Man Eats Man: The Story of Cannibalism.

Man Eats Man: The Story of Cannibalism by Mick Anglo. Hardcover book published 1979.

First of all… what’s with the Gothic Script… its not only on the dust jacket, its on the cover spine as well.  I think this is meant to give the book a spooky “olde worlde” tone.  Just look at that cover illustration… that’s spooky, creepy and why are they naked?  Well I guess that’s why you buy the book… to learn everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Cannibalism.  I mean… you know… I’ve often wondered, do we really taste like chicken?  I’ll check the index for “chicken”… there is no index… which is unfortunate as I was hoping to find a few recipes listed in the index, that I could share with you ala Laraine Leyland… but we are out of luck… although Laraine’s Mince Meat recipe doesn’t really indicate what sort of meat !!!

Well moving along, this book was written by a British cartoonist Mick Anglo the creator of Marvelman (… I don’t think Marvelman was a cannibal, but I could be wrong).  The book has some great photographs and illustrations and overall except for the gothic script, I think it looks quite tasty.  Mick seems to have dished up all the evil history in this study of “man’s darker nature”, including some of the 20^th century’s darkest moments.  If I had to criticize his book I would say it’s a little short (164 pages) and being so short it leaves us hungry for more.  So who would by this book?  … anyone who has ever wondered, do we really taste like chicken? …or somebody you don’t want to ‘meat’ in a dark alley.  Bon Appétit.

What ever happened to…

What ever happened to… Respected Citizens: The History of Armenians in Singapore and Malaysia.

I bet you’ve been wondering whatever happened to Huc & Gabet’s (that’s me), obscure history title about the Armenians in Singapore and Malaysia.  Well it sold… and believe it or not, it sold to a buyer in Malaysia, Penang to be exact.  After pondering who this book was written for, I couldn’t help but ask the buyer if they were of Armenian descent.  I don’t usually do this sort of thing as I like to keep transactions on a more professional and formal footing… but in this instance and after writing about this book here http://hucandgabetbooks.blogspot.com/2010/10/respected-citizens-history-of-armenians.html, I couldn’t help myself.  The warm reply was “no Armenian ancestors” as far as they knew.  The buyer is a collector of books about Penang and Malaysia and a part time book seller as well.  So there you go, the book is going home and by the sounds of it, to a good home… but not an Armenian home.  

Stuff on my cat: The Book

Stuff on my cat: The Book by Mario Sarza.

This book is one of the growing number of blogs that have had books published.  In this case the blog is humourous, light and fluffy… very fluffy.  Some of the blogs I occasionally peruse have gone down the same path… I can’t remember which ones but there are some… trust me on this one.  As a matter of fact I was looking at a book of very funny cake photographs the other day, which was from a blog about… cakes… and let me say that I haven’t laughed that much in a long long time… I guess you had to be there, it was very funny (http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/). 

So this book is compiled by the person who brought you http://www.stuffonmycat.com/ .  Its basically a compilation of photographs from the website, one may even say it’s a best of.  So the question is: In this technologically overloaded and connected society, if there’s a website with these photographs, do we really need a book of them as well?  I have pondered this question many times over the years… not necessarily about this particular example, but rather in a more general manner… and I have come to the conclusion that yes we do need this sort of book as well as the website.  The (flimsy) reasoning for this has to do with the internet and our aged members of our communities, my mother being the best example I know of.  My mother is not computer literate and I'm tempted to say that she is proud of the fact.  No computer means no internet.  No internet means no stuffonmycat.  So if she wanted to look at pictures of stuff on cats… well she can’t, and this book fulfills this gap and massive hole in our culture and our society for those without the www, in particular for those who are not wasting time looking at stuff on cats.  So this book is published for the benefit of my mother… who I’m pretty certain would not like the book anyway.  So with my reasoning firmly in place, I am going to try and sell this book on line to people who are computer illiterate… ???  There is a logic there… I just can’t seem to find it.

The sad sad tale of my Graham Greene’s

Graham Greene, writer much respected

Hardback firsts are what’s collected

These 4 titles are not what they seem

4 hardcover books by Graham Greene

The Reprint Society published 2

Reprint editions through and through

Readers Book Club published another

William Heinemann did the other

All hardcovers, dust jackets intact

There is some wear but no bindings cracked

50s and 60s vintage editions

No firsts though and of various conditions

Ex library is “A gun for sale”

This rates low on collectors scale

It’s from 1959 and page 1 is torn

Library markings, this book is worn.

“The Quiet American” has some wear

The dust jacket though, it’s all there

The cover is good, this book ain’t busted

But Reprint Society don’t cut the mustard   

“The Comedians”, this ain’t funny

If this was a first it’d be worth money

Its a fine copy in all its glory

A book club edition of this story

 “Our man in Havana” a Graham classic

Another Reprint Society, this is tragic

The cover looks great and the book is too

Insect damage, the jacket wont do.

Hardcover books with dust jackets

Unfortunately not worth packets

4 titles that are not what they seem

The sad sad tale of my Graham Greenes

Laraine Leyland’s Food for the road

Laraine Leyland’s Food for the road by Lorraine Leyland.  Hardcover book published in 2002.

When I first perused this book, I didn’t get what it was that I was looking at.  There’s a lady holding some bread on the cover and it’s a cookbook… It was easy to tell that she wasn’t Jamie Oliver, Maggie Beer or Madhur Jaffrey and judging by her happy care free friendly demeanor, I reckon that she probably swears a lot less than Gordon Ramsey… but I may be wrong.  So who is she?  Laraine… mmmm… doesn’t ring a bell.  The front cover indicates that she has “camping and caravanning cooking secrets which she made famous on television” and she wants to share them with us… which is very nice of her, but who is she?  And then the penny dropped.  “Leyland” is the key word here.  She is Mrs Leyland married to Mal Leyland of the Leyland brothers.  If any one overseas is reading this, the Leyland brothers and there is position in the Australian Psyche is far too complex for me to explain in this brief blog (check out this disappointingly short article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyland_Brothers).   You can’t buy this sort of credibility, this woman is practically royalty of the road, duchess of the campfire and queen of the caravan kitchen.  Besides being part of the legend, she fed the legends.  The recipes are quick and easy.  Lots of canned products as we all know that being remote in Australia, its not always easy to get to the Supermarket for the quick purchase of fresh…mmm…anything.  The contents of this recipe are a great example of the simplicity this woman has perfected:

Laraine’s Minced Meat:

500gms mince steak

1 chopped onion

Oil

Water

1 teasp Parisian essence (Parisian is made from Sugar)

Salt and pepper

Plain flour

…and here’s what you get.

On legend alone this book is of incredible interest to all of us who have pondered over the years about how the Brothers (and families) sustained themselves whilst traveling all over the country side.  There is no need to ask…its all here.

Women of the Gobi: Journeys on the Silk Road

Women of the Gobi: Journeys on the Silk Road by Kate James.  Paperback book published 2006.

Some of you may remember that I recently wrote about “The Story of Topsy: Little Lonely of Central Asia by Mildred Cable and Francesca French”.   Paul Perry of  AllSorts Bookshop Northcote commented at the time on Kate James’ book which is a sort of contemporary travel book and biography of these women.  Surprise, surprise 2 weeks later what do I find, but the very book mentioned.  I’ve never seen a copy of this book before and then someone mentions it and whammo it’s in my hand.  If I was the sort of person who believed in divine intervention, I’d say it was meant to be… but I’m not (that sort of person), pure coincidence is what it is… and my scanning booksellers eye for the key word “Gobi”. 

There are some great photographs in the book including this one of the Trio with Topsy in London 1937:

… and this one of Eileen Guy, known to her friends as Topsy, in 1994:

... finally, I like to say that I would never name a rabbit Eileen.

Respected Citizens: The history of Armenians in Singapore and Malyasia.

Respected Citizens: The history of Armenians in Singapore and Malyasia.  Paperback book published in 2003.

 

Talk about obscure…  I don’t want to get into the politics of why Armenians left their homeland, that’s the job of Politicians, Armenians and their neighbours to discuss and argue over.  I’m more interested in who this book was written for.  The back cover blurb indicates that there were “no more than 830 Armenians (that) ever lived in Singapore and Malaysia”, but goes on to mention that their “achievements were quite incommensurate with their minute numbers” (what a great word “incommensurate” is).  So the history of Singapore and Malaysia has an Armenian tinge and this book is intended to let us know about it.  I guess if your Singaporean, Malaysian or Armenian this book could be of interest… I picked up the book because anything this obscure has to be good.  Am I being naïve, when I write this?  Is it possible that I’ve got it completely wrong and this book is not interesting?  Its got nice pictures and it seems to be detailed.  Would I read it?  Probably not, but I’m not Singaporean, Malaysian or Armenian.