Genius Fan

Most books I own are packed with information and facts…but none are as easy-to-read, entertaining-while-useful and to-the-point (I know three consecutive hyphenated phrases) as this one: Benn’s Sixpenny Library, No.26: British Prime Ministers of the 18th Century. I’ve been struck like a Hadouken power punch (see Japanese computer games…don’t ask me) by this book. I’ve had my nose buried in its pages for the past couple of weeks – reading and re-reading – it’s a real explosion of relevant words, stacked in order and arranged with punctuation on a page by a fella who knows how to tell a story. FJC Hearnshaw, in this case is the author. I discovered the book on eBay while researching material for my series Prime Ministers on the Pan (yes, PM’s doing their toilet). Of course, I ordered it and when it arrived I went straight to the chapter about the Earl of Bute (Prime Minister 1762-63). This is my gauge for the accessibility of a book (a book about Eighteenth century Prime Ministers, that is): “What does it say about Bute’s legs?” I was not disappointed. Lookeee…

“He was an elegant man, of courtly manners, and, like Sir Willoughby Pattern, ‘he had a leg.’”

Thus can you see why I bought it. Seven quid plus postage well-spent. (See the Bute post here.)

This is a book, but it’s a flimsy, 80 page paperback in golden wheat colour, measuring 10.5 x 16.5cm in size. This copy is dated 1928 – nearly a century old. It feels like a pulp novel, though it’s not a romance inside – it’s packed with nicely-summarised descriptions of the terms of office of all British Prime Ministers from Robert Wallpole to William Pitt the Younger. It’s part of a series called Benn’s Sixpenny Library and according to the internet (in this case Wikipedia), which never lies, is a reference series from the 1920s and 30s, covering everything from Prime Ministers to weather and French literature to religions of the world. The website Publishing History has an incomplete list of 252 titles. I’ve not looked after this copy as much as I should have…it’s been in and out of my pocket like my mobile phone – it’s pocket-sized and I carry it around with me to read when I have a minute. The edges have become a little ‘used’, so it’s going back on the shelf to preserve it. It’s not valuable in terms of cash, but it’s a proper good read and therefore valuable to me. Books gotta be read, right?!