Evidence: | 'Percy Wall described his [colliery] institute as a "blatantly utilitarian" building with a "square cemented front" and a "drab, poorly lit" reading room, but it offered a wonderful escape from a dull Welsh village: "I could view the future through the words of H.G. Wells, participate in the elucidation of mysteries with Sherlock Holmes,... or penetrate darkest Africa with Rider Haggard as my guide. I could laugh at the comic frustrations of coaster seaman or bargee at the call of W.A. Jacobs. What a gloriously rich age it was for the storyteller!... When the stories palled there was always the illustrated weeklies with their pictures of people and conditions remote from my personal experience... I could laugh with Punch or Truth, although some of the humour was much too subtle for my limited education. Above all I could study the Review of Reviews and learn therein the complexities of foreign affairs. |
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Century: | 1900-1945 | ||||||||||
Date: | unknown | ||||||||||
Country: | Wales | ||||||||||
Time: | n/a | ||||||||||
Place: | specific address: colliery institute library | ||||||||||
Type of Experience (Reader): |
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Type of Experience (Listener): |
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Reader: | Percy Wall |
Age | Adult (18-100+) |
Gender | Male |
Date of Birth | 1883 |
Socio-economic group: | Labourer (non-agricultural) |
Occupation: | collier |
Religion: | n/a |
Country of origin: | Wales |
Country of experience: | Wales |
Listeners present if any: (e.g. family, servants,
friends, workmates) |
n/a |
Additional comments: | n/a |
Author: | Henry Rider Haggard |
Title: | [African stories] |
Genre: | Fiction |
Form of Text: | Print: Book |
Publication details: | n/a |
Provenance: | read in situ colliery institute |
Record ID: | 4245 | |
Source - | ||
Author: | Jonathan Rose | |
Editor: | n/a | |
Title: | The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes | |
Place of Publication: | New Haven | |
Date of Publication: | 2001 | |
Vol: | n/a | |
Page: | 243-4 | |
Additional comments: | n/a |
Citation: | Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes (New Haven, 2001), p. 243-4, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=4245, accessed: 29 March 2024 |
See Percy Wall, 'Hour at Eve', Ch.15, no further ref. traceable in Rose. |
Reading Experience Database version 2.0. Page updated: 27th Apr 2016 3:15pm (GMT)