he books rescued by my father spent almost two decades sitting in the bottom of my cupboard, as I never had the time to research them – that was, until COVID-19. Th ere were approximately 30 books, mostly school textbooks, and some of them were signed ‘John Joseph Blackmore’ and dated, while others had the names of schools. The books were dated from 1883 to 1920, and I was struck by the wonder of holding a book that
