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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

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unknown unknown :  Fragments from an Officer's Diary in Southern Poland

'Thanks very much for the book and the "Spectator" page.[...] These are all delightful pieces. You must autograph the book for me.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad      Print: Serial / periodical

  

unknown unknown : [news of abdication of French king Louis Philippe]

Charlotte Bronte (as Currer Bell) to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 28 February 1848:

'From the papers of Saturday I had learnt the abdication of Louis Philippe, the flight of the royal family, and the proclamation of a republic in France. Rapid movements these, and some of them difficult of comprehension to a remote spectator [goes on to reflect further on French political situation, also observing: 'Few will pity the old monarch in his flight, yet I own he seems to me an object of pity'].'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë      Print: Newspaper

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Thanks very much for your sympathetic book. It is vividly interesting (I am on p.70) and am flattered to think that its writer, who knows so much of human affairs, thinks so well of my work. I trust we may meet [...] on your return from Damascus next year.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [review of work by/relating to Charles Lamb]

Charlotte Bronte to George Smith, 17 August 1848:

'I will not return Charles Lamb [i.e. a book], for in truth he is very welcome. I saw a review with extracts in the "Examiner," and thought at the time I should much like to read the whole book.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë      Print: Serial / periodical

  

unknown unknown : unknown

Charlotte Bronte to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 25 June 1849:

'I have always forgotten to acknowledge the receipt of the parcel [of books, regularly sent by Williams] from Cornhill [...] I looked at it the other day — it reminded me too sharply of the time when the first parcel arrived — last October; Emily was then beginning to be ill — the opening of the parcel and fascination of the books cheered her — their perusal occupied her for many a weary day: the very evening before her last morning dawned I read to her one of Emerson's essays — I read on till I found she was not listening — I thought to recommence next day — Next day, the first glance at her face told me what would happen before night-fall.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Emily Brontë      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [Patristic writings]

'Mr [James Chesterton] Bradley always found great pleasure in recalling the fact that he was the prototype of Mr Sweeting [in Charlotte Bronte's novel Shirley], although he declared that the meetings of the curates at each other's lodgings were exclusively for a series of two-hours' readings of the Greek fathers, and not for the drunken orgies described in Shirley.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: James Chesterton Bradley and fellow curates     Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

James Chesterton Bradley to Robert Keating Smith, 3 May 1902:

'A short paper of yours in "The Tatler" of April 2nd brought before me my old friend James W[illiam]. Smith. He and I were fellow curates in Yorkshire, he curate of Haworth, and I of the hill part of Keighley which joined on to Haworth [...] He and I with another of the name of Grant were the three curates in Charlotte Bronte's "Shirley." I need not say how indignant I have often been at the way in which she speaks of him in the novel. He was a thorough gentleman in every sense of the word, and there was not the slightest ground for the insinuation she makes against him [...] We used to read together, walk together, and as often as we could, about once a week, would meet either at his or my lodgings.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: James Chesterton Bradley and James William Smith     Print: Unknown

  

unknown unknown : [article on Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, and works by others]

Charlotte Bronte to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 16 August 1849:

'The "North British Review" duly reached me. I read attentively all it says about "E. Wyndham," "Jane Eyre," and "F. Hervey." Much of the article is clever, and yet there are remarks which — for me — rob it of importance [...] I do not respect an inconsistent critic. He says, "if "Jane Eyre" be the production of a woman, then she must be a woman unsexed." [...] I am reminded of the "Economist." The literary critic of that paper praised the book if written by a man, and pronounced it "odious" if the work of a woman.
To such critics I would say, "To you I am neither man nor woman — I come before you as an author only. It is the sole ground on which you have a right to judge me — the sole ground on whiich I accept your judgement.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë      Print: Serial / periodical

  

unknown unknown : [Review of Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre]

Charlotte Bronte to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 16 August 1849:

'The "North British Review" duly reached me. I read attentively all it says about "E. Wyndham," "Jane Eyre," and "F. Hervey." Much of the article is clever, and yet there are remarks which — for me — rob it of importance [...] I do not respect an inconsistent critic. He says, "if "Jane Eyre" be the production of a woman, then she must be a woman unsexed." [...] I am reminded of the "Economist." The literary critic of that paper praised the book if written by a man, and pronounced it "odious" if the work of a woman.
To such critics I would say, "To you I am neither man nor woman — I come before you as an author only. It is the sole ground on which you have a right to judge me — the sole ground on whiich I accept your judgement.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë      Print: Serial / periodical

  

unknown unknown : [Haworth working man's written response to reading Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre]

Charlotte Bronte to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 19 March 1850:

'I enclose for your perusal a scrap of paper which came into my hands without the knowledge of the writer. He is a poor working man of this village — a thoughtful, reading, feeling being, whose mind is too keen for his frame, and wears it out. I have not spoken to him above thrice in my life, for he is a Dissenter, and has rarely come in my way. The document is a sort of record of his feelings, after the perusal of "Jane Eyre"; it is artless and earnest, genuine and generous. You must return it to me, for I value it more than testimonies from higher sources. He said: "Miss Bronte, if she knew he had written it, would scorn him"; but, indeed, Miss Bronte does not scorn him; she only grieves that a mind of which this is the emanation should be kept crushed by the leaden hand of poverty — by the trials of uncertain health and the claims of a large family.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë      Manuscript: Unknown

  

unknown unknown : [Reviews in Pall Mall Gazette and St James's Gazette]

'... we have seen review in St James's Gazette, March 17 and Pall Mall March 18 — both good.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson      Print: Serial / periodical

  

unknown unknown : [Book review]

'I enclose another review. Fancy Eton masters setting my book as a classic to turn into Latin verse.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson      Print: Serial / periodical

  

unknown unknown : [Books on Camisards]

'I am reading up the Camisards and shall go a walk in the scene of their wars, the Hautes Cévennes.'

Unknown
Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'The single bed proved very unsuitable for Joseph Conrad, because apart from its legitimate purpose as a resting place, his bed had to be hospitable to a heap of books, all open and face downwards, maps, bed-rest, and more than once a wooden Spratt's dog-biscuit box he had ordered his man to place at the foot of the bed to brace his feet against.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [review of Arabian Nights]

'I have only seen Athenaeum ...'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson      Print: Serial / periodical

  

unknown unknown : [review of Arabian Nights in Pall Mall Gazette]

'I have only seen Athenaeum, PMG ...'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson      Print: Serial / periodical

  

unknown unknown : [review of Arabian Nights in The Scotsman]

'I have only seen Athenaeum, P.M.G. and the Scotsman.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson      Print: Newspaper

  

unknown unknown : Back from the Dead

'I find upon looking up that Louis is in tears over Back from the Dead.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson      Print: Unknown

  

unknown unknown : [article in Edinburgh Courant]

'If you chance to see a paragraph in the papers describing my illness, and the "delicacies suitable to my invalid condition" cooked in copper, and other ridiculous and revolting yarns, pray regard it as a spectral illusion, and pass by.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson      Print: Newspaper

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'I could read well when very young (as is before hinted) spending much time with my afflicted father, I read much to him; and the experiences and sufferings of faithful martyrs, and of our worthy friends, with the accounts of the glorious exit of such as launched out of time in full assurance of everlasing bliss, made profitable impressions on my mind; my spirit being often tendered thereby, and my love of virtue and piety strengthened; so that I may truly say that such holy persons, "though they be dead, yet speak".'

Unknown
Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Payton      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'My natural disposition was very volatile, and my apprehension very quick; and as my faculties opened, I delighted much in books of a very contrary nature and tendency to those which had engaged my attention in my childhood. I had a near relation, who, notwithstanding his having been favoured in his youth, had slighted his soul's mercies, and pursued lying vanities. He kept house in the town; and through him, myself, and my sisters, had opportunities of obtaining plays and romances, which I read with avidity. I also spent much time at his house as to be introduced into amusements very inconsistent with the implicity of truth, and my former religious impressions; so that my state was indeed dangerous, and but for the interposition of Divine Providence, I had been left to pursue courses which must have terminated deplorably. I also read history, was fond of poetry, and had a taste for philosophy; so that I was in the way to embellish my understanding (as is the common phrase), and to become accomplished to shine in conversation; which might have tended to feed the vain proud nature, render me pleasing to those who were in it, and make me conspicuous in the world.'

Unknown
Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Payton      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'And here I may add, that from the time I came from school, I read little, save religious books; and after I appeared in ministry, until late in life, reading even then was much taken from me, except the scriptures: all of which I believe was in divine wisdom, that I might not minister from what I had gathered from religious writings; but might receive the arguments I was enabled to advance on behalf of the truth, by the immediate revelation of the Holy Spirit.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Payton Phillips      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [article in London Magazine]

'There is what I consider a pretty good 5 Towns story [‘From One Generation to Another’] in the October London Magazine. But they have given it a rotten air by splitting it up into two short paragraphs, & by the vilest illustrations. I hate to be published in that desolating publication. It humiliates me. Still, new flats have to be paid for.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett      Print: Serial / periodical

  

unknown unknown : The Ghost of Southcote Manor

'Meeting held at School House
3/12/29
T. C. Elliott in the chair
1. Minutes of last Meeting read and approved
[...]
5. The subject of the evening Ghost Stories was then taken
H. R. Smith read an account written by Clarkson Wallis of a ghost appearing in Brighton Meeting. Geo Burrows read a Newcastle Ghost story Miss Brain read of the Ghost of Southcote Manor & Mrs Elliott read of Mrs S. The Morton Ghost. C. E. Stansfield read an essay on the subject especially with reference to the work of the Physchical [sic] Research Society thereafter he and H. R. Smith told a story apiece.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: E. Dorothy Brain      

  

unknown unknown : Mrs S, the Morton Ghost

'Meeting held at School House
3/12/29
T. C. Elliott in the chair
1. Minutes of last Meeting read and approved
[...]
5. The subject of the evening Ghost Stories was then taken
H. R. Smith read an account written by Clarkson Wallis of a ghost appearing in Brighton Meeting. Geo Burrows read a Newcastle Ghost story Miss Brain read of the Ghost of Southcote Manor & Mrs Elliott read of Mrs S. The Morton Ghost. C. E. Stansfield read an essay on the subject especially with reference to the work of the Physchical [sic] Research Society thereafter he and H. R. Smith told a story apiece.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs C. Elliott      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'The old reason [for not replying to letters] remains, also the old remedy. A good shillingsworth of fine fiction now. [...] A copy of the July “BLUE” enfolding some rather tasteless morsels, a fine article by H. S. Goodwin on Geoffrey Woodhouse, the unspeakably hopeless "Hertford Letter" and several mixed comments on my poems and me — that also fell from the lucky bag. The "Southern Weekly", the "Daily Mirror" and other papers show up the latest buffoonery of A.W.U. [?] quite plainly.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Blunden      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

‘Still, in daytime, we sometimes got out of the trench into the tall sorrelled grass behind, which the sun had dried, and enjoyed a warm indolence with a book (not “Infantry Training” I think.)’

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Blunden      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

‘Englebelmer, indeed, was now entering upon a dark period.[...]. Still we explored the church into which opened a mysterious tunnel; as if on holiday we examined the brightly painted saints and the other sacred objects from gallery to vault; and hard by found a large collection of the Englebelmer parish magazine, which was and was not interesting. Religious readings were interrupted by a move to Beaussart.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Blunden      Print: parish magazine

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'The house in which some of us were lodged was the quietest conceivable [...]; our beds were in the attics, and during the night we had scarcely thrown down the French novels which we picked up there and put out our candles, when it seemed an aeroplane was buzzing overhead and something hit the tiles.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Blunden      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

‘At Watten station [...] I sauntered by the canal then settled myself with my book in an empty cattle truck.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Blunden      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'I was reading in the headquarters shelter when the great man [the Brigadier-General] suddenly drew aside the sacking of the entrance, and gleamed stupendously in our candlelight, followed by an almost equally menacing Staff Captain.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Blunden      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'I will stay in this farmhouse while the gas course lasts [...] and get the old peasant in the evenings to recite more "[Fables of] La Fontaine" to me, in the Béthune dialect, and walk out to see the neighbouring inns and shrines, and read -- Bless me, Kapp [a fellow officer and satirical artist, recently sent away to the Press Bureau] has gone away with my "John Clare"! He has the book yet for all I know [...].

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Blunden      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Our billet was a chemist's house, well furnished with ledgers and letters strewn about from bureaux, chiefly the scrawl of poor people in Thiepval and other places of the past who bemoaned the bad crops, and their consequent inability to pay up.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Blunden      Manuscript: Letter

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'On the way back [from the Bombay Secretariat] bought a few clothes and some books from Thacker, a better *libraire* than you will find in all Africa.[...] Out again at five and discovered Tarapooree Walla, a bookshop recalling in its extent, variety and disorder the best traditions of the Charing Cross Road. Ran amok.[...] Early to bed but read until 11.45 when finding myself weak and nervy took my first grain of opium (pill) and to sleep.''

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Ronald Storrs      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : Forster's Life

'The Irish part of ''Forster's Life'' is very painful and interesting. [...] It is very good anti-Home Rule reading and makes one think worse than ever of Parnell.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Darwin      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : Sir H. Taylor's Letters

'We are not delighted with ''Sir H. Taylor's Letters''. They are not a bit fresh or spontaneous'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Darwin      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [Biography of Catherine and Susannah Winkworth]

'I seem to have been reading nothing but about young girls lately — Miss Bronte, Miss Edgeworth, the Burneys, the Winkworths.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Darwin      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [unknown texts on the life of Shelley]

'Meeting held at 7, Marlborough Avenue. 15th Jan, 1944     A. G. Joselin in the chair.

[...]

2. The minutes of the last meeting were read and signed

[...]

5. Howard Smith opened the evening on Shelley with a biographical sketch. [...]

6. We adjourned for refreshment[.]

7. F. E. Pollard read “Ode to the West Wind”

8. Margaret Dilks gave brief appreciation of Shelley’s poetry. This started a general discussion in which nearly all took part — whether he influenced or was influenced by his contempor[ar]ies , & what effect he had, if any, on future poets. On these questions opinion varied, but all agreed with F. E. Pollard that Shelley’s verse is supremely ‘poetical’.

9. To illustrate Shelley’s passion for liberty and reform Bruce Dilks read from “The Masque of Anarchy” which was inspired by the Peterloo Massacre in 1819.

10. Rosamund Wallis read some stanzas from “Adonais”. F. E. Pollard read a short poem entitled “A Lament”[.] Thus, our thoughts being with the departed, the meeting ended on a lighter note. One member quoted a touching little verse from the Berkshire Chronicle In Memoriam notices, which another capped by some lines written by a school-boy on the relative merits of perpetual roasting and eternal hymn-singing. Lines which gained the boy a severe reprimand from his head-master, and a ‘Fiver’ from his father.

[signed as a true record by] S A Reynolds 14/2/44'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Howard Smith      Print: Unknown

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'We entrained about 3 pm in cattle trucks. The Belgians had straw in theirs, and 20 men to a truck. We had 40 men, and no straw. A further distinction was made with the aid of chalk on the Belgian trucks, where someone had written "Belgian gut, Francosen gut, aber Englisch Schwein".'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: James Clifford Farrant      Manuscript: Graffito, Chalk-written sign.

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'In the German barracks "Gott strafe England" was chalked up in many conspicuous places. It was also the headline on their bread coupon cards.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: James Clifford Farrant      Manuscript: Graffito, Chalk-written sign.

  

unknown unknown : [POW camp publication]

'Each day there is a "Budget" published, the work of the more literary and energetic of our members, chiefly consisting of the various "officials" taken from the German papers, with leading articles on any special bits of news. There is also a monthly production with short stories and illustrations which is wonderfully good. The summer number is just out, and there is a hit at me under "Things We Want to Know": whether "Joy Riding in an aeroplane over imperfectly known country is not an overrated amusement?"'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Douglas Lyall Grant      Print: Serial / periodical

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'This morning I stayed in and read some most illuminating articles on Sufyism. There's a lot to know, but I guess I'll know some of it before I've done.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Bell      Print: Serial / periodical, probably a periodical

  

unknown unknown : [?The] Shadow of Death

'Last night a year ago I was reading Mother the "Shadow of Death" at Kirby Thore and today a year ago the shadow fell very near me. I thought much last night of him [the late Henry Cadogan] and of all he had been to me and is still.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Bell      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : Lourdes [...]

'Left at 10.40 Frontier 12.15, lunch Belfort 12.40 where I got "Lourdes" and read it with wild interest all the rest of the way. Tea at Nancy. Reims 7.30.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Bell      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [Biography of Hafiz]

'I went up to the Musee this morning and read a Persian life of Hafez with a Latin crib. I think I got at the meaning of it with the help of a Persian dictionary, but a Latin translation is not so clear to me as it might be.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Bell      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Florence [Lascelles] the Marshalls and I went to the [Berlin] National Gallery to see the modern pictures. It was most interesting because I had been reading about modern German painters and knew what I wanted to look at. It rained all the afternoon — I read and wrote in my room.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Bell      Print: Unknown, presumably book, exhibition catalogue or periodical

  

unknown unknown : [Arabic texts]

'Fog in the early morning, sun came out after lunch. Quite chilly. Read Arabic and "Les Misérables".'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Bell      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [novel in Spanish]

'All day we sailed along an absolutely barren coast. A tiny fringe of green along the sand and then great mts with nothing but brown scrub upon them. It sometimes doesn't rain here for 5 years. Read Arabic and talked to the Hoffmanns. Slept, tea, read a Spanish novel, dinner, very indifferent music ending with choruses on deck.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Bell      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Very foggy; raw and cold all morning; the sun came out a little after lunch, but it was still cold. Wrapped myself in fur cloaks and rugs and sat on deck reading novels.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Bell      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'After lunch, finished a book on Hawaii Mr W[alford] lent me.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Gertrude Bell      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'A motor bicycle drew up at our door and a haggard dispatch rider stumbled in to put a scrap of paper into my hand. It was a page torn out of an army notebook with a scribbled message in pencil from a lieutenant addressed to his commanding officer; the date and time upon it belonged to the afternoon before. The writer was holding on with a handful of men at a point (he gave a rough map reference) but they were nearly surrounded — could help be sent, very soon or it would come too late? The messenger had been trying ever since to find the CO and had failed; the message must be delivered to someone — and now to me of all people! The message, I pointed out, was twelve hours old, but the dispatch rider seemed stupefied with his utter failure and weariness. He went dumbly away with his scrap of paper. And I tried to dismiss from my mind a tiny detail in a disastrous landscape — a huddle of brown down there at the map reference, where, in all likelihood, a young officer and a dozen men would be lying together dead.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Barclay Josiah Baron      Manuscript: Letter, Pencilled note on a page torn out of an army notebook.

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'You need have no fear about my looking after myself and behaving myself May, because I only go out about 3 nights a week, and then usually by myself. I either walk round the town or go to the Y.M.C.A. at Romford, where there are all kinds of games and concerts. When I stop in camp I either go in our own Y.M.C.A. and read books or war news, or sew buttons on, or have a chat with another decent fellow out of our room on military affairs. So you see I behave myself alright.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Edward Mortlock French      Print: Book, Newspaper

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Well I am getting on topping: today we have been on a brigade field day round a place called "The Devils Punch bowl" It's a piece of land about 3 miles round the top. The top is flat for about 3 yards and then slopes down to an awful depth. A sailor was murdered there in 1756, as he was going to Portsmouth by an highway man. They buried the sailor, and erected a stone telling all about the barborous murder. About 50 yards away there is a stone cross which the highwayman was hung on. The murdered sailor was a Witney man. On another old stone near our camp its got Portsmouth 33 miles, and Hyde Park Corner 36 miles, which shows that we are not so far from the seaside or London. It always seems curious to see such names on a mile stone.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Edward Mortlock French      Manuscript: Engraved stone.

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Well I am getting on topping: today we have been on a brigade field day round a place called "The Devils Punch bowl" It's a piece of land about 3 miles round the top. The top is flat for about 3 yards and then slopes down to an awful depth. A sailor was murdered there in 1756, as he was going to Portsmouth by an highway man. They buried the sailor, and erected a stone telling all about the barborous murder. About 50 yards away there is a stone cross which the highwayman was hung on. The murdered sailor was a Witney man. On another old stone near our camp its got Portsmouth 33 miles, and Hyde Park Corner 36 miles, which shows that we are not so far from the seaside or London. It always seems curious to see such names on a mile stone.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Edward Mortlock French      Manuscript: Milestone.

  

unknown unknown : [officer's diary]

'Our Adjutant told us the history of the 1st K.R.R [King's Royal Rifles] in this war, by a diary from one of their officers. They got on fine until they went into action at the battle of Mons. They had a terrible share in it. They had 400 out of 1,000 men killed that day. The French retired and the K.R.R. held on for 3 hours after the French had gone. Then K.R.R. had to march 170 miles, fighting all the way. After the Marne, the other 600 were nearly wiped out. Well as it is tea time I must now close ...'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Edward Mortlock French      Manuscript: Codex

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Soldiers who have been out here 6 months can speak French, and some of the French can speak English perfectly. I can speak just a little French now. In most of the Y.M.C.A's at Aldershot ladies teach soldiers the French language free of charge. You can get 1d papers here with pretty well everything you want on it. On one side of the paper there are articles, and in English, opposite the English names, are the French names, which apply to the same article. Nutty idea isn't it.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Edward Mortlock French      Print: NewspaperManuscript: Codex

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Gradually, very gradually, Australians will realize what they owe to England. How all my English blood courses through my veins when I read of England's responses to the great call! It is true of course that Australians are joining the colours here, but the majority are either of the well-to-do classes, or else recent immigrants.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Kenneth Julian Faithfull Bickersteth      Print: Newspaper

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'The papers are eagerly read, of course, and small groups constantly gather outside the newspaper offices to read the cablegrams which are also put up for passers-by to see.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group:      Print: Newspaper

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'We missed news more than anything else, there was a notice board in the court yard and we got the German version on that, needless to say this was not very satisfying.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: J. P. Lynch      Print: Newspaper

  

unknown unknown : [Post cards written by officer POWs]

'When we were allowed to write post cards home on the 6th Oct 1914 (first time) Frau Braun [wife of the German camp commander] did the censoring, and as the Frau was not very good at English we were asked to write but little and clearly, we heard that the good Frau used to stay up nearly all night trying to read our correspondence, with the aid of a dictionary.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Braun      Manuscript: Letter, Postcards

  

unknown unknown : [scraps of English newspapers]

'... we got no news at Göttingen except from scraps of English papers which came in parcels, the Göttingen paper was one of the worst in Germany, and we did not take it in, the time we spent in this lager was extremely monotonous, and depressing.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: J. P. Lynch      Print: NewspaperManuscript: Letter, Postcards

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'We are getting together a good library of 1 franc English books.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Harold Upcott      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Yesterday afternoon as I was lying reading in my hut the C.O. came in and told me I had to go to Warloy (behind Albert) to relieve the surgeon specialist.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Harold Upcott      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Made my head ache reading + went to bed early.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Bickersteth Cook      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Paid Laundress and Daily Mail ... Elsie at ¼ to six. Supper at 7.15. Read + worked. Bed 9.10.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Bickersteth Cook      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'An officer [of the Serbian army, Captain S. Chatni] who spoke English well put his head out, and called to us to know if we would come into his kola ... it was very comfortable inside, with pockets containing books, candles and some very pretty rugs. He read us extracts out of some of the latest German books, in which such sentiments occurred as, "The English are wholly responsible for this horrible war, and should be swept off the face of the Earth".'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Minnie Newhall      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [article in the "Daily Telegraph" on Serbian mission]

'... we went into the Reading Rooms, and the "Daily Telegraph" Correspondent read us the article he had written on our trek across the mountains, which is to appear in the "Telegraph" next Tuesday. We saw an English newspaper, the first we had seen for a long time.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Minnie Newhall      Print: Newspaper

  

unknown unknown : 'The Man at the Gate'

'M. [Marjorie Cook, A. R. Cook's daughter] still has a high temp. — 104.1 in aft. Began to give Citrated milk. She enjoyed me reading to her "The man at the gate" and The Impregnable City.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Ruskin Cook      Print: BookManuscript: Telegraph cable

  

unknown unknown : The Man at the Gate

'M. [Marjorie Cook, A. R. Cook's daughter] still has a high temp. — 104.1 in aft. Began to give Citrated milk. She enjoyed me reading to her "The man at the gate" and The Impregnable City.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Ellen Cook      Print: BookManuscript: Telegraph cable

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Read story to May while she worked — afterwards verified cheque book and pass book.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Bickersteth Cook      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Read aloud to May.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Bickersteth Cook      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Read to May.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Bickersteth Cook      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : The Mother

'Read "The Mother".'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Bickersteth Cook      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [type-written note]

'The suppression of all newspapers left the universal craving for news unsatisfied, and the daily paper was replaced by short type-written notes which were secretly passed from hand to hand. I remember the contents of one of these compositions which was handed me by a visitor with great parade of secrecy and importance.
It was composed of brief short sentences: "Cambrai the last town in German occupation. Germans retiring all along the line. Maubeuge re-occupied by French and British troops. Revolution in Berlin. Streets in flames. Death of Empress."
All such absurd stories probably emanated from a German source and represent some obscure form of German humour.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Ian Vivian Hay      Manuscript: Type-written notes.

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Snow was falling ... and there was no chance of getting out to the terrace, so that the rest of the day had to be devoted to Poker and Bridge, games of which we were all heartily sick. Reading was difficult on account of the ceaseless noise kept up by Gollywog [a French officer prisoner] and his merry men [playing chess].'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Ian Vivian Hay      Manuscript: Sheet

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Zeppelin. A great rush for the windows ... This evening was marked by the arrival of a parcel of books, Tauchnitz edition, which we had been allowed to order. No doubt the publishers are glad of the chance to unload their stock of British authors, as, after the war is over, there will not be much demand for the Tauchnitz volumes.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Ian Vivian Hay      Print: BookManuscript: Sheet

  

unknown unknown : [English novels]

'During the period of our captivity at Munden the time passed more heavily, I think, than at any later period, owing to the fact that we had practically no reading matter ... No daily papers or periodicals of any sort were allowed, not even German, only a rag called The Continental Times ... There were only about a dozen English novels in the camp, and no means of obtaining more; consequently, to keep one's mind occupied, one had to read them over and over again ...'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Horace Gray Gilliland      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Cards, roulette, ping-pong and chess greatly assisted in passing the time. We also had quite a good camp library, the books mostly having been received from home. I have often heard it remarked that life there was one long queue, and it was not far wrong. Often one passed the morning waiting one's turn for the "tin room," or newly arrived parcels, while soon after lunch it was customary to see the more patient individuals already lining up chairs and settling down to their books, to wait for hot water which was sold at tea time.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: British officers waiting for hot water in the afternoons     Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [sign]

'I found a letter-box and feverishly endeavoured to decipher, in the semi-darkness, a long word printed in black letters on a white background. With a sinking heart I slowly made out the letters B—R—I—E. Was it necessary to read any further? Surely this was proof positive that I was still under the gentle sway of the Kaiser! What else could the remainder be but "feasten" completing the German word for letter-box.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Featherstone Knight      Print: BookManuscript: Painted sign.

  

unknown unknown : unknown

' ... as I had started adolescence in a blaze of idealism, the conflicting ugliness of factory life often drove my spirits into the depths. I rushed to poetry for escape and lived a double existence by seeking the slopes of Parnassus in thought while my hands mechanically soldered lead fittings or malletted sheet metal into shape at the grimy benches of the workshop.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Vero Walter Garratt      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [Books from the 'Everyman's Library' series]

'Sometimes it was more convenient to take a book into the lavatory and to sit there an inordinate length of time. On other occasions I disappeared into a small stock-room where fittings were contained in wooden recesses right up to the ceiling. Here, on the pretext of getting something high up, I did my reading standing on a ladder with the open book inside the recess and a box of "excuse" beside me, in case the foreman came in to see whether I had been taken ill. In consequence, my movements began to take on a disturbing air of mystery.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Vero Walter Garratt      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [Books from the 'Everyman's Library' series]

'Sometimes it was more convenient to take a book into the lavatory and to sit there an inordinate length of time. On other occasions I disappeared into a small stock-room where fittings were contained in wooden recesses right up to the ceiling. Here, on the pretext of getting something high up, I did my reading standing on a ladder with the open book inside the recess and a box of "excuse" beside me, in case the foreman came in to see whether I had been taken ill. In consequence, my movements began to take on a disturbing air of mystery.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Vero Walter Garratt      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [publications of the Alliance of Honour]

'... the Alliance of Honour existed to support my trend of thought and from my early teens to claim me as an ardent worker and propagandist for the cause of personal purity. I digested all the literature that came from the London headquarters and became a branch secretary with my own headquarters in the bedroom.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Vero Walter Garratt      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [German pornography]

'Erich had a little book which he greatly valued. In order to cheer my captivity he showed this book to me. When I saw the way Erich used to linger over its pages at night before going to sleep I thought that it was some pious work given him by his mother before he left the Fatherland. When he showed it to me I found that it was pornographic. The text was meaningless to me, as Erich regretfully acknowledged, but, he indicated, brightening considerably, the illustrations were indeed realistic.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Desmond Malone      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : ["small, rather sloppy novel"]

'During the whole of my stay I continually asked to be allowed to have English books, but apart from one small, rather sloppy novel I was only permitted a German-English grammar. As I did not know even the shape of the German letters this book was of very little use to me, but the small dictionary at the end was useful in making up conversation with the jailers.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Lorimer John Austin      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [German-English Grammar]

'During the whole of my stay I continually asked to be allowed to have English books, but apart from one small, rather sloppy novel I was only permitted a German-English grammar. As I did not know even the shape of the German letters this book was of very little use to me, but the small dictionary at the end was useful in making up conversation with the jailers.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Lorimer John Austin      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [German-English Grammar]

'The routine of every day was precisely the same. We were wakened at five, and the coffee for breakfast was provided at half-past ... After dressing, and performing the menial duties of the day, there came the most trying part, waiting for the long hours of the morning to pass by. I used to attempt to learn German words out of a dictionary, and to draw anatomical diagrams from memory, for after a few days we were permitted some paper and a pencil.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Lorimer John Austin      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'The British officers formed a circulating library, and it was always possible to get any number of the Tauchnitz books in English and in French. There was no lack of reading material, but there was a tendency for other people to borrow your book before you had finished with it, and if anyone lost a volume that he had brought out, he had nothing to exchange for another ... many books were also sent to officers from home, and generally arrived safely.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Lorimer John Austin      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : Lost Tribes, The

'Read on furlough. 1917–1918.
[...]
B. General.
Hist.y of our own Times. '85–11. Gooch
Middlemarch – George Eliot
Felix Holt – [George Eliot]
A Mill on the Floss – [George Eliot]
Men, Women & Guns – Sapper
A Student in Arms – Hankey.
Great Texts of the Bible – Psalms
Battles of the 19th Cent.y – Ency. Brit
The Real Kaiser –
In a German Prince's house
Life of Stanley – Autobiography
Political Hist.y of the World – Innes.
The Practice of Xt.s Presence – Fullerton
Malarial Work in Macedonia. – Willoughby & Cassidy
Bible Prophecies of the present war.
Where are we?
The lost tribes.
The Marne & after
Nelson's Hist.y of the War. XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX.
A strange story. 1 & 2.
The eyes of His glory – Harrington Lees
The Practice of Christ's Presence
I.R.M. Jan — Dec 1917. Jan — July 1918.
Advent Testimony.
The King's Highway
The Vision Splendid
All's Well.
Bunyan's Characters. White. Vols. 1 & 3
Lichnowsky.
Prophetic Outlook — Cachemaile
Rhymes of a Red Cross man
Kipling – 20 poems
In Christ – Gordon
Scenes of Clerical Life. George Eliot
Sense & Sensibility – J. Austen.
Nicholas Nickleby – Dickens.
Dombey & Son      "
Silvia's Lovers. Mrs Gaskell.
Emma. Jane Austen
Agnes Grey. Ann Bronte
Thirsting for the Springs. Jowett
Germany at Bay. Major MacFall
Sir Nigel Loring. Conan Doyle'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Ruskin Cook      Print: Unknown

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'"An Ex Mill Girl," [Ethel Carnie] who wrote the novel, "Helen of Four Gates," telling an English interviewer of the twenty years she spent in a cotton factory in the North of England, said that she read incessantly in the evening, and during the day while at work had the greatest difficulty keeping "the day me" separate from "the night me." Her thoughts would wander to her books, she would forget about her work, and she would come to herself with a start "to find the bobbins too full, one rubbing against the other, so that it would take hours to right them again."'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Ethel Carnie Holdsworth      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [French pornography]

'The French postcards and magazines are very rude!!! Streets are cobbled only. I have some photographs and postcards of views.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Semple      Print: Serial / periodical

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'The last few days have been all the same, Nothing to do but sit around reading and chatting. The weather has changed. It is now pouring with rain.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Semple      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Very nice weather. Very hot indeed. Reading on the sands. Also took a shot of some fisher girls in their picturesque costumes, digging for worms and bait.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Semple      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Raid on Valenciennes. Very little to do each day but reading. Have given my name in for a correspondence course.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Semple      

  

unknown unknown : Army of Occupation Orders

'Read the new Army of Occupation Orders. We are to get 28/- per week bonus for staying on. Rather good work.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Semple      Print: Unknown

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Thanks most awfully for your letters & parcels, the gloves were "topping" also the books — I have read most of them but will read them again!'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Tea at the Y.M.C.A. Club. Read after tea. Rain off. Bought socks. Supper in town — bed.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Lovely day ... Read in afternoon and played bridge — lost 4f 25 c! Bed — v cold!'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'To tea at No 1 [squadron's mess] with Moore, v.good tea. Not to church all day — must go next week. Read in the evening.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Cummings in for dinner and another from No 1 [squadron]. Read and talked ... after dinner. Bed at 11 — slept excellently.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Brekker in bed: Up on patrol at 10 am v.thick, line patrol. Got lost ... Back after lunch. Thick as pea soup! Nearly lost. Bridge in evening. Lost 3 fr. Bed early, read in bed.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Strong [westerly] wind ... in morning. 3 E.A. [enemy aircraft] seen which hove off at once — both my guns froze up hard.
Read in afternoon and evening.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Thanks most awfully for the topping parcel of Xmas things. The pipe's ripping & so are the cigarettes & I am sure the books will be most interesting.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Bed at 12. Read and smoked till then. Very cold — frozen in bed. "B" Flt came back from break.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Up for early show ... Started to snow and carried on nearly all day! No patrols; did nothing except read and smoke.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : 'Impressions of Leave'

'Thanks so much for your two letters & the copies of "Flying" books — very good. I am afraid I didn't think much of Boyd Cable's story "Quick Work". The maniac of a pilot he describes as his hero would have been shot down at once! He did the very worst possible thing — diving away from a Hun! ... I do wish people like Boyd Cable would not show their ignorance by trying to write about flying! The best article was "Impressions of Leave" which was priceless. The story "Eighteen" was unnecessarily lugubrious.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Serial / periodical

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Read and wrote letters in the afternoon. Got 3 parcels for Xmas. To Church in evening and stayed to H.C. very nice service. Tender driven into ditch on way back — bitterly cold.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'To tea with No 1 [squadron]. The Hun [i.e., the aircraft shot down by the squadron in the morning's engagement] fought jolly well and was Lt Voss who had got 17 of our machines. Lecture na poo. Read in evening. Great show tomorrow.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Brekker in bed! Bon! Up at 11.30 — down town and bought some things. Read and drew in the afternoon. To dance at Dr Lawrie's in evening: 8.30 to 1.45. Quite bon show. My dancing dud full of Australians. One V.C. there. Girls not very pretty.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'To see "Ching Lee Soo" with whole family at 6 p.m. Very bon show. Read and wrote letters after dinner. Gally in to dine. Raining.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Tea with the Wilkinsons ... pretty appalling! Not to Church in evening. Read and had prayers.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Got C.O.'s car at Omer at 10.30. Arrived 65 at 12.30, foggy. Patrol out but got lost. Shanks & Kennedy crashed. OK.
Read in afternoon and played new records. Down town with Jack in evening. Bed at 10 — awfully cold. Room in an awful state.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Foggy all day. Down for patrol but no bon. Read in Mess all day. Wrote letters. Beastly cold.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Dud all day. No flying ... Did nothing, but read and smoke. Bed early.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Dud for patrols all day. Wind and low clouds. Read and smoked. 15 guests for dinner! Cinema after. I read and stayed in Peacock's room. Bed early.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'High wind and low clouds. No patrols at all. Rugger v Australian team in afternoon. Won 7–6. Ripping game. Read and wrote letters in evening.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Read and played bridge in evening. Lost 18 fr. Beastly cold, no patrol.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Read and smoked (beaucoup) in evening. Bed at 11.00.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Dud and no patrols all day. Read and smoked. Dinner in Pop. [Poperinge] with Jack.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Too dud for O.P.'s. Did reserve patrol in afternoon. Went up to Belgian aerodrome to see the [captured German] Gotha [bomber].
Church in morning. Read in evening.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'9 Albs. [German Albatros scouts] came and sat above us but did not attack me. Attacked Symons.
Walked down town with Major Howe after tea. Read and wrote letters in evening.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Pretty dud. No patrols ... Read in evening. Belgian Hanriot over.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Strong East wind and no flying.
Read and smoked all day.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'In bed all day. Read and smoked. Talked rot to the T.wire most of the time. About time I went home, the Day sister hates me! ... Leg rather sore.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'In bed all day. Dad and Mum came in the afternoon, Great. Nickie and Northwood called after. Read and smoked all day. Played bridge. Huns have got Messines ... this is awful!'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'In bed all day. Elsie in afternoon. Read and smoked all day.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Fall of Wythschaete and Meteren. Back to our old line on the ridge. In bed all day. Gin and Kathleen and Cousin Aggie in afternoon. Read and smoked all day.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'To Cinema with girl in afternoon, quite good fun. Back at 6.15. Read and smoked and talked in evening.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Down town with Dad. Mess about on bike all day and read and smoked in garden. Leg rather sore.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Brian flew over. Kirk in p.m. I did not go as leg pretty sore. Read poems in afternoon, felt rotten at night.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'V quiet all day, rested leg. Read and sketched most of the time.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Sketched and read all day. Leg rather sore — did not dash about much.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Uncle Jack came down for lunch. To dentist in afternoon. Read and smoked all day. Saw Uncle J. off. Read in evening.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Better. Read a bit and smoked a bit. Head still bad. Bed all day.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Better. Read and wrote and smoked all day.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Discharged from Hospital. No word from the Air Board ... Swept paths etc and read and smoked. Chilly day rather. Mum bad gout in foot.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Read and played croquet in evening.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Raining hard nearly all day. Down town with Mum in morning and then sat and read and smoked in front of fire.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Guy Mainwaring Knocker      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'Went for a long run this afternoon; tonight I am "lazing" in front of a fire with a pipe, a book, and two or three friends.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Douglas Herbert Bell      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'I have been happier lately. [The other soldiers] have not called me "College" for a long time, and they do not interfere when I try to read.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald Hugh Kiernan      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : [Item on Welsh strikes]

'Sun. Reading cursed strike in Wales.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: William Thomas      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'I had very little leisure time to lie with mother but read in the evening.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Jenkins      

  

unknown unknown : [Letter to 'Times']

'I hope you are well, and are finding some solace in your duties. You must find it hard to console aliens in England. They probably love England, and now they are aliens indeed. There was a letter in the Northcliffe Times not long ago from a lady who would make Bach an alien, a difficult job … You spoke of the Jewish persecution by the Russians. The English papers are allowed to speak of it now; at least there was a strong condemnation in a book-review in the Daily News … The Times published a special supplement of War-Poems on Monday. Did you see it? I think Hardy’s poem [“Song of the Soldiers”) is most likely to survive. It stirs me much more than it first did. On route marches now to occupy my mind, I am learning Wordsworth’s Sonnetts and the first lines of Paradise Lost, for which I can find no praise. It is too colossal. Too Bach-like.’

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Ivor Bertie Gurney      Print: Newspaper

  

unknown unknown : unknown

‘Lying in my dugout or funkhole the other day, I became too bored to read serious stuff, or write letters; so turning my attention to the few filthy magazines strewn around, left by the last visitants, I became aware of a thrilling boys tale of 3 scouts who apparently played the very deuce and all with the Germans. It was so absolutely unlike the real thing that I read quite a lot of it, and laughed a great deal.’

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Ivor Bertie Gurney      Print: Serial / periodical

  

unknown unknown : unknown

‘Here’s a part of our Hut of 30. [Owen had sent a postcard showing the camp enclosed with the letter.] I slaved for them, all Sunday as Orderly—never thought myself capable of such strenuosities as to do skivvy’s drudgery from 6.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m! … Great thanks for the Book. I read one page when the lights went out!’

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Owen      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

‘We had Church Parade this morning. One Major read the Lesson and another played the organ. This afternoon I have been reading a book which I just received from Leslie.’

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Owen      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

‘We have to go back to Camp on Monday! There are a number of Tents now standing: perhaps for us! I have not been to Hornchurch this Afternoon, but finding a well-furnished Room over a Tea Shop here vacant (of all but sleeping Artists), there remained; and, on the strength of Coffee, read, the whole Afternoon.’

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Owen      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

‘At the first Ambulance I arrived at in the Car, a Corporal came up to me with a staid air of sleepy dignity that seemed somehow familiar. And when he began to enter in a Note Book my name & age, we knew each other. It was old Hartop of the Technical! [Shrewsbury Technical School.] Bystanding Tommies were astounded at our fraternity. For the Good Old Sort brought back in an instant all the days of study in Shrewsbury, and the years that were better than these, or any years to come. Although married, as you may know to one of the girls who acted with me at the Socials, he has not grown up any more since the last term at the P.T.C. He was reading the same old books that we “did” there. I was jolly glad to see them again, & to borrow. For he has nothing particular to do but read on his present job of Pack Store Corporal in the R.A.M.C.’

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Owen      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : Murray's guide

we walked into the church which is a good deal painted over, and soon discovered the pictures of Brea. Murray tells us he is not an old master, yet his style appeared to me to belong to an early period.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Susan Horner      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : The Qu'ran

Raguana who, apart from Fatima, had the most outstanding personality in the harem. She was taller than most Hadhrami women, with a good figure and the striking looks of a film star, which she might well have been had she grown up in another environment for she also had a most compelling, deep voice. As the only one in the harem who could read we often listened entranced while she spoke the words of the Quran.

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Raguana      

  

unknown unknown : The Qu'ran

Raguana who, apart from Fatima, had the most outstanding personality in the harem. She was taller than most Hadhrami women, with a good figure and the striking looks of a film star, which she might well have been had she grown up in another environment for she also had a most compelling, deep voice. As the only one in the harem who could read we often listened entranced while she spoke the words of the Quran.

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Doreen Ingrams      

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'We had spent many an evening in Teheran, poring over maps and discussing our journey across the Bakthiari country. It had not been easy to get information; the maps were most inadequate; there seemed to be no books in Teheran available on the subject of more recent date than Sir Henry Layard's, which related an expedition undertaken in 1840, nor were there any Europeans in Teheran who had travelled over the Bakhtiari Road. We had to rely on a few letters, none of which were very reassuring. A young officer in the Indian Army wrote that he had never been so exhausted in his life, and other accounts spoke of precipices and crazy bridges, and swirling rivers to ford, - all of which, save for the wail about exhaustion, proved to be completely misleading.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Vita Sackville-West      

  

unknown unknown : Bible - the Apocrypha

'It was a change to spend such a lazy day. We read the Apocrypha, I remember, and wandered a little, but not very far afield, not much further than the spring where we refilled our water bottles [...] we talked with a wandering dervish, who strayed up to our camp carrying a sort of sceptre, surmounted by the extended hand of Ali in shining brass; we listened to a blind man chanting an interminable poem about hazrat-i-isa (his Majesty Jesus); we watched the procession of women going to the spring.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Vita Sackville-West      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unknown

'It was a change to spend such a lazy day. We read the Apocrypha, I remember, and wandered a little, but not very far afield, not much further than the spring where we refilled our water bottles [...] we talked with a wandering dervish, who strayed up to our camp carrying a sort of sceptre, surmounted by the extended hand of Ali in shining brass; we listened to a blind man chanting an interminable poem about hazrat-i-isa (his Majesty Jesus); we watched the procession of women going to the spring.'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Vita Sackville-West      

  

unknown unknown : unknown Italian newspapers

What a bloody world we are living in! To read the papers makes one quite sick and here one cannot help feeling that the horror over poor little Dollfuss is largely mixed with eagerness over the excellent excuse for waving flags on the Brenner.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark      Print: Newspaper

  

[unknown] [unknown] : [Natural History]

'I would not, I could not, give up the rides and rambles that took up so much of my time, but I would try to overcome my disinclination to serious reading. There were plenty of books in the house — it was always a puzzle to me how we came to have so many. I was familiar with their appearance on the shelves — they had been before me since I first opened my eyes — their shape, size, colours, even their titles, and that was all I knew about them. A general Natural History and two little works by James Rennie on the habits and faculties of birds was all the literature suited to my wants in the entire collection of three or four hundred volumes. For the rest I had read a few story-books and novels: but we had no novels; when one came into the house it would be read and lent to our next neighbour five or six miles away, and he in turn would lend to another twenty miles further on, until it disappeared into space'. I made a beginning with Rollin's "Ancient History" in two huge quarto volumes; I fancy it was the large clear type and numerous plates [...] that determined my choice. Rollin the good old priest, opened a new, wonderful world to me, and instead of the tedious task I feared the reading would prove,it was as delightful as it had formerly been to listen to my brother's endless histories of imaginary heroes and their wars and adventures. Still athirst for history, after finishing Rollin I began fingering other works of that kind: there was Whiston's "Josephus", too ponderous a book to be held in the hands when read out of doors; and there was Gibbon in six stately volumes. I was not yet able to appreciate the lofty artificial style, and soon fell upon something better suited to my boyish taste in letters - a "History of Christianity" in, I think, sixteen or eighteen volumes of a convenient size. [...] These biographies sent me to another old book, "Leland on Revelation", which told me much I was curious to know about the mythologies and systems of philosophy of the ancients [...]. Next came Carlyle's "French Revolution", and at last Gibbon, and I was still deep in the "Decline and Fall" when disaster came to us, my father was practically ruined.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: William Henry Hudson      Print: Book

  

unknown unknown : unidentified Yemeni manuscript

I have found what I hope is an unknown and useful manuscript of local history and am copying it out. It has a nice miracle recorded. Someone made fun of a holy man at his prayers: the holy man, without turning round or interrupting his devotions for one instant, turned the scoffer's face into the face of a pig.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark      Manuscript: Unknown

  

unknown unknown : inscription on pottery

The day's finds have been brought in, all the diggers so excited they rushed in with them to show me on my roof. There was a sort of communal grave with about six skulls and the pottery very rough, very like what they make to-day - a pathetic little pot with the word 'MAT' - 'he died' in Himyaritic letters.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark      Manuscript: Graffito, inscription on pottery

  

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