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Discovering Friendly and Fraternal
Societies: their badges and regalia,
by Victoria Solt Dennis. Shire Books.
160pp illus. ISBN 0 7478 0628 4.
Price £10.99.
Victoria Solt Dennis, supported by a grant
from Supreme Grand Chapter, has been
researching and cataloguing the wealth
of friendly and fraternal society regalia and
artefacts in the Library and Museum of
Freemasonry, a somewhat neglected topic.
The book under review is a fascinating first
study, produced to accompany the splendid
summer exhibition on the topic at
Freemasons’ Hall.
Beginning with introductory chapters on
the history of friendly and fraternal societies,
their artefacts and a very useful glossary
of the symbols used, she then has chapters
dealing with Freemasonry, the Buffaloes,
Knights of the Golden Horn, Free
Gardeners, Oddfellows, Druids, Shepherds,
the many societies of “Friends” and the
19th century development of temperance
societies.
The content is authoritative and the
many colour illustrations – most of which
have not been published before – are a visual
delight. The very readable text masks the
enormous amount of primary research that
has been undertaken to produce this
fascinating survey.
This book fills an important gap in the
recording of British social history and will
be an invaluable reference point for social
historians, museum curators and the many
collectors of regalia, jewels and artefacts.
It should be on the bookshelf of any aspiring
student of Freemasonry, and at £10.99 is
a snip!
John Hamill
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PETER HORE
AUTHOR OF THE QUARTER
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Your most recent book ‘Habit of Victory’
includes many colourful characters
in Britain’s naval history. Who do you
most admire?
Admiral Sir Walter Cowan. His career
spanned two centuries and he won the
DSO in both world wars of the 20th
century. He defeated the French
advance in Central Africa at Fashoda
in the 1890s and experimented with
taking aircraft to sea and flying them
off special ramps on the turrets of his
battlecruiser to shoot down Zeppelins.
He was thanked by Mannerheim for
his part in liberating Finland, took a
demotion in the Second World War so
he could serve as a commando, and
was made honorary colonel of an
Indian cavalry regiment. His hobby
was collecting flags – enemy flags.
You have served in, and written
extensively about, the Navy. What first
prompted this interest?
I lived in Southampton and saw
merchant ships everyday as I travelled
to school. Both my brothers were in the
merchant navy, so, to be different to
my brothers and earn a wage, I joined
the Royal Navy.
Have you planned your next project?
Yes, I’m going to write about the real
James Bond. Ian Fleming worked
throughout the Second World War in
a department of naval intelligence
simple known as ’30’. Many of the Bond
adventures Fleming incorporated into
his Bond books were operations he
had mounted from ’30’ or culled from
reports of a unit called 30 Assault
Commando. My favourite story is the
one where Bond walks out of the sea
in a wetsuit and strips off to reveal a
dinner jacket – that actually happened
in 1941 when a Dutch agent landed
one evening in the grounds of a seaside
house taken over by German officers
and strolled through the grounds
wearing evening mess dress to meet
his contact.
When writing a book, have you got a
preferred place of work and a favoured
writing routine?
I have a flat in Rotherhithe with a view
of the River Thames – close to where
some of the events in Habit of Victory
began and ended, and many of the
characters lived – and I am surrounded
on three sides by bookshelves: this is
my favourite place to work. I can read
or research at any time of the day,
but I’m an early riser and my favourite
time for writing is between 5–8 am,
when no one else is around
Who is your favourite author?
I tend to binge on authors, particularly
fiction and semi-biography, whether
this is Anthony Powell or Somerset
Maugham. But if I had to chose one
author for that proverbial desert island,
then it would have to be Tolstoy.
Which book are you reading at present?
Travel, preferably with a slice of
history, fascinates me and currently
I am reading William Dalrymple’s
From the Holy Mountain: A Journey
in the Shadow of Byzantium. It’s the
parallel story of two 6th century
monks travelling through what we now
call the Middle East, and Dalrymple’s
investigation, as he retraces their
steps, into what has happened to
eastern Christianity since.
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Copyright 2002-2007
MQ Magazine
Web site created by Mark Griffin
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