I was lucky enough to be invited out to lunch today by a very good friend ... and it was no ordinary lunch; it was lunch at his club!
My friend is a member of the Savile Club, which is located on Brook Street in Mayfair. The club was founded in the middle of the nineteenth century and has always been a favourite with authors, although its membership list includes many people of eminence in other fields.
We were joined for lunch by another good friend, and after an excellent meal in the dining room we visited the club's library ... which contains books donated to the club by its author members. Amongst those authors was H G Wells, and I had the great honour and privilege of holding and reading copies of LITTLE WARS and FLOOR GAMES that he donated to the club's library. What struck me about both books was the quality of the photographs therein. These were reproduced on glossy paper and had wonderful definition ... and the ones in FLOOR GAMES included views that illustrated his chapters entitled:
All good things come to an end, and after coffee in the bar, we parted company and went our separate ways.
As the title of this blog entry states, it was an excellent lunch with wonderful company in a great location ... and I only hope that one day I will be able to repeat the experience.
My friend is a member of the Savile Club, which is located on Brook Street in Mayfair. The club was founded in the middle of the nineteenth century and has always been a favourite with authors, although its membership list includes many people of eminence in other fields.
We were joined for lunch by another good friend, and after an excellent meal in the dining room we visited the club's library ... which contains books donated to the club by its author members. Amongst those authors was H G Wells, and I had the great honour and privilege of holding and reading copies of LITTLE WARS and FLOOR GAMES that he donated to the club's library. What struck me about both books was the quality of the photographs therein. These were reproduced on glossy paper and had wonderful definition ... and the ones in FLOOR GAMES included views that illustrated his chapters entitled:
- The Game Of The Wonderful Islands
- Of The Building Of Cities
- Funiculars, Marble Towers, Castles And War Games, But Very Little Of War Games
All good things come to an end, and after coffee in the bar, we parted company and went our separate ways.
As the title of this blog entry states, it was an excellent lunch with wonderful company in a great location ... and I only hope that one day I will be able to repeat the experience.
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteI hope you managed to stop by Tradition! Sounds like a great day and seeing those books would have rounded it off very nicely!
All the best,
DC
David Crook,
ReplyDeleteIt was a great day, but I am afraid that I just did not have time to get to do any retail therapy; perhaps next time.
All the best,
Bob
No illustrations but the full text of floor games:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3690
There is also an audio version and of course Little Wars as well
Pat G,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link.
The text is very helpful, but the illustrations enhance the text no end because they show the amount of detail H G Well went into when he created his islands, countries, and cities?
All the best,
Bob