h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

i have a friend who works at reading jail and he is a hootooerite????

names on a postcard..........???????

Wild(e) guess:

Jude Law, who played Bosie in the film 'Wilde' is a descendant of Andrew Bonar Law, the forgotten (almost) Prime Minister.

Jude Law, who played Bosie in the film 'Wilde' is a descendant of Andrew Bonar Law

Having discovered that we are all descended from Charlemagne, the chances that this may be true are probably slightly higher than probable, but not good enough for a bonus.

The real connection is so much more fun.

Taff:i have a friend who works at reading jail and he is a hootooerite????

Do they run trips around the jail for American tourists, £10 per person extra to have a go on the treadmill?

And do the authorities know they are doing it or should we keep quiet????????? Times are hard enough.

if you want a trip around a jail all you have to do is write a letter to the governor requesting a tour.

it's at the governors discretion who get's into the jail or not!!!!!

Anything to do with the Righteous Harmony Society Movement 1898

Bob Stafford. ACE
Anything to do with the Righteous Harmony Society Movement 1898


A late charge Bob? If you can show the link between the "boxers" and Oscar Wilde you will deserve a QI bonus and our undying admiration.

The Boxer rebellion begun in 1900 Oscar Wilde died that year both these events were reported in the The Illustrated London News

BUT

Sir Edmund Backhouse

In 1899, Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse arrived in Peking with impeccable references from Prime Minister Salisbury and other British dignitaries. His superb command of the Chinese language earned him a job as a translator for Peking legends like Sir Robert Hart and Dr. George Morrison. With fellow-scholar J.O.P. Bland, he wrote 'China Under the Empress Dowager', in part based upon the recovered diary of Ching-shan, and the Annals and Memoirs of the Court of Peking, both of which were considered seminal works throughout his lifetime.

There was only one problem: he may have made it all up. Though an undoubtedly clever and knowledgeable man, he was a pathological liar and con-man. The diary he had found was allegedly a forgery and much of the material in his books was plagiarized. What's more, he used his supposed connections with Peking's Chinese elite to wrangle bogus government and business contracts. Backhouse 'went native', living a solitary life in the heart of the Chinese City and acquiring the nickname 'the Hermit of Peking'.

So well-kept were his secrets that it wasn't until the 1970's that historian Hugh Trevor-Roper discovered the full extent of his fabrications. Backhouse's uncovered memoirs, Decadence Mandchoue, were a largely salacious account of his travels and sexual exploits with important figures of his day ranging from Oscar Wilde to Empress Dowager Cixi, whose bed he claimed to have visited no less than 150 times.

Ps the story is from the book The tales Of Old Pekinig

That John Major put it about a bit as well.

Queensberry's card read 'To Oscar Wilde, posing as a somdomite' (not "sodmonite").

It was almost a fortnight later that Wilde visited the Albemarle Club and was handed the note. It is interesting that, in the libel trial, the prosecution essentially told the jury to return a verdict of not guilty (partly because Wilde didn't wan't Alfred Douglas to testify against his father) and the jury returned that verdict on the basis that Queensberry's words were justified and (despite having been written as a private message) were published for the public benefit!

Wilde was then tried with Alfred Taylor for gross indecency (the law having been changed to include indecency between male persons in public *and* in private) but the jury could not reach a verdict. Nine of the twenty odd charges were dismissed but the two defendants were retried on the remaining charges and found guilty (Wilde was tainted by much of the evidence against Taylor despite the fact that it had no relevance to his 'guilt'.)

It is said that, as the Old Bailey filled up hours before Queensberry's libel trial was due to start, someone joked about 'the importance of being early' and created much laughter.

Anyway, what I said at the start,

Van

Bob Stafford. ACE
Well I challenged you to show a connection and you did. I should have been more careful having recently noted on another QI the theory that everyone is "related" to everyone else within six degrees of separation.

However I have to award you a QI bonus+6 for that, and then make myself feel a little better by noting that I have "Boxers,Chinese" as a -5


Van Smeiter
Queensberry's card read 'To Oscar Wilde, posing as a somdomite' (not "sodmonite"). Correct indeed but sadly no DGI see post 40.

hygienicdispenser
That John Major put it about a bit as well.


Is anyone else slightly worried that after all those "Spitting Image" jokes, John Major may have had a more exiting life than any of us?

Not the PM I was looking for, but plenty of time yet as this one finished fairly early.

I was pointing out that what you said was incorrect.

Van smeiter

You are correct! I managed to miss spell the miss spelling.

What a tiwt!!

Pulling down the shutters on this one.

Who lured whom into misreading the situation by boxing clever?

The Marquess of Queensbury and Oscar Wilde.

The Prime Minister allegedly involved?

The Liberal government determined to go all-out to secure a conviction in Wilde's second trial, even when people such as Queensberry's attorney Edward Carson were urging, "Can you not let up on this fellow now?" There is much speculation about the government's aggressive position on the Wilde case. Prime Minister Rosebery was suspected of having had a homosexual affair, when he was Foreign Minister, with Francis Douglas, another one of Queensberry's good-looking sons. It was shortly after Francis Douglas was "killed in a hunting accident" (probably a suicide), that Queensberry went on the rampage against Oscar Wilde. There is plausible evidence in the form of ambiguous letters to conclude that Rosebery was threatened with exposure by Queensberry or others if he failed to aggressively prosecute Wilde. It is interesting to note that during the two months leading up to Wilde's conviction, Rosebery suffered from serious depression and insomnia. After Wilde's conviction, his heath suddenly improved.

Also QI is that the magistrate delayed issuing the arrest warrant for Oscar for 90 minutes to give him (Oscar, not the magistrate, that would be silly) time to catch the last boat train to Paris. Oscar dilly dallied on making a decision to go or stay until it was too late.

Teasswill total+1
DGI+1 for a literary reference

Stunningfrenchie total-5
Klaxon -5 for Muhammed Ali

Taff total -5
Klaxon-5 for Our 'Enery

Deadangel total +1
DGI+1 for "gentleman's" club

hygienicdispenser total+4
DGI+1 for boxing (fisticuff version)
correct answer +3

bobstaffford total +1
QIbonus+6 for Boxer rebellion/Oscar Wilde link
Klaxon for Boxer rebellion -5

pebblederook

"Also QI is that the magistrate delayed issuing the arrest warrant for Oscar for 90 minutes to give him (Oscar, not the magistrate, that would be silly) time to catch the last boat train to Paris. Oscar dilly dallied on making a decision to go or stay until it was too late."

The magistrate adjourned the court to consider the application of the arrest warrant. It is alleged that he asked the clerk of the court what time the boat-train left for France and fixed the time of application for fifteen minutes after that but no-one knows for sure and he might well have adjourned the court for over ninety minutes in order to review the vast amount of evidence presented to him by the Director of Prosecutions. Wilde's friends, and indeed his wife, pressed him to leave the country but it is more likely that they did this to prevent scandal than because they were worried that he would be arrested.

What is QI is that Queensberry's barrister in the first trial, Carson, was a contempory of Wilde's at Trinity. They were not close friends but Wilde knew enough of Carson to comment that "There goes a man [Carson] destined to reach the very top of affairs." How prophetic Wilde's words proved to be.

Francis Douglas was Rosebery's private secretary and Queensberry's anger may have had more to do with his eldest son being granted a peerage than any affair between the two.

There is so much more to be said on this subject but I guess this is not the forum to say it. The trials of Oscar Wilde were very interesting; the facts more so than the rumour.

Van