Children’s fantasy adventure with magic model boat and Ramses II I’m looking for a children’s book. Set in Britain, I think in the 1930s, and written then. Basic plot starts with a boy discovering a strange ‘antiques’ shop in a seaside town. In it is a model boat / ship, I think of a Viking longboat, which he acquires. Boat becomes a means to various time travel adventures to the past for boy and his family (brother & sister, or were they cousins?) which an adventure in ancient Egypt that involved rescuing Pharaoh Ramses II from an ambush by the Hittites at the Battle of Kaddish, visiting a medieval castle and later bringing back the daughter of the castle to ‘modern’ England – she is terrified by a motor car she thinks is a dragon. One other plot point. The boy tries to find the shop again once he discovers the boat is magic but cannot. But some time later does find it and knows he has to give up / return the magic boat model. I know I read it as child (1950s) but only came to mind when I came across a little Viking longboat model in a curio shop. Nice model, but not magic! Many thanks for any pointers.

I remember looking at this book in the mid 80s, so it was probably published around that time or before. It was a large book and, as I recall, every page was completely filled with full-colour image of many inventions/contraptions, all set in context. It was highly detailed annotated with descriptions. I don’t recall there being any narrative.

For example: one page showed a house with all the rooms in view. Each room had things going on all annotated with detailed little notes. I remember the bathroom had a special invention that allowed a cheeky child to lie in a bath without getting wet. Built into this contraption was a hidden computer game console which allowed them to secretly play games (to me this dates the book in the 80s). To emulate the sounds of him bathing, another contraption stood near by called the “bath-farter” or something.

Another page showed a huge wheel of mischief rolling down a street with arms extending from it. These arms could rattle windows or throw sot down chimneys. Again – the wheel was annotated with many notes.

Authors/illustrators I thought it might be but sadly aren’t are: Heath Robinson, Alan Snow, Donna Lugg, Steven M Johnson and Raymond Briggs.

I’ve been looking for this book for many years and any help would be very gratefully received.

This book is from the 1970's I believe. A priest lets an ill prostitute move in with him so he can care for her. Her name is Ursula Vaclav. One day the priest returns home soaking wet during a thunderstorm, and the prostitute runs and clings to him because she is terrified of thunderstorms. She then goes about making dinner while he goes to change into dry clothes, selecting a work shirt and pants rather than his priest outfit. He can't stop thinking about her as they drink wine with dinner, and he helps her with washing the dishes. As she puts the last dish away in the cupboard she turns toward him and he takes her in his arms and kisses her. He had never kissed a woman before, and then carries her up the stairs for more. I recall the title of the book as something like "the time and the hour", and I think the author was a man.