Book recommendations.

[Abby Normal]

Then I think you would appreciate and enjoy this book. I did. Very much. An outdoor classic.

The story of the first trip afoot through the Grand Canyon. I was a big fan of Colin Fletcher. Got me into backpacking. Sadly he has passed away.

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Walked-Through-Time/product-reviews/0679723064/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_show_all_btm?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews

c.d.

thanks CD Ill check it out

[Herlock Sholmes]

i dont know herlock, I hear those Stoats can be pretty vicious ha!

Yeah, I wouldn’t fancy a grizzly’s chances against a p***ed off stoat.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I just finished Murder At Roaringwater by Nick Foster. I’ll just copy and paste what I wrote on the thread about the case.

“I finished the book and recommend it highly to anyone. It’s a fascinating case and a well written book. Is he guilty? There’s certainly a lot in favour of his guilt but I’m not 100% convinced. I could put it this way - the odds probably favour his guilt but would I be totally comfortable sending someone to prison for the rest of their lives on this, no I don’t think that I would. I certainly could be giving too much of the benefit of doubt though. Lots of lies told (including a witness against Bailey) lots of things that can be explained 2 ways (nothing new in that of course) which leave me with doubts. If I read it again along with other stuff on the case I might change my mind. Who knows? Erobitha obvious feels that he was guilty and he knows more about the case than I do.”

Definitely a book for the shopping list though and it would be interesting to hear other opinions

[Herlock Sholmes]

Although I’m probably late to this book and many on here will already own it but I’ve just ordered Lost London 1870-1945 by Phillip Davies (2009). It looks like an absolute cracker and every single review is 5 star. I’m really looking forward to getting this one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-London.../dp/0955794986

[Herlock Sholmes]

I just finished volume 3 of ‘Scoundrels’ and have to say that the 3 books are absolutely brilliant. Laugh out loud funny. Find out who really kidnapped Shergar and read about a perilous horse sperm collecting episode in the back of a horse box. Find out about the photograph of a secret WWII German missile which turned out to be Hitler’s favourite sex toy called the Klung Hammer. Visit the weirdest Gentleman’s club in the world. I’m just hoping that they decide to do a volume 4 of the reminiscences of Majors Victor Cornwall and Arthur St John Trevelyan.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I just got my copy of Lost London by Philip Davies. This has to be a ‘must have’ book (for anyone who doesn’t already have it of course. It’s brilliant. I’m looking forward to looking through it. So many great photos with text added. One word of warning though. I almost bought the cheaper paperback version until I saw that it had around half of the pages so pay the bit extra for the hardback. This one’s an absolute cracker.

Apologies that these images have appeared the wrong way up. It often happens but I haven’t a clue why or how to correct it.

[Herlock Sholmes]

There are 4 pictures taken inside 4 different houses in Spital Square from 1908/9. None are Baxter Phillips house but they might give an idea about how his house might have looked inside.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Just looked through the book as a whole so I’ll give my last comment in case everyone thinks that I’m on a commission.

Review - Just buy it.

[drstrange169]

It's a great book, I was lucky enough to pick it up dirt cheap at a remained book sale.

[Herlock Sholmes]

It's a great book, I was lucky enough to pick it up dirt cheap at a remained book sale.

I’m certainly glad that I bought it Dusty. I paid £20 but it was well worth it. Knowing my luck I’ll see it next week in a charity shop for £3. I once paid £40 for a book only to have a friend tell me that he had a copy that I could have had for nothing!

[Herlock Sholmes]

Another cracking book of old photographs but this time one that I got from the local Library. It’s Dickens Victorian London 1839-1901 by Alex Werner and Tony Williams. Another absolute cracker that I’m now thinking of buying.

[Herlock Sholmes]

As we saw with The Five it’s amazing what can be achieved with an agenda, some lazy critics and and the promotion of an idea or a cause. Facts become surplus to requirements. Like most I’d heard the story of Mary Seacole, the black Crimean ‘nurse,’ who is cited as a pioneer of nursing and a heroine. Websites, books, blogs, plaques, statues. An uninterrupted wave of praise. Then I heard someone suggesting that almost none of this was actually true and I’d been meaning for a while to learn more.

I bought Mary Seacole: The Making Of A Myth by Lynn McDonald. She is a Canadian with an impressive cv as an academic and a member of the Canadian Parliament. She’s also Director of the 16-volume Collected Works Of Florence Nightingale; so an undoubted Nightingale expert. The book genuinely worried me because it exposed how such myths are created then perpetuated by supposedly respected institutions such as the BBC. There has been a concerted effort to displace Nightingale and replace her with Seacole as the pioneering figure in nursing when nothing could be further from the truth. So many lies have been told that I don’t have time to even begin to list them but I’ll mention a couple.

It’s claimed everywhere that Seacole was awarded medals/honours. She’s even photographed wearing some but there’s absolutely no record of her being awarded any. Supporters for instance claim that she was awarded The Legion D’Honneur but she wasn’t. The first time that she was ever seen wearing medals was at a bankruptcy hearing.

She wasn’t a nurse and never claimed to be one. A she definitely wasn’t refused by Nightingale because of her race. This is a complete invention. It looks like they only met once and for no more than 5 minutes. She was heading for Balaclava to meet a business partner and stopped off a Scutari and requested a bed from Nightingale who provided her with one. She spoke warmly of Nightingale.

She had a kind of hut/hotel at Crimea providing food and drink but only for officers. She did some amateur medical work but not on the battlefield as claimed.

All of McDonalds work is properly referenced and sourced. This isn’t a hatchet job on Seacole. Seacole was primarily a business woman who used herbal cures. She was a good person. She did some good. But I’m afraid that in terms of achievements she shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as Nightingale.

Recommended.

[barnflatwyngarde]

As we saw with The Five it’s amazing what can be achieved with an agenda, some lazy critics and and the promotion of an idea or a cause. Facts become surplus to requirements. Like most I’d heard the story of Mary Seacole, the black Crimean ‘nurse,’ who is cited as a pioneer of nursing and a heroine. Websites, books, blogs, plaques, statues. An uninterrupted wave of praise. Then I heard someone suggesting that almost none of this was actually true and I’d been meaning for a while to learn more.

I bought Mary Seacole: The Making Of A Myth by Lynn McDonald. She is a Canadian with an impressive cv as an academic and a member of the Canadian Parliament. She’s also Director of the 16-volume Collected Works Of Florence Nightingale; so an undoubted Nightingale expert. The book genuinely worried me because it exposed how such myths are created then perpetuated by supposedly respected institutions such as the BBC. There hishas been a concerted effort to displace Nightingale and replace her with Seacole as the pioneering figure in nursing when nothing could be further from the truth. So many lies have been told that I don’t have time to even begin to list them but I’ll mention a couple.

It’s claimed everywhere that Seacole was awarded medals/honours. She’s even photographed wearing some but there’s absolutely no record of her being awarded any. Supporters for instance claim that she was awarded The Legion D’Honneur but she wasn’t. The first time that she was ever seen wearing medals was at a bankruptcy hearing.

She wasn’t a nurse and never claimed to be one. A she definitely wasn’t refused by Nightingale because of her race. This is a complete invention. It looks like they only met once and for no more than 5 minutes. She was heading for Balaclava to meet a business partner and stopped off a Scutari and requested a bed from Nightingale who provided her with one. She spoke warmly of Nightingale.

She had a kind of hut/hotel at Crimea providing food and drink but only for officers. She did some amateur medical work but not on the battlefield as claimed.

All of McDonalds work is properly referenced and sourced. This isn’t a hatchet job on Seacole. Seacole was primarily a business woman who used herbal cures. She was a good person. She did some good. But I’m afraid that in terms of achievements she shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as Nightingale.

Recommended.

Very interesting Herlock.

It's always enlightening to read a properly researched and referenced book, especially if it corrects some well established notions.

At the moment I'm reading a wonderful book by Gore Vidal, "Palimpsest".
It's an autobiography that details his life up to the age of forty, and covers his encounters with JFK and Jackie, Tennessee Williams, Jack Kerouac etc, etrc.

What sets this autobiography apart from many others is the sheer quality of Vidal's writing, it is an absolute delight.

If you do dip into this wonderful book, be prepared to be chained to it until you hit the last wonderful page.

[MrBarnett]

As we saw with The Five it’s amazing what can be achieved with an agenda, some lazy critics and and the promotion of an idea or a cause. Facts become surplus to requirements. Like most I’d heard the story of Mary Seacole, the black Crimean ‘nurse,’ who is cited as a pioneer of nursing and a heroine. Websites, books, blogs, plaques, statues. An uninterrupted wave of praise. Then I heard someone suggesting that almost none of this was actually true and I’d been meaning for a while to learn more.

I bought Mary Seacole: The Making Of A Myth by Lynn McDonald. She is a Canadian with an impressive cv as an academic and a member of the Canadian Parliament. She’s also Director of the 16-volume Collected Works Of Florence Nightingale; so an undoubted Nightingale expert. The book genuinely worried me because it exposed how such myths are created then perpetuated by supposedly respected institutions such as the BBC. There has been a concerted effort to displace Nightingale and replace her with Seacole as the pioneering figure in nursing when nothing could be further from the truth. So many lies have been told that I don’t have time to even begin to list them but I’ll mention a couple.

It’s claimed everywhere that Seacole was awarded medals/honours. She’s even photographed wearing some but there’s absolutely no record of her being awarded any. Supporters for instance claim that she was awarded The Legion D’Honneur but she wasn’t. The first time that she was ever seen wearing medals was at a bankruptcy hearing.

She wasn’t a nurse and never claimed to be one. A she definitely wasn’t refused by Nightingale because of her race. This is a complete invention. It looks like they only met once and for no more than 5 minutes. She was heading for Balaclava to meet a business partner and stopped off a Scutari and requested a bed from Nightingale who provided her with one. She spoke warmly of Nightingale.

She had a kind of hut/hotel at Crimea providing food and drink but only for officers. She did some amateur medical work but not on the battlefield as claimed.

All of McDonalds work is properly referenced and sourced. This isn’t a hatchet job on Seacole. Seacole was primarily a business woman who used herbal cures. She was a good person. She did some good. But I’m afraid that in terms of achievements she shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as Nightingale.

Recommended.

Thanks for the recommendation, Mike. I’ll see if I can get hold of a copy of that.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I have to say that I read today that another book on Seacole is due out by Helen Rappaport who is more pro-Seacole and gets mentioned in McDonald’s book.