XX
For most books I offer easy payment via PayPal, Just click on the image in the right hand column of the title you are interested in for further information and payment options. Some books are available via Amazon or Lulu.

If you wish to pay by cheque, or you wish to ask about combined postage for more than one book, please contact me at the e-mail address in the right hand column.
_______Comics______Comics Indexes______Fiction_______Non-fiction_________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

Monday, December 3, 2018

Forgotten Authors Volume 4

More essays about long-forgotten authors whose work once entertained millions.

J Redding Ware
Creator of one of the first female detectives, a popular playwright, philologist and writer connected with cheap and popular literature who took umbrage at being described as an author of ‘mischievous literature.’

William Nicholas Willis
Controversial politician, horse dealer and land owner who kept the Australian courts busy before moving to the UK to write and publish books about slave trafficking, prostitution and sex education.

M. Lehane Willis
The mysterious author who, as Bree Narran, wrote candid novels and freely translated the works of Guy de Maupassant and Paul de Kock, but whose career ended in criminality.

Charles McDonald Lindsay
A former soldier, Lindsay wrote a book warning of what might happen if Germany invaded Britain and another about a man accused of murdering his business partner’s wife, and what happens when he meets the same man’s second wife.

James Edward Crabtree
Writer and journalist who penned the adventures of Gripton Court for boys in the early years of the 20th century.

Randal Charlton
A charismatic dandy married to a popular actress, Charlton was a Liberal journalist with a promising career and a couple of well-liked novels under his belt. But debts started to pile up…

Eardley Beswick
His first novels was acclaimed by Compton Mackenzie as “the most irresistibly absorbing novel,” but Beswick’s seemingly promising career as an author lasted only a matter of years before he left it behind.

Olga Katzin
Described as a “Russian writer and actress”, Olga was, in fact, born in London. An actress who ran the Katzin-Miller Repertory Company, who was also an accomplished playwright and poet.

Donald Sinderby (Donald Ryder Stephens)
Author of novels based on his experiences in India, including Mother-in-Law India, published in 1930 and set twenty years in the future when inter-caste conflict ravage the country after the end of the Raj.

The case of the two Hazel Adairs
Not to be confused—as this author did in the past—are Hazel Iris Addis, née Wilson, and Hazel Joyce Marriott, formerly Mackenzie, formerly Hamblin, née Willett, who both enjoyed careers under the name Hazel Adair.

Eileen Owbridge
For some years Owbridge ran a village bookshop, learning precisely what the romance-reading public wanted and turning that knowledge into sixty novels for Mills & Boon.

Alan Melville (W. Allan Caverhill)
Crime writer, well-reviewed by Dorothy L. Sayers and Sydney Horler, who turned to writing plays and revues, as well as becoming a popular broadcaster on, and writer for, TV and radio.

Enid Florence Brockies
Author—as Countess Helene Magriska—of romantic novels that found a steady readership in the 1930s and 1940s but whose career was cut short by her early death.

Anita Hewett
A teacher and radio producer, Hewett was also a writer of children’s short stories for radio and in print. Her animal tales were very popular and her book Mrs Mopple’s Washing Line was adapted on TV several times.

Friday, August 24, 2018

Iron Mask:Harry Bensley's "Walking Round the World" Hoax

On 1 January 1908, in London's Trafalgar Square, a man in an old-fashioned iron helmet began an adventure that was to take him to 172 towns and cities in the United Kingdom before heading overseas to visit another 118 cities in Canada, USA, South America, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Japan, China, India, Egypt and seven European countries.

Although independently wealthy, the man in the iron mask was allowed to finance his trip only through the sale of postcards and pamphlets relating to his journey from a pram that he was to push for the duration of the journey and at no point was he allowed to reveal his identity. The final challenge was that, despite keeping his face hidden, he had to find a wife.

This astonishing journey was the result of a $100,000 (£21,000) bet between the Earl of Lonsdale and steel and banking magnate J. P. Morgan and the daring masked man had almost completed the round the world trip six years later and was on the point of collecting what would today be the equivalent of £2,250,000 when the bet was cancelled.

This is the story of that journey.

This is also the story of how Harry Bensley, released from jail for fraud and bigamy, dreamed up an astonishing hoax. Disguised behind his iron mask, Bensley trekked south from London, along the southern counties and into the west country, visiting towns, attracting crowds and selling his postcards. He claimed to have met and married a woman, although she was already known to him. He was even tried in a court of law without once giving his real name.

Iron Mask is the story of that journey, too!

This book takes a look behind the legend of the "Walking Round the World" hoax, revealing the impoverished origins of Bensley and his family and documenting a criminal path that was the lead to his most audacious deception.


REVIEWS

Amazon - 5 stars
The story sounds like an implausible Hollywood film but it was true! Who was the Man in the Iron Mask (no, not the French novel by Dumas!)? He set off from Trafalgar Square to push a pram around the world in January 1908 to win a £20,000 bet! he seems to have been a lovable rogue and this was not the first time he had hoodwinked people! I won't say more so I don't spoil the story as it's wilder than even this!
    Steve Holland has preserved a wonderful British eccentric's story for us all to enjoy. Give it as a Birthday or Christmas present to anyone who's curious about people in any way!


Saturday, April 7, 2018

Forgotten Authors Volume 3

More essays about long-forgotten authors whose work once entertained millions.

Mysteries of the House of Harrison & Viles
The story of Edward Harrison, publisher of the first ‘penny dreadful’ for boys and the first upmarket magazine for women, and his partner Edward Viles, the author of Black Bess, at 2¼ million words the longest-running penny dreadful of them all.

Walter Viles
The tragic career of the prolific, popular, inebriated brother of Edward Viles.

Dempster Heming
The first in a pair of essays about the younger brothers of Bracebridge Hemyng who were also writers. After years in Myanmar and India, Dempster Heming created the Munchausen-esque Colonel Bowlong for a series of tall tales.

Philip Heming
Following in his brother’s footsteps, Philip Heming struggled as a writer and, later, as editor of the infamous London Life, was prosecuted for publishing indecent material.

Mrs. Frances Campbell
A successful Edwardian journalist and novelist before she lost her husband to suicide and become involved in some curious work on behalf of W. T. Stead.

Phyllis Campbell and the Angels of Mons
The daughter of Mrs. Frances Campbell whose article in Occult Review and subsequent book about her time on the Front during the Great War helped spread the myth of the Angels of Mons.

W. Keppel Honnywill
Author of The Master Sinner who leapt to his death in the heart of London.

J. Weedon Birch
Author of stories about a schoolboy named Billy Bunter before Frank Richards created Greyfriars School.

Michael Storm (A. Ernest Hinshelwood)
The most enigmatic of all Sexton Blake authors—and one of the best—who died tragically young and left behind a legacy of mystery that baffled fans and collectors for decades.

Michael Storm (Charles Ignatius Sempill)
The mystery of ‘Michael Storm’ continued… who was the author—seemingly related to the mysterious long-dead writer of Sexton Blake—who resurrected his most famous pen-name?

George Hamilton Teed
To many he was Sexton Blake’s finest author, but George Hamilton Teed began his career in dead man’s shoes… as the ghost of Michael Storm.

Michael Storme (George H. A. Dawson)
Author of Unlucky Virgin, Kiss The Corpse Goodbye and Hot Dames on Cold Slabs accused by an M.P. of writing pornography.

Friday, February 2, 2018

Forgotten Authors Volume 2

More essays about authors whose work entertained millions but who are now almost wholly forgotten.
Amazon review of Volume 1:
An excellent book on thirteen forgotten British authors. It covers authors who wrote in the Victorian to the post World War II eras. Some of the authors featured are Morley Adams, Dail Ambler, Gerald Biss, Stella M. During, and Alexander Wilson. Recommended for anyone with an interest in the history of books, book publishing, obscure authors or even researching family history. Looking forward to Volume 2
Bracebridge Hemyng: The rise and fall of the Heming family was mirrored by the career of the most famous of the writing dynasty that emerged from it—the creator of Jack Harkaway, enticed to America with the promise of $10,000 a year but who returned with nothing to show for his success.

Philip Richards: Who was the author behind the continuation of Bracebridge Hemyng’s most famous creation, Jack Harkaway?

Frank Barrett (Frank Davis): Writer of novels that ranged from crime, historical to romance and science fiction, earning their author comparison (although not always favourably) to Wilkie Collins and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Ernest Protheroe: A former teacher and incredibly prolific writer for boys and girls under a variety of names who was probably more successful with his non-fiction than his novels.

Charles Granville (Charles Hosken): Publisher, editor, novelist, poet, businessman, bankrupt, bigamist, thief… the extraordinary life of Charles Hosken, who wrote crusading novels as he defrauded all around him.

Louise Heilgers: Her literary gifts were highly praised, but her writing career was overshadowed by tragedy, a succession of failed businesses and a headline-grabbing escape abroad with her “husband”…

C. E. Vulliamy: Historian, biographer and satirist, a writer of memoirs of imaginary Victorians who also penned crime novels under his own name and as Anthony Rolls.

Evelyn Winch: Author of the popular but now forgotten The Girl in the Flat, Winch was queen of the “thriller-romance” in the 1930s before her life ended in tragedy.

Frederick Foden: Author who churned out 75 violent and sexually-charged tough-guy gangster yarns in four years, while he himself was a bachelor who lived with his mother.

David Roberts: Writer behind the weekly adventures of world travelling Gulliver guinea-pig and fairy tale heroine Princess Marigold, Roberts helped entertain and shape the minds of millions of youngsters as both a scriptwriter and creator of children’s magazines.