the links to New Year book events did not get though on the email version of yesterday’s post! They are though all live on this page on the site itself: https://reading19001950.wordpress.com/2022/12/31/events-in-the-new-year-about-books-readers-and-reading/ Happy New Reading Year! Chris.
Events in the New Year about Books, Readers and Reading!
Dear Reading 1900-1950 Followers, I know that many of you are based outside the UK or not close to Sheffield, but equally I know others are based within travelling distance, so I thought I’d post this information about talks relating to Reading 1900-1950 areas of interest in and around Sheffield in the New Year. Most … Continue reading
Sad Cypress (1940) by Agatha Christie
Come away, come away, death, And in sad cypress let me be laid. Fly away, fly away, breath; I am slain by a fair cruel maid. My shroud of white, stuck all with yew, O, prepare it! My part of death, no one so true Did share it. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 4. … Continue reading
Taken at the Flood (1948) and After the Funeral (1952) by Agatha Christie
Book review by George S: These two novels were published when Agatha Christie’s was at the peak of her powers, and delivering at least one best-seller every year – two, most years. Both are about families where something has gone wrong in a way, she hints, that mirrors what is going wrong with the country. … Continue reading
The Razor’s Edge (1944) by Somerset Maugham
Book Review by George S: The Razor’s Edge was written during the Second World War, but its story begins at the end of the First one. In 1919 Larry Darrell is in Paris. He is an airman who after the Armistice is behaving oddly. As a character says: The war did something to Larry. He … Continue reading
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