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

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Gilbert Frankau : The City of Fear

'As the winter grew colder and colder I spent the deep trough of the early hours in a huddled heap beside the stove, drinking sample bottles of liqueur from Paris-Plage out of a tin egg-cup, and reading an impressive poem called "The City of Fear" by a certain Captain Gilbert Frankau, who had not then begun to dissipate his rather exciting talents upon the romances of cigar merchants:'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain      Print: Book

Gilbert Frankau : 

'We reached his room about eleven. To do what? Not a blessed thing but to sit before a fire and talk and read again. He read me extracts from a book by Mr. Gilbert Frankau and proved to me what I could not have believed, that Mr. Frankau is a man of real high spirits which frequently almost achieve wit and humour.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Cyril Lionel Robert James      Print: Book

Gilbert Frankau : [unknown]

'I've read so many descriptions in newspapers of the ruin and desolation caused in this war. Famous literary men have tried their powers of description and All (with the possible exception of Gilbert Frankau) have failed to convey the repulsiveness and awfulness of the scene. The Ecole was one of these places - That's all!'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Lindsay Mackay      Print: Unknown

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