I’ve ordered a lovely new hat today from the rather fantastic Aubin & Wills.
Not only was it in the sale, but it’s a fab design and wool cashmere mix.
You know what they say – ‘get ahead, get a hat’.
Reeley Beanie
Charlatan: The Fraudulent Life of John Brinkley
via amazon.co.uk
I picked up this in a charity shop just before Christmas on a whim and have been totally fascinated by the story.
John Brinkley is a famous con-man of the pre-war generation who famously discovered the power of radio to sell his dubious methods and who experimented with transplanting goat glands into humans in order to try and cure male impotence.
Charlatan is a wonderful insight into the world of the fraudsters and ‘witch doctors’ of the 1920s and 1930s in America.
It’s both a historical account, but also a thriller as Brinkley’s rising popularity coincides with his pursuit by nemesis Morris Fishbein. A truly engaging read.
How Health and Safety has changed
Our daughter has a basket full of animals which used to belong to my beloved girlfriend.
Many of them were made in the 1970s and bear a copyright symbol as proof and they're in pretty good nick. One thing I was struck by today, though, is how some of the animals could never be made today, as they were then. Take the pictured crocodile – it has a movable mouth, opening its jaws and the teeth are phenomenally sharp for a toy. You can then push the jaws shut around whatever they are clamped around – more often than not small fingers. Mind you, it's brilliantly made, though!