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[Andrew999]

A trip through the tunnel of time to the Edwardian era for my Random 12 choice today! You got an awful lot for a penny in them days. I’m guessing the author of The Blot, Maxwell Scott, is a pseudonym – Maxwell-Scott being one of those fine establishment families that every nation has – like the von Weizsäckers in Germany, or perhaps the Kennedys in the US.

Best page is Your Editor’s Den – an absolute hoot! Well worth reading, including a letter from a girl in British Columbia. Also, in the Smart Tricks column, I love the way it is assumed the boy reading it has a top hat.

Eugen Sandow, muscle man supreme, presents us with some fitness routines (I’ll pass) and a wonderful illustration of the human body – and there’s a Sexton Blake story too!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_Sandow

Link to the book: The Boys' Friend 0489 - The Blot

[crashryan]

Thanks for pointing this out, Andrew. The description of the nocturnal train race was genuinely exciting, and full of technical detail only half of which I understood. I've noticed there tend to be a lot of Belgian villains in British boys' fiction. Did England have a particular animosity toward Belgium?

[paw broon]

Not particularly, I don't think.  But one of our favourite detectives is Poirot, who is Belgian.

[The Australian Panther]

there tend to be a lot of Belgian villains in British boys' fiction

Surprising, given that coming to the aid of Belgium was a decisive factor in Britain's entry into two world wars. I wonder what the reason was? Some personal gripe of writer or publisher? Were there any Frisian Villains in these stories?   

[Andrew999]

Not especially, as Paw says.

There's a kind of ongoing dinner party joke about Belgium being insignificant - you stump your know-it-all guest by saying - Can you name six famous Belgians?

I think in terms of the stories, it's more a case of 'the Other'. Any European or Asian was considered 'other' so the villains often came from these places  eg Carl Petersen (Bulldog Drummond) was a Dane; Sexton Blake's enemy Zenith the Albino was Romanian; Moriarty is an Irish name and then of course, there was Fu Manchu........ (I always felt his daughter, Su Maru deserved more stories of her own)

[The Australian Panther]

6 Famous Belgians?
1/ Adophe Sax. The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in 1840. My ears thank him.
2/ Gerardus Mercator - Created Mercator scale maps
3/ Peter Paul Rubens - Painter
5/ Ren

[Captain Audio]

Not especially, as Paw says.

There's a kind of ongoing dinner party joke about Belgium being insignificant - you stump your know-it-all guest by saying - Can you name six famous Belgians?

I think in terms of the stories, it's more a case of 'the Other'. Any European or Asian was considered 'other' so the villains often came from these places  eg Carl Petersen (Bulldog Drummond) was a Dane; Sexton Blake's enemy Zenith the Albino was Romanian; Moriarty is an Irish name and then of course, there was Fu Manchu........ (I always felt his daughter, Su Maru deserved more stories of her own)

Belgium had a long standing reputation for producing the most professional hit men of European crime.
Gerald Bull is believed to have been killed by a Belgian assassin.

Someone mentioned Belgium being the cause of Britain entering WW1. Its well to remember that though the Germans did in fact commit some atrocities that the vast majority of German atrocities against Belgian civilians claims by news sources of the day turned out to be propaganda and complete fabrications.
During WW2 most such claims were more factual.