In 1945 Hubert Phillips offered this Ptarmigan ‘Word Play’ and a challenging little volume it is. Again, it’s clear that there must have been a significant audience for these really quite tricky puzzles. A significant level of general knowledge from history through literature to botany seem to have been a prerequisite at the very least.

So here a couple to try….first some jumbled letters…

And a tricky puzzle to think on..

Apparently the answer is….”Tittle-tattle is too trite, is it not?”

Last year I blogged about Ptarmigan Books – the imprint of Penguin Books under the editorship of Hubert Phillips – dedicated to puzzles and indoor games. Phillips was described as a ‘One Man Brains Trust’ and Chipwinkle was one of his creations. He invented a whole backstory for his illustrious crossword setter and the crosswords usually contained a clue hidden in one of Chipwinkle’s verses.

So here’s one to try…

One fascinating sidelight into Victorian pastimes is this volume – a wealth of detail about the keeping of British songbirds. Canaries and other songbirds were not just kept domestically though they were widely kept at home and there was an explosion of interest in the breeding, care and nutrition of various species of birds.

A newspaper advertisement of 1886 appealed to the enthusiastic bird keeper’s fears of the loss of voice and plumage…

‘All Birds require a Variety of Seed which must be thoroughly cleaned and free from mice taint. OLIVER’S MIXED BIRD SEED is the only Seed mixed on Scientific Principles, and is approved by the first English and Continental authorities.’

In many poorer areas, including parts of the East End, there was also a thriving world of keeping birds for the world of birdsong competition with betting on the singing progress of various birds. Matches were scored by tallying each piece of song from each bird over a fixed time.

The Bindles have similar, almost picaresque adventures that books of this type offer – from Mrs Brown to Mr Finchley via the ‘Diary of a Nobody’ and ‘Three Men in a Boat.’ The Bindles visit the zoo, attend a works outing to Margate (of course!), keep chickens and in one of my favourite stories Bindle reluctantly accompanies his formidable wife to chapel. Once there, Bindle fails to recognise himself as the poor sinner whose salvation is being so ardently sought, repeatedly looking around the chapel to identify the poor recalcitrant soul.

From the brief obituaries which appeared in the newspapers when Herbert Jenkins died we can see a clear head for the business of books shining through.

“As an author he developed in his ‘Bindle’ books a vein of cockney humour that made that philosophic furniture remover a very popular character. He also tried his hand at detective fiction.”

And looking at a fly leaf list of other titles, they are very hard to resist…

I meant this post to be about a character – Joseph Bindle -but it is turning into a piece about his creator. Previously, I have posted about the nineteenth century adventures of Mrs Brown used by her creator as a voice of working-class life and commentator on current events.

We are jumping forward to the twentieth century and a character in some ways similar used by his author to narrate the stories and experiences of working-class families. But this hero, Joseph Bindle, has more depth and resolution- a character reminiscent of Dickens with a warmth reminiscent of Sam Weller.

Joseph Bindle and his wife were the creations of a sadly short-lived writer and publisher Herbert Jenkins (1876-1923). In another nineteenth century touch Herbert Jenkins was both publisher and writer and he seemed to have had a good eye for new talent and for judging the mood of readers in his own fiction.

Herbert Jenkins published the early novel of P.G.Wodehouse beginning with ‘Piccadilly Jim’ in 1918 as well of those of the so-called ‘Navvy Poet’ Patrick MacGill (1889-1963).

The Bindles made their first appearance in 1916 though ‘The Bindles on the Rocks’ dates from the 1920s and has a genuine heart and concern for the difficult economic times many were experiencing.

More on Herbert Jenkins and the Bindles next time.

First published in 1961 by Wills & Hepworth Ltd, this title is one of the many evocative Ladybird books which for so many years were a vital non-fiction experience of many children. Nothing perhaps captured the commitment to quality than the title page. ‘What to Look For in Spring’ had text by the biologist writer Elliot Lovegood Grant Watson (1885-1970) and illustrations by the great naturalist painter Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe (1901-1979). Surely one of the the great strengths of these books were the emphasis on good quality information and a resolute refusal to over-simplify in language or content.

In 1954 Faber returned to the idea and format of the Ariel Poems for a second short series of eight titles. Again, they partnered the poets with the most illustrators and artists. The poets included Eliot, Auden, Spender and Royal Campbell while the artists included Edward Ardizzone and John Piper. Above is the beginning of the poem ‘The Other Wing’ by Louis MacNeice and the pamphlet paired the poem with wonderful illustrations by Michael Ayrton – a superb choice for the mythology of this poem.

No. 36 in the first series of ‘Ariel Poems’ published by Faber between 1927 and 1931 was this poem ‘Jane Barston 1719-1746’ by Edith Sitwell dedicated to Siegfried Sassoon and with this startling image by R.A.Davies. Sitwell (1887-1964) had been a close friend of Sassoon since 1918 and valued greatly his support for her work.

‘Jane Barston 1719-1746’ is a dark, powerful poem from the moment of reading its tombstone feeling title. It tells the story of a ruined woman and her dead child. It is a poem with an overwhelming sense of cold as this extract from the end of the poem shows.

When I was rereading Herbert Read’s anthology ‘The Knapsack’ – his work produced for a soldier to carry with him as the Second World War broke out (see previous posts) I came across T.S. Eliot’s poem ‘Triumphal March’ of which an extract is below.

‘Triumphal March’ was written by Eliot in 1931 to be one of the Ariel Poems – the beautiful pamphlets published by Faber between 1927 and 1931 and and in 1954. They are such satisfying things only four pages hand stitched between cardboard covers but encompassing the most extraordinary poets and illustrators, seen by their producers as possible replacements for greetings cards – the reason that quite a few have a Christmas theme. The illustrations are wonderful – from some of the most noted illustrators and designers – John and Paul Nash, Barnett Freedman, Graham Sutherland, Edward Barden and Sir William Nicholson.

Here though is one for Spring. No. 2 contains Sir Henry Newbolt’s poem ‘The Linnets’s Nest’ with illustrations by Ralph Keene. It is ravishing.