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Showing posts with the label Queen Victoria

The Württemberg Hands in the Windmills of my Mind -- Ruth Leigh

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  I don’t know about you, but at any one time, my mind is filled almost to overflowing with random facts, half-remembered stories and snippets of conversation, both overheard and read. Since I started writing blogs a year and a half ago, I’ve been searching through all the flotsam and jetsam which has washed up on the shore of my consciousness, trawling for treasure.   Nearly thirty years ago, for example, I was sitting on a beautiful wide sandy beach in North Devon with my fiancé when a battered camper van came bouncing into the car park. It disgorged three men, three women and a selection of children who set up camp near us. They appeared to be from a closed sect, perhaps Plymouth Brethren. All the women were dressed in plain navy-blue dresses, wore tights and black shoes and had neat kerchiefs pinned to their hair. Each wore a plain, gold wedding ring on the fourth finger of their left hand. It was high summer, and their clothing drew curious looks. They enjoyed a picnic ...

The pen is mightier than the sword. By Ann Evans.

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A little while ago, I had a Facebook profile picture taken of me holding a pen and a sword – well actually it was a large wedding cake knife, but the message was the same – The pen is mightier than the sword. So I was quite surprised to learn that the person who first came up with that phrase was Edward George Bulwer-Lytton. Or in short, Lord Lytton. This caught my interest as I live in Lord Lytton Avenue. So, deciding to do a little more research on him I found that Edward Bulwer-Lytton was an English novelist, poet, playwright and politician. Born in 1803 he was hugely popular and wrote 27 novels, earning him a considerable fortune. Knebworth House, famous for its rock concerts (I've seen David Bowie and Queen there), was his home. Edward Bulwer-Lytton Through his writing, he came up with a number of phrases which have been turned into cliches, such as the great unwashed, dweller on the threshold, the almighty dollar, as well as the infamous opening lin...