It wasn't all bad

It wasn't all bad

A book handed in to a branch of
Oxfam in Teignmouth, Devon,
has sold for £37,000 - the most
the charity has ever raised at
auction from a single item
donated through a shop. A Trip
to the Highlands of Viti Levu
(1882), which describes an
expedition to Fiji and consists of
44 portraits of Fijians, was one
of seven books handed in by a
dignified gentleman, who told
the staff he had worked in
publishing. "I think you're going
to find this one interesting," he
said, before disappearing.

A unique visual archive of 19th
century British life has gone
online. The Illustrated London
News documented key events
from the Great Exhibition and the
construction of Tower Bridge in
1894 (right) to the Boer War.
Among the more unusual items
in the archive - at first only
available to libraries and educa-
tional institutions - are an 1850s
illustration of a "sea serpent"
spotted in the West Indies, and a
column by an early feminist who
describes using cocaine to
combat sea sickness. "All
chemists keep it," advises
Florence Fenwick Miller.

Four chefs from Britain have
travelled to India to showcase
British curries, and they've
been welcomed warmly.
Although colonial travellers fell
in love with curry in Kolkata,
the dish has since been
Westernised to the point that
what we call curry is something
of an oddity in the city - hence
the ten-day Taste of Britain
Curry Festival. Organisers say
the event has been packed out,
and that the curries have gone
down so well that a leading
hotel is putting them on its
menu - albeit in a more spicy
form, to suit local tastes.