Horizon

Thanks for this. Know anything else about The Lost Orwell?

Sorry, no idea whatsoever. The Web site for the press doesn't seem to be set up yet. Anyone want to calendar a later visit to same?

I called Timewell Press today. They're down in Tiverton in Devon, the sort of area you might hope to find Cox's Orange Pippins growing. Nearby places are East Butterleigh, Brithem Bottom, Little Silver, Cheriton Fitzpaine, Sampford Peverell, Washford Pyne and Nomansland.

They said they expected to publish in March.

The estimated price was 'about twenty pounds'.

I'll try to keep up to date with them.

Thank you, Tom.

The estimated price was 'about twenty pounds'.

Ooof. I'm all for Martha getting a copy and telling the rest of us how it is.

Why me? With all due respect I'm the farthest from the publisher of us all. (Yes, even Hogue is in the East Bay.)

Tom, have they got any perry pears in Tiverton, Devon? And who lives in Nomansland?

FWIW, there's a Tiverton, Rhode Island, but it's a few notches less than charming, or was in 1988 when I was a newspaper intern sent to cover Town Council meetings there. For charming you want Little Compton, farther south (and farther from new Bedford) down the same out-of-the-way little peninsula. It's funny: Tiverton is (or was) redneck rural, and Little Compton is (or was) village-green rural. I suppose these things change, especially as I hear New Bedford has come up in the world with the advent of faster public transit to Boston.

The Tiverton Town Council moment that I mostly remember was a dispute over whether to replace the town fire department's water truck. The existing water truck was a converted oil tanker, and the folks who converted it hadn't considered that water is heavier than oil. A full tank of water went about 500 pounds beyond what the tank was designed to handle, and proper internal baffles had not been installed, so water sloshing forward at stops was deforming the front end of the tank. Whereupon one distinguished member of the assembled company said 500 pounds wasn't really that much, and another distinguished personage replied, "if it fell on your head, it would be." And the darned editor cut that out of my story.

Sorry, just reread that. "The publisher of us all" sounds like the fellow in the sky who keeps the Big Book. But you knew what I meant, right?

Cheriton Fitzpaine, Sampford Peverell ...

They sound like Cabinet colleagues in one of George III's administrations, don't they?

Cheriton Fitzpaine, Sampford Peverell ...

They sound like Cabinet colleagues in one of George III's administrations, don't they?

Or actors of the old school.

Mmmmm. Perry pears. Lots of good ones in Herefordshire and Monmouthshire, and Hereford itself has an excellent cider museum. There's so much cider history in the area that the parking lot roundabout at Tintern Abbey has its own cider mill.

We thought we'd lost our source of pears with Hurricane Rita, but the tree's been replanted and may return. Our '04 batch of perry has gotten so carbonated now that it tastes like a sweet champagne. Good stuff.

Re perry pears:

See: http://www.fruitwise.net/books.html#Perry_Pears_

"...Perry pears seem to belong to Gloucester, Hereford and Worcestershire for the most part...The only commercial maker of perry I know is Westons of Herefordshire. There are a few small makers, Gloucester and Hereford is a likelier hunting ground than Somerset and Devon if you are looking for perry..."

Re Nomansland:

See: http://www.islandcrickit.co.uk/

So they produce hand-made cricket equipment, at least.

But what would I know in South London?

>>Devon, the sort of area you might hope to find Cox's Orange Pippins growing

Or Cornish Aromatics... and all the different varieties:

http://www.naturalhub.com/grow_fruit_cultivars_apple.htm