It's not often a typewriter hits the news on national television, but it happened last week when SBS Australia announced an upcoming Sotheby's Australia auction. Among the items to be auctioned, those from writer Colleen McCullough's estate. For more, see this Sydney Morning Herald article. A focus of the news report was the late author's … Continue reading Royal Empress Takes a Hammering
Tag: Royal
Real Reality
Finest Hour
The Hour (Series One) is a 2011 BBC drama series about a pioneering BBC current affairs programme, launched in June 1956, at the time of the Hungarian Revolution and the Suez Crisis. Part espionage thriller, it centres on the love triangle between a journalist, a producer, and an anchorman. Not only is it superbly written and … Continue reading Finest Hour
Gary Seven’s Royal Emperor
In response to my Gary Seven's Royal Assignment post, Robert Messenger (who else) correctly identified the typewriter as a Royal Emperor electric typewriter ... ORIGINAL CAPTION: Royal-Typer automated typewriter introduced by the Royal McBee Corporation in 1960 (RM: more likely 1962-63) combines the functions of tape reading, tape punching, tape reproduction and manual or automatic … Continue reading Gary Seven’s Royal Emperor
Men of Letters
Atonement aired recently on free-to-air television (SBS). If you haven't seen it, it's a 2007 English movie based on the novel of the same name by Ian McEwan (screen adaptation by Christopher Hampton) and follows the lives of young lovers Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightley) and Robbie Turner (James McAvoy). When the couple are torn apart … Continue reading Men of Letters
A Cracker from Malacca
I had planned to call this post A Clacker from Malacca, until I found out "clacker" is Australian slang for something not very complimentary. I settled instead for "a cracker" which in the British vernacular means "a fine example of something". Two barely legible stamped ink impressions on either side of the ribbon cover of this … Continue reading A Cracker from Malacca
Glass Half True
Keeping the Belgian ball rolling... One of the twentieth century's most well-known and widely-read authors, French-speaking Belgian novelist Georges Simenon, outdid Jean Ray when it came to pseudonyms and prolificacy. Simenon (b. 13 February 1903 – d. 4 September 1989) began writing professionally at the age of 15. His prodigious output consisted of 193 novels … Continue reading Glass Half True
Anyone for Tennessee?
It's slim pickings typewriter-wise in the Op shops in and around Perth. But at least I did come away with something interesting on a recent visit to a Salvation Army store. The find in question was a $4 copy of "Tennessee Williams - Memoirs" published by W.H. ALLEN (First British Edition, 1976). As well as being … Continue reading Anyone for Tennessee?
