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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
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Listings for Reader:  

Thomas Okey

 

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William Shakespeare : [works]

'I was repelled at home, rather than encouraged to read, and I never remember to have seen a book in my elders' hands. Literature was limited to the "Daily Telegraph". To read in secret I escaped to the washhouse, and I well remember during my early apprentice days at Spitalfields, my grandfather, catching a sight of me reading there a copy of Dicks's shilling edition of Shakespeare - the whole, a marvellous feat of cheap publishing -sternly reproachful, exclaimed: "Ah, Tom, that'll never bring you bread and cheese!"'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Okey      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : The Bible

'The only books I remember seeing as a small child were an old copy of Foxe's "Book of Martyrs" and one of the Bible, including the Apocrypha, brought out of their hiding-places on Sunday evenings at Spitalfields to amuse the child with pictures, for both were illustrated - the "Book of Martyrs" with realistic engravings of the horrible tortures inflicted on the faithful Protestant. "Bel and the Dragon" in the Bible, too, was a favourite picture.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Okey      Print: Book

  

John Foxe : Book of Martyrs

'The only books I remember seeing as a small child were an old copy of Foxe's "Book of Martyrs" and one of the Bible, including the Apocrypha, brought out of their hiding-places on Sunday evenings at Spitalfields to amuse the child with pictures, for both were illustrated - the "Book of Martyrs" with realistic engravings of the horrible tortures inflicted on the faithful Protestant. "Bel and the Dragon" in the Bible, too, was a favourite picture.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Okey      Print: Book

  

Sir Walter Scott : Waverley

'Readers of my generation owe a great debt of gratitude to the enterprise of Messrs. Dicks. My first introduction to great fiction dates from the publication by them of Scott's novels in threepenny paper-covered volumes, easily pocketable, when my apprenticeship, in its early days, consisted of sorting and picking - wearisome, dull, mechanical, solitary work. The appearance of "Waverley" marked an epoch. I read it and its succeeding volumes with absorbing interest, stealing at times scraps of hours which should have been devoted to my work.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Okey      Print: Book

  

Thomas Carlyle : Sartor Resartus

'Later I had determined to spend a Whit-Monday at the Alexandra Palace, and on my way thither bought an eighteen-penny copy of Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus". Arriving at the Palace I sat down in a quiet corner to look through its pages. Fascinated, I read and read; hour succeeded hour; swings and roundabouts passed into oblivion.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Okey      Print: Book

  

[Thomas Peckett] [Prest] : Sweeney Todd the Barber

'The favourite literary pabulum of us boys at school, however, was less classical: "penny bloods" and other Weeklies issued in penny sheets, such as "Sweeny Todd the Barber". Romantic stories of highwaymen circulated freely from boy to boy until reduced to rags: Dick Turpin, Spring-heeled Jack, the gallant Claude Duval, gracefully dancing on the greensward with the ladies he had robbed, Edith the Captive, Edith Heron, with what impatience we awaited the issue of the next number, with what absorbing interest we followed the thrilling adventure!... What it did was to evoke the reading habit, and to one boy at least that was a valuable endowment. Nor did the "Boys of England" proffer a much healthier pabulum to the hunger of the young barbarian for extra-lawful adventure. I can even today visualise the number I read with the lovely alliterate title of its opening story, "Alone in the Pirates' Lair" - and the front page illustration - Jack Harkaway, sitting before the pirate on the island, open-eyed, drinking in the recital of his hazardous deeds;...'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Okey      Print: Serial / periodical

  

[unknown] : Dick Turpin

'The favourite literary pabulum of us boys at school, however, was less classical: "penny bloods" and other Weeklies issued in penny sheets, such as "Sweeny Todd the Barber". Romantic stories of highwaymen circulated freely from boy to boy until reduced to rags: Dick Turpin, Spring-heeled Jack, the gallant Claude Duval, gracefully dancing on the greensward with the ladies he had robbed, Edith the Captive, Edith Heron, with what impatience we awaited the issue of the next number, with what absorbing interest we followed the thrilling adventure!... What it did was to evoke the reading habit, and to one boy at least that was a valuable endowment. Nor did the "Boys of England" proffer a much healthier pabulum to the hunger of the young barbarian for extra-lawful adventure. I can even today visualise the number I read with the lovely alliterate title of its opening story, "Alone in the Pirates' Lair" - and the front page illustration - Jack Harkaway, sitting before the pirate on the island, open-eyed, drinking in the recital of his hazardous deeds;...'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Okey      Print: Serial / periodical

  

[unknown] : Spring-heeled Jack

'The favourite literary pabulum of us boys at school, however, was less classical: "penny bloods" and other Weeklies issued in penny sheets, such as "Sweeny Todd the Barber". Romantic stories of highwaymen circulated freely from boy to boy until reduced to rags: Dick Turpin, Spring-heeled Jack, the gallant Claude Duval, gracefully dancing on the greensward with the ladies he had robbed, Edith the Captive, Edith Heron, with what impatience we awaited the issue of the next number, with what absorbing interest we followed the thrilling adventure!... What it did was to evoke the reading habit, and to one boy at least that was a valuable endowment. Nor did the "Boys of England" proffer a much healthier pabulum to the hunger of the young barbarian for extra-lawful adventure. I can even today visualise the number I read with the lovely alliterate title of its opening story, "Alone in the Pirates' Lair" - and the front page illustration - Jack Harkaway, sitting before the pirate on the island, open-eyed, drinking in the recital of his hazardous deeds;...'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Okey      Print: Serial / periodical

  

[unknown] : Claude Duval

'The favourite literary pabulum of us boys at school, however, was less classical: "penny bloods" and other Weeklies issued in penny sheets, such as "Sweeny Todd the Barber". Romantic stories of highwaymen circulated freely from boy to boy until reduced to rags: Dick Turpin, Spring-heeled Jack, the gallant Claude Duval, gracefully dancing on the greensward with the ladies he had robbed, Edith the Captive, Edith Heron, with what impatience we awaited the issue of the next number, with what absorbing interest we followed the thrilling adventure!... What it did was to evoke the reading habit, and to one boy at least that was a valuable endowment. Nor did the "Boys of England" proffer a much healthier pabulum to the hunger of the young barbarian for extra-lawful adventure. I can even today visualise the number I read with the lovely alliterate title of its opening story, "Alone in the Pirates' Lair" - and the front page illustration - Jack Harkaway, sitting before the pirate on the island, open-eyed, drinking in the recital of his hazardous deeds;...'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Okey      Print: Serial / periodical

  

[unknown] : Edith the Captive

'The favourite literary pabulum of us boys at school, however, was less classical: "penny bloods" and other Weeklies issued in penny sheets, such as "Sweeny Todd the Barber". Romantic stories of highwaymen circulated freely from boy to boy until reduced to rags: Dick Turpin, Spring-heeled Jack, the gallant Claude Duval, gracefully dancing on the greensward with the ladies he had robbed, Edith the Captive, Edith Heron, with what impatience we awaited the issue of the next number, with what absorbing interest we followed the thrilling adventure!... What it did was to evoke the reading habit, and to one boy at least that was a valuable endowment. Nor did the "Boys of England" proffer a much healthier pabulum to the hunger of the young barbarian for extra-lawful adventure. I can even today visualise the number I read with the lovely alliterate title of its opening story, "Alone in the Pirates' Lair" - and the front page illustration - Jack Harkaway, sitting before the pirate on the island, open-eyed, drinking in the recital of his hazardous deeds;...'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Okey      Print: Serial / periodical

  

[unknown] : Edith Heron

'The favourite literary pabulum of us boys at school, however, was less classical: "penny bloods" and other Weeklies issued in penny sheets, such as "Sweeny Todd the Barber". Romantic stories of highwaymen circulated freely from boy to boy until reduced to rags: Dick Turpin, Spring-heeled Jack, the gallant Claude Duval, gracefully dancing on the greensward with the ladies he had robbed, Edith the Captive, Edith Heron, with what impatience we awaited the issue of the next number, with what absorbing interest we followed the thrilling adventure!... What it did was to evoke the reading habit, and to one boy at least that was a valuable endowment. Nor did the "Boys of England" proffer a much healthier pabulum to the hunger of the young barbarian for extra-lawful adventure. I can even today visualise the number I read with the lovely alliterate title of its opening story, "Alone in the Pirates' Lair" - and the front page illustration - Jack Harkaway, sitting before the pirate on the island, open-eyed, drinking in the recital of his hazardous deeds;...'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Okey      Print: Serial / periodical

  

[n/a] : Boys of England

'The favourite literary pabulum of us boys at school, however, was less classical: "penny bloods" and other Weeklies issued in penny sheets, such as "Sweeny Todd the Barber". Romantic stories of highwaymen circulated freely from boy to boy until reduced to rags: Dick Turpin, Spring-heeled Jack, the gallant Claude Duval, gracefully dancing on the greensward with the ladies he had robbed, Edith the Captive, Edith Heron, with what impatience we awaited the issue of the next number, with what absorbing interest we followed the thrilling adventure!... What it did was to evoke the reading habit, and to one boy at least that was a valuable endowment. Nor did the "Boys of England" proffer a much healthier pabulum to the hunger of the young barbarian for extra-lawful adventure. I can even today visualise the number I read with the lovely alliterate title of its opening story, "Alone in the Pirates' Lair" - and the front page illustration - Jack Harkaway, sitting before the pirate on the island, open-eyed, drinking in the recital of his hazardous deeds;...'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Okey      Print: Serial / periodical

  

Bracebridge Hemyng : Jack Harkaway

'The favourite literary pabulum of us boys at school, however, was less classical: "penny bloods" and other Weeklies issued in penny sheets, such as "Sweeny Todd the Barber". Romantic stories of highwaymen circulated freely from boy to boy until reduced to rags: Dick Turpin, Spring-heeled Jack, the gallant Claude Duval, gracefully dancing on the greensward with the ladies he had robbed, Edith the Captive, Edith Heron, with what impatience we awaited the issue of the next number, with what absorbing interest we followed the thrilling adventure!... What it did was to evoke the reading habit, and to one boy at least that was a valuable endowment. Nor did the "Boys of England" proffer a much healthier pabulum to the hunger of the young barbarian for extra-lawful adventure. I can even today visualise the number I read with the lovely alliterate title of its opening story, "Alone in the Pirates' Lair" - and the front page illustration - Jack Harkaway, sitting before the pirate on the island, open-eyed, drinking in the recital of his hazardous deeds;...'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Okey      Print: Serial / periodical

 

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