unearths some literary gems.
From Leo Bruce:
He was on mutual boring terms with most of the town.
***
Young barmen were employed to assist her.... She called them all Fred, ignoring any hopes they might voice of keeping their own names. [This predates the Pythons and "Bruce," btw.]
***
"'Mr Raydell,' I said, 'you will please remove that beast at once and never bring it into my bar again. I'm surprised at you doing such a thing.' 'It's only an ocelet,' he said. 'Only an ocelot--that's quite enough, I should think,' I told him. 'If you don't take it away immediately I shall call the police. I won't have ocelets in my bar!' 'There's only one,' said Mr Raydell. 'I don't care if there is one or fifty,' I told him. 'It's the principle of the thing.'"
***
"What would you say to ocelot attacking you in a bar in England?" he asked stertorously.
"I shouldn't speak to it," said Carolus."
***
"That of course makes nonsense." [I didn't know you could make nonsense, the way you can make sense!]
***
"At a club called the Surly Tapster."
"The boisterous individual with the bald head and monstrous moustache who had greeted us so heartily on our arrival had become a sagging and weary man. Even the moustache looked lifeless."
