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How to Skin a Lion

A Treasury of Outmoded Advice

Claire Cock Starkey
This little volume draws on the accumulated wisdom of the British Library’s medieval manuscripts, Victorian manuals and early 20th-century self-help guides to provide information on matters as diverse as curing sea-sickness (the ‘cure’ includes tea and gingernuts), reading the future from coffee grounds, how to put back a dislocated jaw and skinning the eponymous lion.
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RRP £10.00

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Product information:
  • Publisher: British Library
  • Year: 2015
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 176pp
  • Illustrated: Yes
  • Dimensions: 186x120mm
  • ISBN: 9780712357821
  • Condition: New
  • Weight: 0.3kg
Product code:
503097
Product information
Full publisher description
Have you ever wondered how to pan for gold, train a falcon or make a love potion? Could you restore a drowned person, smoke your own bacon or correctly address a Maharajah? If not, fear not - you will find the answer in this book. How to Skin a Lion is a fascinating collection of miscellaneous historical advice, gathered from the magnificent archives of the British Library. Drawing on medieval manuscripts, Victorian manuals and self-help guides of the early twentieth century, the book uncovers an extraordinary range of guidance from etiquette to apiculture, medicine to mechanics. How to Skin a Lion offers an intriguing insight into a past with no modern conveniences, where navigating the social scene was fraught with perils and Google did not hold the answer to everything.
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