T.W.H. Crossland would be one of those outrageous personalities one suffers through on television had he only been born a century later. You know the type - blathering on with outrageous smears against weaker groups of people, gaining more attention the more outrageous and insulting they become. Crossland evidently had a bit of a following back in 1903 when he published Lovely Woman. This collection of insults directed towards women followed a similar obnoxious tirade aimed at Scotsmen. A sampling of quotes gives us observations such as, "Had women no more charms in their bodies than in their minds we should see more wise men in the world. He seldom errs who thinks the worst of womankind." Or, there is the thoughtful comment, "Of all the plagues with which the world is cursed, of every ill a woman is the worst." However, Crossland goes even farther, with what must have been the ultimate insult by an Englishman: "A bad woman is worse than three Frenchmen." Item 178. £18 (US $27).

Here's an item I never heard of, perhaps you either, but its rather ordinary sounding title is intriguing: The Man Who Missed The Bus. This 1928 story came from the pen of Stella Benson, an author I had missed. Turns out Miss Benson was a prolific author, her many works coming in the 1920s, or shortly before or after that decade. She was an Englishwoman, but she got around, spending her honeymoon driving across America (no mean feat in the early '20s), and later living in China. She died there in 1933 at the age of 40. She was described in a 1980 guide to fiction by Martin Seymour-Smith as "possessed of a fine imagination whose qualities have as yet gone largely unrecognised." Certainly we know the part about being unrecognized is accurate, and now you can determine for yourself if she possessed a fine imagination, for just £26 (US $39). Item 87, published in 1928.

I.D. Edrich may be reached at 020 8989 9541 or idedrich@idedrich.co.uk. Their website is found at www.idedrich.co.uk.