Monday, December 13, 2010
RICHARD HOLLAND WRITES...
Hello,
I thought you might be interested in an odd reference I’ve just found in a Victorian novel. I’m reading A Bid For Fortune by Guy Boothby, written in 1895 and notable for being one of the first novels to feature a master criminal. Dr Nikola’s constant companion is a huge black cat (domestic variety) which often sits on his lap and which he strokes soothingly while plotting evil – yup, just like Blofeld. Anyway, on page 79 of the recent reprint (‘Dr Nikola, Master Criminal’ published by Wordsworth), the hero describes his first encounter with this sinister moggie thusly:
‘I have seen cats without number, Chinese, Persian, Manx, the Australian wild cat and the English tabby, but never in the whole course of my existence such another as that owned by Dr Nikola.’
Australian wild cat?! Guy Boothby was an Australian, and made his hero one, too. Can this be a reference to the Queensland tiger or am I missing something? There are certainly no native cats in Australia, are there? According to Wikipedia, Boothby published a travel book the previous year (1894) describing a journey he made ‘across Australia’ from Cooktown to his home town of Adelaide – did he see a ‘wild cat’ during that real life adventure?
A bit of a mystery and I’d be interested in your thoughts.
All the best,
Richard (Holland!)
http://www.uncannyuk.com/
I thought you might be interested in an odd reference I’ve just found in a Victorian novel. I’m reading A Bid For Fortune by Guy Boothby, written in 1895 and notable for being one of the first novels to feature a master criminal. Dr Nikola’s constant companion is a huge black cat (domestic variety) which often sits on his lap and which he strokes soothingly while plotting evil – yup, just like Blofeld. Anyway, on page 79 of the recent reprint (‘Dr Nikola, Master Criminal’ published by Wordsworth), the hero describes his first encounter with this sinister moggie thusly:
‘I have seen cats without number, Chinese, Persian, Manx, the Australian wild cat and the English tabby, but never in the whole course of my existence such another as that owned by Dr Nikola.’
Australian wild cat?! Guy Boothby was an Australian, and made his hero one, too. Can this be a reference to the Queensland tiger or am I missing something? There are certainly no native cats in Australia, are there? According to Wikipedia, Boothby published a travel book the previous year (1894) describing a journey he made ‘across Australia’ from Cooktown to his home town of Adelaide – did he see a ‘wild cat’ during that real life adventure?
A bit of a mystery and I’d be interested in your thoughts.
All the best,
Richard (Holland!)
http://www.uncannyuk.com/
IT SAYS A LOT ABOUT THE CFZ, AND THE READERSHIP OF THIS BLOGGO THAT...
...despite Graham posting the picture below on the blog the other day as part of his SciFi competition (and no, no-one has got it right yet) no-one has actually asked why Graham was messing about with all those (there were actually 24) plastic canisters of highly inflammible paraffin (that's kerosene for you Colonials)...
Personally, I think he was trying to build para-henge!
IS NAOMI TELEPATHIC?
As regular readers will know, I have always been very fond of Naomi West. Her blog (All this Pudding) is consistently entertaining and well worth reading, and in her latest posting she ponders the question of whether she is telepathic.
Check it out. And while you are doing so, check out this highly fortean synchronicity story.
Check it out. And while you are doing so, check out this highly fortean synchronicity story.
THE BEST THING EVER!
As eagle-eyed readers will know, Graham is off today on his annual holiday - following his favourite band Hawkwind on their annual winter tour. Well, I was trawling through YouTube, looking for a suitable Hawkwind video to embed so that everyone could see where Graham was going, when I found this:
OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today
http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/
On this day in 1903 the Wright brothers first attempted to get the Wright Flyer to fly and in 1962 NASA’s Mariner 2 became the first spacecraft (that we know of) to fly past Venus. It’s amazing when you think about what can be accomplished nearly from scratch in a person’s lifetime. It would be nice to think that man might walk on another planet within my lifetime, but I'd not hold my breath on that.
On this day in 1903 the Wright brothers first attempted to get the Wright Flyer to fly and in 1962 NASA’s Mariner 2 became the first spacecraft (that we know of) to fly past Venus. It’s amazing when you think about what can be accomplished nearly from scratch in a person’s lifetime. It would be nice to think that man might walk on another planet within my lifetime, but I'd not hold my breath on that.
And now, the news:
Loch Ness monster 'seen twice'
Man finds extreme healing eating parasitic worms
Cat survives ride in engine; tries again
Another cat video, there's a surprise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZSbC09qgLI
Loch Ness monster 'seen twice'
Man finds extreme healing eating parasitic worms
Cat survives ride in engine; tries again
Another cat video, there's a surprise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZSbC09qgLI
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