Story Telling

The first history book I remember reading with pleasure was a stout, blue, and exuberantly triumphalist volume, Our Island Story -- A History of England for Boys and Girls by H.E. Marshall. It had a red and gold crown and shield that were embossed into the cover in the style of a G.A. Henty adventure story book. It told the tales of men, women and often children whom it dared to describe as ‘Heroes’ and ‘Heroines’, and it was accompanied by a companion volume, Our Empire Story, which was still more politically incorrect. This related the sagas of the heroes and heroines who had ventured 'across the seas' to paint much of the globe pink, and I must confess that I loved it still more -- even though I knew, from the beginning of Chapter 2, that the author had a vivid imagination.