Sex Tips from Mr Whippy

From the latest Literary Review, this made me smirk:

Correction

Literary Review regrets that Christopher Ross’s review of John Man’s Ninja: 1,000 Years of the Shadow Warriors (LR, August) contained false information about the author. It was incorrectly stated that Mr Man once drove a Mr Whippy ice-cream van and wrote a sex column for Time Out. This information was based on an interview on Macmillan’s website that was erroneously attributed to Mr Man and taken in good faith by the reviewer. Literary Review apologises to Mr Man.

Hang Him Again!

Further on my last post, a letter to the same edition of the Literary Review:

Dear Sir,

Having just read your review of The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa (LR, June – I’m rather behind in my reading!), you may be interested in an incident that, I gather, is not included in the book.

My father was interned as a civilian British prisoner in Ruhleben camp, situated outside Berlin, for the duration of the First World War. The other inmates were mostly civilians, but there were a few British soldiers as well. During either 1914 or 1915 – I regret I cannot remember which year – Roger Casement visited the camp and tried to persuade the prisoners to fight for the Germans.

The majority of men treated this request with contempt, especially the soldiers, but a very few civilians did agree and departed with Casement. My father never discovered what happened to them, but was able to establish that they never featured on any list of prisoners who returned to Britain.

I have no idea whether this particular act was used as evidence against Casement at his trial, but it would be interesting to find out.

Yours faithfully, L P Birley London SW3

All this refers, no doubt, to Casement's attempt to raise an Irish Brigade.

... Some Ivory, Some Leather.

Letters sent to the Literary Review are often something to behold. This one in particular deserves notice. It's about W. T. Stead, the great muckraking newspaper man and scourge of sexual depravity, who died on the Titanic:

Dear Sir,

Toby Thomas’s review of Muckraker: The Scandalous Life and Times of WT Stead (LR, July) reminded me of a meeting I had, some twenty odd years ago, with the education correspondent of the Daily Mirror. He told me that, when a schoolboy, his best friend lived in a rambling house, where he was looked after by a female relative. The boys often explored the house’s attics; in one of them they discovered a chest, labelled as the property of WT Stead, in which they found volumes of Victorian pornography and a collection of dildos, some ivory, some leather.

The Mirror man said that he and his friend were bewildered by the porn and the sex toys. They took some of the printed material along to school, where it created a stir among older boys. One of the teachers found out, took the boys aside and heard the story of Stead’s porn. He advised them to burn the lot. They did. The Mirror man, whose name I cannot remember, also said there was a link between Stead and his friend’s female relative. I imagine I could track him down if it was of interest.

Yours faithfully,

John Fairhall (by email)