Sunday, 26 July 2015

That Man Bradshaw

Bradshaw's Guides appear in:

Rudyard Kipling;
Sherlock Holmes;
Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series, which incorporates Sherlock Holmes;
SM Stirling's Angrezi Raj, which refers to Holmes;
Michael Portillo's Great British Railways TV series.

On his third dvd, Portillo has just reminded us of another prominent literary use of Bradshaw: Dracula uses the Guide to plan the transportation of his coffin! Portillo also informed us of a historical reference to the Guide: during World War II, RAF pilots navigated across Britain by following the railway lines and called this practice "Bradshawing!"

I meant to mention this briefly in the previous post but forgot, then decided that it was important enough to warrant its own post but now, at just after 1.00 AM, I will stop posting and enter the realm of the Lord Morpheus.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And, at least once, we see Poul Anderson quoting a futuristic analogue of "Bradshaw." I mean the bit quoted from the 53rd edition of the PILOT'S MANUAL AND EPHEMERIS, CIS-BETELGEUSEAN ORIONIS SECTOR, prefacing Chapter 1 of ENSIGN FLANDRY.

Sean