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Sunday 1 July 2018

King of the Air



This is a book I haven't read but I do like the cover so I took a photo of it. As anyone would guess it is an adventure story for boys. A presentation label inside tells us that this copy was probably a school prize presented in 1930 to a young chap whose name is now illegible. 

It was written by Herbert Strang who was not one person but two. 

Herbert Strang was the pseudonym of two English authors, George Herbert Ely (1866–1958) and Charles James L'Estrange (1867–1947). They specialized in writing adventure stories for boys, both historical and modern-day.

King of the Air was first published in 1908. It's the cover I like - so evocative of a time when the world was smaller and thrilling adventures were still possible. 

4 comments:

Demetrius said...

Ah, 1908, imagine, no queuing at airports. According to grannie, you could get from Liverpool to Hull in under two hours on the old L&Y express trains from Liverpool Exchange. Sadly, when the LMS was created in in 1923 the timings worsened except for the London to Glasgow trains.

A K Haart said...

Demetrius - no queuing at airports but bring your own goggles.

Edward Spalton said...

There used to be a book shop at Lichfield which specialised in children's books of this era. Two titles stuck in my head as indicators of the massive cultural shift since their publication.

One was " The Young Fur Trappers".

The other was " The Pansy Patrol " which was a Girl,Guide story

A K Haart said...

Edward - crikey "The Young Fur Trappers" certainly indicates a cultural shift. "The Pansy Patrol" almost sounds like a seventies sitcom.