The Library

Yes, Toohey you rabid old Red, I'm back as well! Nice to hear from you again - I thoroughly enjoyed our little Spanish battle, though I suspect we may have bored some of the other members to distraction. You really should persevere with "Three Inquisitive People" - it's very obviously a fi...

Bob Rothwell wrote:Careful! I do have the right to bar you

Oops!

It may not be a new idea, but it's a good one. My five DW books would be: 1. The Devil Rides Out. Classic, brilliant Wheatley. 2. The Golden Spaniard. (Quiet, Toohey!) 3. Uncharted Seas. Great fun, and given the putative circumstances, quite appropriate. 4. The Second Seal. History as entertainment ...

Based on a Dennis Wheatley short story? Oh dear, oh dear - it's not looking good.

Toohey - I am afraid the SPGB will have to do without me! Incidentally, as a matter of courtesy to other users of The Library, don't you think we should desist from this argument, which has gone way beyond the topic of DW's The Golden Spaniard? Send me a PM if you wish, but I can't guarantee to repl...

Hoyo you sound suprised that the SPGB is still going why? I thought it had gone the way of the fossilized old monsters in the Kremlin. Still, discovering that an outdated relic of 1930s politics is still alive is rather like the rediscovery of the coelocanth- rather surprising, but fascinating. Inc...

Here is a statement from the SPGB, a which I'm a member of, about the Spanish Civil War. I'm delighted to learn that the dear old SPGB is still alive - I thought it had succumbed to the advance of progress, rather like the dinosaurs. I'm afraid I will need a little time to digest this whacking grea...

Oh - unlike you I don't own any of this country Well, I own a couple of acres of Somerset but that's about it!. But one doesn't have to have a large territorial stake in a country to be prepared to protect it. I spent 20 years in the Navy, because I thought my country was worth defending. During my...

Sorry to disappoint you but of course my answer would be a no. Doesn't disappoint me at all! I was only asking a question. By Communist, you must mean the state-capitalist regimes like Cuba, USSR or China. As I'm against both left and right wing capitalism the answer would be a resounding no. I wou...

Very interesting, Bob. To my shame I haven't (yet) read "Saturdays with Bricks", but your quote rather tends to confirm my theory. Many thanks for pointing it out - I'm off to have a bath!

Is that what it all boils down to - the lesser of two evils? Isn't that what all human conflict boils down to in the end? Imaging telling that to your grand-children, I killed and tortured other men for the lesser of two evils! I'm sure they'd be proud. I suspect that those who killed (on either si...

The Negroes do a lot of annoying eye-rolling when terrified as per usual, which de Richleau finds endlessly amusing, and there's a reference to their alleged lack of bathing habits which seems entirely gratuitous To be fair, this quirk of DW's is not confined to negroes. Throughout his works one fi...

Franco still accepted help from both Hitler and Mussolini so he was a bed-fellow. Doesn't follow - pragmatic chap that he was, he was simply getting help from where he could - and he wasn't going to get it from anywhere else. The fact that he was not an out-an-out fascist does not excuse what he di...

A very enjoyable book, one of my favourite books by Wheatley. Bu the politics will make you grit your teeth! This book is so hysterically one-sided in favour of the fascists it makes you wonder if he was serious. Basically it's message is Repubilcans/Democrats are evil and the Fascist Franco and hi...

I have worked out to my own satisfaction, from various clues in the books, that the Duke was born in 1875. This fits in quite neatly (and don't forget he's a sprightly old chap - all those physical and spiritual exercises). Unfortunately authors don't always worry about such details until it's too l...