Entertaining literary, travel, research, idiosyncrasy potpourri from Chinese horror and detective stories, to hobby buying in the orient; from research on the ""dead man's chest"" of Treasure Island, to oysters, ice cream; from a bookselling fairy story, to the origins of Mother Goose; from Chinese eunuchs to the death of Anatole France; from further exploration of Sherlock Holmes to Edward Fitzgerald; from hateful interrup to hero writer Hayne Reid...amiable conversation pieces for students and conn and layman alike. He certainly can do this sort of thing to the queen's taste.