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Latest Posts by Martin Fone

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The FRED For soldiers fighting on the frontline gaining easy access to their tinned rations was a primary necessity. In the summer of 1942 Major Thomas Dennehy of the Subsistence Research Laboratory in Chic…

The piece of #cutlery that helped feed an army on the move - the #FRED #military #militaryhistory
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2026/04/07/t...

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Enter Certain Murderers A review of Enter Certain Murderers by Sara Woods – 260211 Palate refreshed, appetite renewed I was ready to tackle the fourth of the batch of Sara Woods reissues from Dean Street Press, Enter Cert…

My thoughts on Enter Certain Murderers, reissued by @deanstpress.bsky.social #SaraWoods #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2026/04/06/e...

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Dover Street Station In Christopher Bush’s The Case of the Jumbo Sandwich (1965), Ludovic Travers “took the Underground and got off at what used to be Dover Street station”. A number of questions came to mind as I mull…

A forgotten #station on the #London #Underground - Dover Street Station @tflondon.bsky.social
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2026/04/05/d...

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The Golden Age Of The Football Pools John Jervis Barnard might have launched an early version of the football pools, but John Moores took the concept to a high level, tweaking the expense to pay out balance of the scheme so that it ma…

When the #football #pools reigned supreme #footballpools #footballhistory
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2026/04/04/t...

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Scared To Death A review of Scared to Death by Anne Morice – 260209 After my struggles with Ngaio Marsh’s Last Ditch I was in need of something light and fluffy, a palate cleanser, something to revive my enthusias…

My thoughts on Scared To Death, reissued by @deanstpress.bsky.social #AnneMorice #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2026/04/03/s...

4 days ago 6 1 1 0
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James “Paraffin” Young In the days before my parents moved us into a house with central heating in the late 1960s we had to make do with a roaring fire and a smelly, highly dangerous paraffin heater for our warmth. Paraf…

The man who gave us #paraffin and altered the landscape of #WestLothian #Scotland
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The Wardsend Cemetery Riot – The Aftermath The grim discoveries at Wardsend cemetery, which played to the deep rooted fear of the Resurrectionists who had disturbed newly dug graves to find corpses to sell to medical schools, naturally prov…

What happened after the #Wardsend cemetery #riot #Sheffield
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2026/04/01/t...

6 days ago 0 0 0 0
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Egg Scissors Do you like boiled eggs? Soft boiled with soldiers to dip in or hard boiled? Either way, you have the problem of taking the top off the egg without either smashing the shell and bits falling into t…

Ideal for slicing the top off an #egg - #eggscissors
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Last Ditch A review of Last Ditch by Ngaio Marsh – 260208 I have had my struggles with Ngaio Marsh but such is her reputation that I have persevered with her Roderick Alleyn series. However, this, the twenty-…

My thoughts on Last Ditch by #NgaioMarsh #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
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The Gossip Bench In an age of instantaneous and mobile telephonic communication, it is easy to forget what a performance it was to make a telephone call. Until the introduction of Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) wh…

An ideal piece of #furniture for an age when the #telephone was static - the #gossipbench
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The End Of British Summer Time Did you remember to alter your clocks last night? The idea of using different time during the summer has a long history, Benjamin Franklin being among those to propose it. But the dual system of Gr…

The origin of #BritishSummerTime and its tenuous links with #Coldplay
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The Origin Of The Football Pools 1923 was a landmark year in popular culture. The Liquor Act made it illegal to sell alcohol to under 18s, the British Broadcasting Corporation was given its first licence to broadcast, Wembley Stad…

A #workingclass #pastime - filling in the #football #pools #littlewoods
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2026/03/28/t...

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Trouble On The Thames A review of Trouble on the Thames by Victor Bridges – 260204 Victor Bridges, the nom de plume of Victor de Freyne, was a prolific English author, specializing mainly in detective and fantasy fictio…

My thoughts on Trouble on the Thames #SpyFiction #BookReview #booksky
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2026/03/27/t...

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IRN-BRU Forget whisky, the image of an archetypal Scotsman, at least in the eye of a Sassenach, is a man clutching a deep-fried Mars bar and swigging from a bottle of IRN-BRU. With its rather disconcerting…

The story of @irnbru.bsky.social, the most popular soft drink in #Scotland #barrs
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The Case Of The Jumbo Sandwich A review of The Case of the Jumbo Sandwich by Christopher Bush – 260202 At the start of the second part of this, the sixtieth novel in Christopher Bush’s long running Ludovic Travers series, origin…

My thoughts on The Case of the Jumbo Sandwich, reissued by @deanstpress.bsky.social #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2026/03/23/t...

2 weeks ago 3 1 1 0
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The Whipping Boys A review of The Whipping Boys by Guy Cullingford – 260131 There is a distinct change of tone and mood in this the sixth novel written by Constance Dowdy under her pen name of Guy Cullingford. Where…

My thoughts on The Whipping Boys by #GuyCullingford #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2026/03/20/t...

2 weeks ago 3 0 0 0
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The Hymn Tune Mystery A review of The Hymn Tune Mystery by George A Birmingham – 26012 As I cannot resist a murder mystery with a clerical setting and laced with wit with a cleric as a sleuth written by a clergyman, Geo…

My thoughts on The Hymn Tune Mystery #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2026/03/18/t...

2 weeks ago 3 0 0 0
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Taken At The Flood A review of Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie – 260126 One of the most famous quotations form Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar begins “there is a tide in the affairs of men” which then goes on …

My thoughts on Taken at the Flood by #AgathaChristie #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2026/03/16/t...

2 weeks ago 3 0 0 0
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Though I Know She Lies A review of Though I Know She Lies by Sara Woods – 260123 Originally published in 1965, this, the eighth novel in Sara Woods’ Anthony Maitland series and the third of the batch of recent reissues f…

My thoughts on Though I Know She Lies, reissued by @deanstpress.bsky.social #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
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2 weeks ago 5 1 1 0
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The Affair At Little Wokeham A review of The Affair at Little Wokeham by Freeman Wills Crofts – 260120 The twenty-fourth book in Crofts’ Inspector French series, originally published in 1943 and which goes by the alternative t…

My thoughts on The Affair at Little Wokeham #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2026/03/11/t...

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Death Of An Editor A review of Death of an Editor by Vernon Loder – 260117 Vernon Loder was one of the pseudonyms used by prolific author, John Vahey, and Death of an Editor, originally published in 1931, is the seco…

My thoughts on Death of an Editor by #VernonLoder #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
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Murder In Mimicry A review of Murder in Mimicry by Anne Morice – 260115 Tessa Crichton, actress and amateur sleuth, wife of the newly promoted and debonair Chief Inspector Robin Price of the Yard and cousin of playw…

My thoughts on Murder in Mimicry, reissued by @deanstpress.bsky.social #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
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2 weeks ago 5 1 1 0
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Sky High A review of Sky High by Michael Gilbert – 260113 The British Library Crime Classics series has chosen to open its 2026 batch of reissues with quite a bang with Michael Gilbert’s 1955 novel, Sky Hig…

My thoughts on Sky High by #MichaelGilbert #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
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The Alington Inheritance A review of the Alington Inheritance by Patricia Wentworth – 260111 There is more than a little of the road well-trod about the plot of Wentworth’s thirty-first novel in her Miss Silver series. Ori…

My thoughts on The Alington Inheritance by #PatriciaWentworth #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
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It Walks By Night A review of It Walks By Night by John Dickson Carr – 250109 In the pantheon of writers from the Golden Age of detective fiction the American-born John Dickson Car is the granddaddy of the locked ro…

My thoughts on It Walks By Night by #JohnDicksonCarr #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2026/02/27/i...

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The Other Side Of Ergots Ergotism or St Anthony’s Fire caused by the infection of rye by the fungus, Claviceps purpurea, showed one harmful side of ingesting ergots, but the observation of pregnant sows eating ergots showe…

The positive side of #ergots #childbirth #migraine
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1 month ago 2 0 0 0
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The Man Who Wasn’t There A review of The Man who wasn’t There by Anthony Gilbert – 260107 Anthony Gilbert, the pen name of Lucy Malleson, wrote 69 crime novels, of which fifty one featured Arthur Crook, a rather vulgar, un…

My thoughts on The Man Who Wasn't There by Anthony Gilbert #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
windowthroughtime.wordpress.com/2026/02/25/t...

1 month ago 3 0 0 0
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Manche A Gigot “What do you think this is?” asked a friend, pushing a strange looking object into my line of sight. About 8 inches or so long, it had an ornate handle with a cartouche, made out of silver plate at…

Designed to assist in the carving of a leg of #lamb #cutlery #mancheagigot
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Death At Dyke’s Corner A review of Death at Dyke’s Corner by E C R Lorac – 260104 The nineteenth book in Lorac’s Robert Macdonald series, Death at Dyke’s Corner, originally published in 1940 has a dramatic opening and an…

My thoughts on Death at Dyke's Corner by #ECRLorac #CrimeFiction #BookReview #booksky
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Carrying A Plank In English law the principle of ignorantia juris non excusat or ignorance of the law is no excuse is well established, meaning that you generally cannot escape liability for breaking the law becaus…

It's still illegal to carry a #plank of #wood in the streets of #London
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