English Eccentrics & Their Bizarre Behaviour
Sep 2009 · Casemate Publishers
Ebook
224
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About this ebook
Just why has England been blessed with so many quirky people? A delightful look at this phenomenon from an award–winning and “superbly talented” author (Sunday Express).
From the eighteenth-century judge who insisted all babies were born with tails that were secretly removed by midwives to the twentieth-century schoolmaster who left twenty-six thousand pounds to the Lord Jesus Christ (upon His return and satisfactory proof of His identity), England is famed for its colorful characters. In this exploration of eccentrics through history, David Long studies these beloved real-life figures and their bizarre legacy, including the many strange buildings they left behind—not just follies but re-creations of exotic palaces. He also discusses why eccentrics still spark a continuing fascination, and highlights the most notable (not just the most famous) in his entertaining essays.
In addition to a useful timeline that sets the scene, this book reveals where readers can see the long-lasting legacy of the eccentric for themselves, from Brighton Pavilion to the follies at Stourhead and Castle Howard.
“A new book by David Long is always something to cherish.” —Londonist
From the eighteenth-century judge who insisted all babies were born with tails that were secretly removed by midwives to the twentieth-century schoolmaster who left twenty-six thousand pounds to the Lord Jesus Christ (upon His return and satisfactory proof of His identity), England is famed for its colorful characters. In this exploration of eccentrics through history, David Long studies these beloved real-life figures and their bizarre legacy, including the many strange buildings they left behind—not just follies but re-creations of exotic palaces. He also discusses why eccentrics still spark a continuing fascination, and highlights the most notable (not just the most famous) in his entertaining essays.
In addition to a useful timeline that sets the scene, this book reveals where readers can see the long-lasting legacy of the eccentric for themselves, from Brighton Pavilion to the follies at Stourhead and Castle Howard.
“A new book by David Long is always something to cherish.” —Londonist
About the author
Well received by reviewers and readers alike, David Long's engaging, imaginative and highly informative books on London reflect a love for the city and an apparently unquenchable thirst for stories about the quirkier, lesser known aspects of its long history, ever-changing streetscape and hugely diverse architecture and heritage. A writer and journalist since graduating in the 1980s, his work has appeared in the Sunday Times and its magazine, in the Sunday Mirror and the London Evening Standard. Whilst a columnist on the Sunday People, he created a popular cartoon strip which ran for several years in the weekend edition of the Times. David Long has also ghostwritten a number of non-fiction titles for other authors - one of which won the Independent Publisher's Book Award - and for publishers in both Britain and the United States. Under his own name he continues to write and illustrate the sorts of books he likes to read, which are described elsewhere on this site.
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