THE HOME FRONT

And then followed the inevitable question.

     “Why are you interested?”

      It had occurred to Latimer that this question was going to crop up again and again.  He had accordingly prepared his explanation.  To have told the truth, to have explained that he was trying, for purely academic reasons, to trace the history of a dead criminal named Dimitrios would have been a long and uneasy business.  He was, in any case, not anxious to have a second opinion on his prospects for success.  His own was depressing enough.  What had seemed a fascinating idea in a Turkish mortuary might well, in the warm light of a Greek autumn, appear merely absurd.  Much simpler to avoid the issue altogether.

     He answered:  “It is in connection with a new book I am writing.  A matter of detail that must be checked.  I want to see if it is possible to trace an individual refugee after so long.”

   Siantos said that he understood and Latimer grinned ashamedly to himself.  The fact that one was a writer could be relied on to explain away the most curious extravagances.

Kinks: He's Evil (Link)


Eric ambler: the mask of dimitrios (1939)
 

Conjuror

        Conjuror:  A 19th-century device for cooking meat rapidly with burning paper as the fuel.  It seems to have been descended on 'necromancer' to which Hannah Glasse (1747) referred, ascribing its invention to an actor, Mr John Rich, and declaring it to be much admired by the nobility (in 1735).  However, the necromancer can be traced further back, to Bradley (1736), who gave a recipe for 'Thin Beef Collops, Stew'd.  From Oxford' which uses the same technique. Stead (1983) surmises from this that the method and the equipment might have been previously practised by students at Oxford University ('student bed-sitter makeshift cookery') but also utilized by the theatrical profession when in need of a hot meal and away from normal cooking facilities.

        The best description of the conjuror is Eliza Acton's in 1845, which was accompanied by a rare  illustration of the conjuror device (see title graphic above):

              'Steaks or cutlets may be quickly cooked with a sheet or two of lighted paper only, in the apparatus called the conjuror. Lift off the cover and lay in the meat properly seasoned, with a small slice of butter under it, and insert the lighted paper in the aperture shown; in from eight to ten minutes the meat will be done, and to be remarkably tender, and very palatable:  it must be turned and moved occasionally during the process.  This is an especially convenient mode of cooking for persons whose hours of dining are rendered uncertain by their avocations. The part in which the meat is placed is of block tin, and fits closely into the stand, which is of sheet iron.'



Text from Alan Davidson, The Oxford Companion To Food. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995

Killer Video Link:  Georges Melies, The Conjuror (1899)
 

Sir John Dee (1527-1608), Adviser and conjuror to Queen Elizabeth I of England. 

"The Prestige" (2006) (Slightly disappointing but worth seeing anyway. By Inception director/screenwriter Christopher Nolan.)

Compulsory Aleister Crowley photo (b. 1875- d. 1947)  (Several years ago, we visited Loch Ness and stayed at Craigdarroch House, a lovely small hotel adjacent to Crowley's Boleskine House "bad vibes" manse, later purchased by Jimmy Page, who apparently rarely visited the place.  I highly recommend the journey on all counts, but particularly for Loch Ness "monster viewing".)