Writing in The Sunday Times, Dominic Sandbrook described it as “so bad, so boring, so mind-bogglingly banal that if it had been written by anybody else it would never have been published”.
AN Wilson was equally withering, describing Mr Rees-Mogg’s effort as “anathema ... to anyone with an ounce of historical, or simply common, sense”. In his review for The Times, Mr Wilson said the book “consists of a dozen clumsily written pompous schoolboy compositions … What a staggeringly silly book this is!”
Historian Kim A Wagner called the book “a sentimental vision of the past as the author wishes it had been” resembling a series of “half-remembered anecdotes from a Boy’s Own story, or perhaps tales told by his nanny”.
The Guardian reviewer Kathryn Hughes wrote: “At least we know The Victorians isn’t ghost written, since no self-respecting freelancer would dare ask for payment for such rotten prose.”
Mick F wrote:........ I'd add more years to that than ten.
Oh! I'd agree and you can count Thatcher and New Labour (the Tory party in red ties)in that,but I was being specific to the present buch of idiots.
What's this Tory Blair New Labour you're talking about?
It seems that R2 Has abandoned his long loved party and gone green?
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
Mick F wrote:........ I'd add more years to that than ten.
Oh! I'd agree and you can count Thatcher and New Labour (the Tory party in red ties)in that,but I was being specific to the present buch of idiots.
What's this Tory Blair New Labour you're talking about?
It seems that R2 Has abandoned his long loved party and gone green?
Care to explain how you arrive at that conclusion? I've always expressed a dislike of Blair/New Labour and always named them as Tories in red ties. Now tell the assembly where I've ever posted that I voted for the Green Party
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
reohn2 wrote:Oh! I'd agree and you can count Thatcher and New Labour (the Tory party in red ties)in that,but I was being specific to the present buch of idiots.
What's this Tory Blair New Labour you're talking about?
It seems that R2 Has abandoned his long loved party and gone green?
Care to explain how you arrive at that conclusion? I've always expressed a dislike of Blair/New Labour and always named them as Tories in red ties. Now tell the assembly where I've ever posted that I voted for the Green Party
Sorry R2, I should of it a at the end. So who are you putting your faith with At the moment?
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
Street organs were driven by a cranked handle. The organ grinder (of the handle) often had a pet monkey with a tin collecting coins on behalf of his master.
I wouldn't say that Ireland are the metaphorical monkey at all but it's they who should have an individual say, not the EU as a whole. You can understand the EU's perspective though, but it's an Ireland/UK problem personally.
Mick F wrote:Street organs were driven by a cranked handle. The organ grinder (of the handle) often had a pet monkey with a tin collecting coins on behalf of his master.
....
I get the monkey bit just why is turning the handle called grinding? Gives me images of grinding coffee beans or using a file on some metal.
Mick F wrote:Street organs were driven by a cranked handle. The organ grinder (of the handle) often had a pet monkey with a tin collecting coins on behalf of his master.
....
I get the monkey bit just why is turning the handle called grinding? Gives me images of grinding coffee beans or using a file on some metal.
My guess is from turning a grindstone. I believe it was a street trade. People would go round the streets with a grindstone offering to sharpen knives. The similarity to an organ grinder, also plying their trade in the street is obvious. I expect they had a special cry.
Just another word for turning a handle that does work. Grinding coffee in a coffee mill turning the handle. Coffee is "ground" but not with a grind-stone.
Some cyclists - like me - are called grinders - or more usually these days a masher.
at the end.
