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frimleyblogger.bsky.social
Martin Fone
@frimleyblogger.bsky.social
25 followers 5 following 300 posts
Blogger, freelance journalist,
www.windowthroughtime.wordpress.com
https://www.countrylife.co.uk/author/martinfone
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The tragic tale of Sarah Jacob, the #Welsh fasting girl
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The Welsh Fasting Girl
Mollie Fancher, who spent fifty years in bed, might have been a sensation, but she was also an extreme example of a disturbing phenomenon of the late 19th century, the fasting girl. Curiously, she …
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November 26, 2025 at 9:03 AM
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My thoughts on If Wishes Were Hearses by Guy Cullingford #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
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If Wishes Were Hearses
A review of If Wishes were Hearses by Guy Cullingford – 251011 First appearing in a collection of Scottish proverbs dating from around 1628, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride, both a prover…
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November 25, 2025 at 8:41 AM
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The rise and rise of #skijoring #sport #skiing
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Skijoring
It was born out of necessity in Scandinavia, where the inhabitants found that travelling on long wooden skis while being pulled by a reindeer was a pretty effective way of getting around. Somehow i…
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November 23, 2025 at 9:05 AM
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My thoughts on Duplicate Death by #GeorgetteHeyer #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
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Duplicate Death
A review of Duplicate Death by Georgette Heyer – 251008 Being more of a cruciverbalist and a logician than a fan of games of strategy, I have not really got to grips with bridge, or chess for that …
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November 22, 2025 at 8:48 AM
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The beginnings of the craze for #taxidermy
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Get Stuffed
In 1748 Réné-Antoine Réaumur, a French naturalist, published a pamphlet describing all the known methods for preserving dead animal including embalming, pickling, and stuffing. Taxidermy had been p…
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November 21, 2025 at 8:15 AM
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Following up some references in The Ring of Innocent by #BrianFlynn, reissued by @deanstpress.bsky.social #booksky
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Chowles, Judith Malmayns And Others
One of the delights for me in reading books from another era is coming across references which might have meant something to contemporary readers but have long sunk into obscurity by the end of the…
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November 20, 2025 at 8:40 AM
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The curious and disturbing tale of Mollie Fancher #Brooklyn #fastinggirls
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The Brooklyn Enigma
Mollie Fancher, according to Abram Dailey who compiled various testimonials about her life in 1894, was “a tall, slender and graceful young lady, a decided blonde, and a universal favourite among h…
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November 19, 2025 at 8:26 AM
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My thoughts on The Case of the Dead Man Gone, reissued by @deanstpress.bsky.social #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/t...
The Case Of The Dead Man Gone
A review of The Case of the Dead Man Gone by Christopher Bush – 250904 The fifty-sixth in Christopher Bush’s long-running Ludovic Travers series, The Case of the Dead Man Gone, originally published…
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November 18, 2025 at 8:34 AM
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My thoughts on The Ring of Innocent by #BrianFlynn, reissued by @deanstpress.bsky.social #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2025/11/14/t...
The Ring Of Innocent
A review of The Ring of Innocent by Brian Flynn – 251005 And so, sadly, we come to the last of this year’s five reissues of Anthony Bathurst stories from Dean Street Press, The Ring of Innocent, th…
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November 15, 2025 at 8:44 AM
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Some #trees you can #dance in #tanzlinden #Germany
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Tanzlinden
What do you do if you have a large linden tree (Tilia) with a thick trunk and large, spreading branches in the centre of your village? Well, in many German villages they were used as a meeting plac…
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November 14, 2025 at 8:51 AM
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My thoughts on The Fingerprint by #PatriciaWentworth #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
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The Fingerprint
A review of The Fingerprint by Patricia Wentworth – 251003 As Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver series draws to a close The Fingerprint, the thirtieth of thirty-two and originally published in 1956,…
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November 13, 2025 at 8:37 AM
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The first #radio transmitted #newspaper - it only took 6 hours to download 12 pages! #technology
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The First Downloadable Newspaper
Print or digital is a burning question with many traditional newspapers and journals finding that they increasingly have to share content digitally to attract readers and advertising revenue. Many …
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November 12, 2025 at 8:25 AM
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My thoughts on The Odd Flamingo by Nina Bawden #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
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The Odd Flamingo
A review of The Odd Flamingo by Nina Bawden – 251002 Nina Bawden is best known as a children’s writer and a novelist, but she cut her writing teeth writing crime fiction. The Odd Flamingo, or…
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November 11, 2025 at 8:26 AM
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My thoughts on Nursery Tea and Poison, reissued by @deanstpress.bsky.social #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
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Nursery Tea And Poison
A review of Nursery Tea and Poison by Anne Morice – 250925 Tessa Crichton, actress and wife of Robin Price, an up and coming star of the Yard, is one of those people that cannot resist a mystery an…
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November 8, 2025 at 9:05 AM
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When Harry #Houdini met Sir Arthur #ConanDoyle #spiritualism
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Houdini And Conan Doyle
For aficionados of crime fiction, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the doyen of writers, the creator of the world’s most instantly recognizable sleuth, Sherlock Holmes and his faithful, if rather dim, com…
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November 6, 2025 at 8:41 AM
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My thoughts on As If By Magic, an anthology of impossible crimes #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
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As If By Magic
A review of As If By Magic edited by Michael Edwards – 250924 As If By Magic is the latest collection of short stories compiled and edited by the indefatigable Michael Edwards for the British Libra…
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November 4, 2025 at 8:39 AM
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The story of Harry #Houdini and the #Spiritualists #Halloween
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Houdini And The Spiritualists
It takes one to know one, they say. For years Harry Houdini had astounded his audiences with his daring feats of escapology and legerdemain. After his mother had died, by his own admission he atten…
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November 1, 2025 at 8:52 AM
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The #spooky and macabre #Dennison #Automata #BlackpoolTower #Blackpool
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The Dennison Automata
Lot 207 in Bonham Skinner’s Science, Technology, and Clocks auction held on June 2, 2012 was the rather gruesome St. Dennistoun Mortuary Coin-Operated Automaton. It was a mahogany cabinet revealing…
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October 31, 2025 at 8:49 AM
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My thoughts on #Maigret's Dead Man #GeorgesSimenon #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
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Maigret’s Dead Man
A review of Maigret’s Dead Man by Georges Simenon – 250924 By Simenon’s standards this book, the twenty-ninth in his Maigret series, originally published in 1948 and also going by the alternative t…
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October 30, 2025 at 8:41 AM
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How the #pHScale was developed #science #Carlsberg
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The pH Scale
Carlsberg is prone to describing itself as probably the best beer in the world, but while that claim is eminently debatable, what is far clearer is that it had a hand in the development of the pH s…
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October 29, 2025 at 7:53 AM
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My thoughts on Jane and Prudence by #BarbaraPym #BookReview #booksky
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Jane And Prudence
A review of Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym – 250913 On the face of it, Jane Cleveland and Prudence Bates, the principal characters of this, the third novel by Barbara Pym, originally published in…
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October 28, 2025 at 7:50 AM
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My thoughts on Murder in Piccadilly #CrimeFicion #BookReview #booksky
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Murder In Piccadilly
A review of Murder in Piccadilly by Charles Kingston Murder in Piccadilly is the first book in Charles Kingston’s Chief Inspector Wake series and was originally published in 1936 and has been subse…
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October 25, 2025 at 7:45 AM
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A #wine that is over 400 years old, has only been drunk three times and probably will never be again #Strasbourg
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The Fabled Wine Of Strasbourg
Ever since 1395 the Hôpital civil de Strasbourg has had a symbiotic relationship with the Cave Historique des Hospices de Strasbourg which lies directly underneath it. Patients used to travel from …
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October 24, 2025 at 7:41 AM
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My thoughts on The Case of the Extra Grave, reissued by @deanstpress.bsky.social #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2025/10/22/t...
The Case Of The Extra Grave
A review of The Case of the Extra Grave by Christopher Bush – 250911 The fifty-fifth in Christopher Bush’s Ludovic Travers series was originally published in 1961 and subsequently reissued by Dean …
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October 23, 2025 at 7:42 AM
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The man who defied convention by being buried upside down and vertically on #BoxHill
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Upside Down In A Box On Box Hill
Born in Dublin to a family of French Huguenot descent, Peter Labelliere joined the British army, rising to the rank of Major. After leaving the army he became a political agitator, accused in 1775 …
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October 22, 2025 at 7:25 AM