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34-544: Ernest Bramah (20 March 1868 – 23 June 1942), the pseudonym of Ernest Brammah Smith , was an English author. He published 21 books and numerous short stories and features. His humorous works were often ranked with Jerome K. Jerome and W. W. Jacobs , his detective stories with Conan Doyle , his politico-science fiction with H. G. Wells , and his supernatural stories with Algernon Blackwood . George Orwell acknowledged that Bramah's book What Might Have Been influenced his Nineteen Eighty-Four . Bramah created

68-496: A Man of Letters , but the death of his father when Jerome was 13 and of his mother when he was 15 forced him to quit his studies and find work to support himself. He was employed at the London and North Western Railway , initially collecting coal that fell along the railway, and he remained there for four years. Jerome was inspired by his elder sister Blandina's love for the theatre, and he decided to try his hand at acting in 1877, under

102-624: A "tenth-rate writer". Jerome volunteered to serve his country at the outbreak of the First World War , but being 55 years old, he was rejected by the British Army. Eager to serve in some capacity, he volunteered as an ambulance driver for the French Army. In 1926, Jerome published his autobiography, My Life and Times . Shortly afterwards, the Borough of Walsall conferred on him the title Freeman of

136-488: A journalist, writing essays, satires, and short stories, but most of these were rejected. Over the next few years, he was a school teacher, a packer, and a solicitor's clerk. Finally, in 1885, he had some success with On the Stage ;— and Off (1885), a comic memoir of his experiences with the acting troupe, followed by Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886), a collection of humorous essays which had previously appeared in

170-450: A little boat," a fact that was to have a significant influence on his next and most important work, Three Men in a Boat . Jerome sat down to write Three Men in a Boat as soon as the couple returned from their honeymoon. In the novel, his wife was replaced by his longtime friends George Wingrave (George) and Carl Hentschel (Harris). This allowed him to create comic (and non-sentimental) situations which were nonetheless intertwined with

204-491: A musical. Its writing style has influenced many humourists and satirists in England and elsewhere. With the financial security that the sales of the book provided, Jerome was able to dedicate all of his time to writing. He wrote a number of plays, essays, and novels, but was never able to recapture the success of Three Men in a Boat . In 1892, he was chosen by Robert Barr to edit The Idler (over Rudyard Kipling ). The magazine

238-570: A nationwide wireless-telegraphy network, a prototype fax machine and a cypher typewriter similar to the German Enigma machine . In 1914, Bramah created Max Carrados, a blind detective. Given the outlandish idea that a blind man could be a detective, in the introduction to the second Carrados book The Eyes of Max Carrados, Bramah compared his hero's achievements to those of real-life blind people such as Nicholas Saunderson , Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, Blind Jack of Knaresborough

272-464: A pupil and then in his own right. He was assisted financially by his father, who had transformed in a short time from a factory hand to a wealthy man. The farming enterprise cost his father £100,000 in modern money, but it was while farming that Bramah began to contribute local vignettes to the Birmingham News . Later he wrote a satirical book about his adventures in farming. It had few buyers, and

306-480: A rather banal remark "that we were living in an interesting age". Evidently he read the whole letter, because by return mail he wrote to me and concluded as follows: "Many years ago I learned from one of our diplomats in China that one of the principal Chinese curses heaped upon an enemy is, 'May you live in an interesting age. ' " "Surely", he said, "no age has been more fraught with insecurity than our own present time." That

340-466: A time in which our history was so full, in which day by day brought us new objects of interest, and, let me say also, new objects for anxiety. (Hear, hear.) [emphasis added] Over time, the Chamberlain family may have come to believe that the elder Chamberlain had not used his own phrase, but had repeated a phrase from Chinese. The curse is sometimes presented as the first in a trilogy. Terry Pratchett

374-453: A young man trying to earn a living in various occupations. In his twenties, he was able to publish some work, and success followed. He married in 1888, and the honeymoon was spent on a boat on the River Thames ; he published Three Men in a Boat soon afterwards. He continued to write fiction, non-fiction and plays over the next few decades, though never with the same level of success. Jerome

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408-455: Is again described as a "Chinese curse" in an article published in Child Study: A Journal of Parent Education in 1943. Frederic René Coudert Jr. also recounts having heard the phrase at the time: Some years ago, in 1936, I had to write to a very dear and honoured friend of mine, who has since died, Sir Austen Chamberlain, brother of the present Prime Minister, and I concluded my letter with

442-534: The 1627 short story collection by Feng Menglong , Stories to Awaken the World . Evidence that the phrase was in use as early as 1936 is provided in a memoir written by Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen , the British Ambassador to China in 1936 and 1937, and published in 1949. He mentions that before he left England for China in 1936, a friend told him of a Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." The phrase

476-773: The Borough . During these last years, Jerome spent more time at his farmhouse Gould's Grove south-east of Ewelme near Wallingford . Jerome suffered a paralytic stroke and a cerebral haemorrhage in June 1927, on a motoring tour from Devon to London via Cheltenham and Northampton . He lay in Northampton General Hospital for two weeks before dying on 14 June. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and his ashes buried at St Mary's Church, Ewelme, Oxfordshire. Elsie, Ettie and his sister Blandina are buried beside him. His gravestone reads "For we are labourers together with God". A small museum dedicated to his life and works

510-575: The Bummel , the sequel to Three Men in a Boat , reintroducing the same characters in the setting of a foreign bicycle tour. The book was nonetheless unable quite to recapture the sheer comic energy and historic rootedness of its celebrated predecessor (lacking as it does the unifying thread that is the river Thames itself) and it has enjoyed only modest success by comparison. However, some of the individual comic vignettes that make up "Bummel" have been praised as highly as those of "Boat". In 1902, he published

544-621: The Kai Lung stories. Bramah's manuscripts, correspondence and additional materials including his work for Jerome K. Jerome and as staff member for the magazine Today , The Idler and the Grosvenor Press are held at the University of Texas Harry Ransom Center . A letter of 27 April 1923 from Bramah to Grant Richards explains that he had never been to China. Bramah was a very private man who did not make public any details of his personal life. He

578-564: The Klapka appears to be a later variation (after the exiled Hungarian general György Klapka ). The family fell into poverty owing to bad investments in the local mining industry, and debt collectors visited often, an experience that Jerome described vividly in his autobiography My Life and Times (1926). At the age of two Jerome moved with his parents to Stourbridge , Worcestershire, then later to east London. The young Jerome attended St Marylebone Grammar School . He wished to go into politics or be

612-525: The League in 1909, is an anti-socialist dystopia representing Bramah's conservative political opinions. It was acknowledged by George Orwell as a source for Nineteen Eighty-Four . Orwell credited it with giving a considerably accurate prediction of the rise of Fascism. At a time when the English Channel had yet to be crossed by an aeroplane, Bramah foresaw aerial express trains traveling at 10,000 feet,

646-464: The characters Kai Lung and Max Carrados . Ernest Brammah Smith (the spelling of his middle name on his birth certificate was recorded by the register as 'Brammah', not 'Bramah') was born in Manchester , England in 1868, the son of Charles Clement Smith and Susannah (Brammah) Smith. Aged 16, he quit Manchester Grammar School , having been near the bottom in each subject. He became a farmer, first as

680-538: The history of the Thames region. The book, published in 1889, became an instant success and has never been out of print. Its popularity was such that the number of registered Thames boats went up fifty per cent in the year following its publication, and it contributed significantly to the Thames becoming a tourist attraction. In its first twenty years alone, the book sold over a million copies worldwide. It has been adapted into films, television , radio shows, stage plays, and even

714-503: The late-19th-century speeches of Joseph Chamberlain , probably erroneously transmitted and revised through his son Austen Chamberlain . Despite the phrase being widely attributed as a Chinese curse, there is no known equivalent expression in Chinese. The nearest related Chinese expression translates as "Better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of chaos." ( 寧為太平犬，不做亂世人 ) The expression originates from Volume 3 of

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748-464: The newly founded magazine, Home Chimes , the same magazine that would later serialise Three Men in a Boat . On 21 June 1888, Jerome married Georgina Elizabeth Henrietta Stanley Marris ("Ettie"), nine days after she divorced her first husband. She had a daughter from her previous five-year marriage nicknamed Elsie (her actual name was also Georgina). The honeymoon took place on the River Thames "in

782-544: The novel Paul Kelver , which is widely regarded as autobiographical. His 1908 play The Passing of the Third Floor Back introduced a more sombre and religious Jerome. The main character was played by one of the leading actors of the time, Johnston Forbes-Robertson , and the play was a tremendous commercial success. It was twice made into film, in 1918 and in 1935 . However, the play was condemned by critics; Max Beerbohm described it as "vilely stupid" and as written by

816-522: The road builder, John Fielding the Bow Street Magistrate (of whom it was said he could identify 3,000 thieves by their voices), and Helen Keller . In 1929, Bramah wrote the book "English Regal Copper Coins" which was published by Methuen. The book concentrates on British copper coinage from 1671 during the reign of Charles II until the end of pure copper coin production in 1860. The book is still used widely by numismatic auction houses throughout

850-416: The stage name Harold Crichton. He joined a repertory theatre troupe that produced plays on a shoestring budget, often drawing on the actors' own meagre resources — Jerome was penniless at the time — to purchase costumes and props. After three years on the road with no evident success, the 21-year-old Jerome decided that he had had enough of stage life and sought other occupations. He tried to become

884-432: The world with Bramah reference numbers. The section on coin rarity as a percentage of production for each year is still considered useful to date. Bramah has been credited with the invention of the saying, quoted often as an ancient Chinese curse, " May you live in interesting times ", along with "May you come to the attention of those in authority" and "May you find what you are looking for". However, these do not appear in

918-615: Was remaindered and pulped, though his father agreed to assist him financially while he made his way in Grub Street as a writer. He eventually obtained a position as secretary to Jerome K. Jerome and became editor of one of Jerome's magazines. After quitting Jerome, Smith edited other journals for a publishing business that later went bankrupt. Bramah attained commercial and critical success with his creation of Kai Lung, an itinerant storyteller. He first appears in The Wallet of Kai Lung which

952-517: Was an English writer and humorist, best known for the comic travelogue Three Men in a Boat (1889). Other works include the essay collections Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886) and Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow ; Three Men on the Bummel , a sequel to Three Men in a Boat ; and several other novels. Jerome was born in Walsall , England, and, although he was able to attend grammar school, his family suffered from poverty at times, as did he as

986-525: Was an illustrated satirical monthly catering to gentlemen (who, following the theme of the publication, appreciated idleness). In 1893, he founded To-Day , but had to withdraw from both publications because of financial difficulties and a libel suit. Jerome's play Biarritz had a run of two months at the Prince of Wales Theatre between April and June 1896. In 1898, a short stay in Germany inspired Three Men on

1020-479: Was born at Belsize House, 1 Caldmore Road, in Caldmore , Walsall , England. He was the fourth child of Marguerite Jones and Jerome Clapp (who later renamed himself Jerome Clapp Jerome), an ironmonger and lay preacher who dabbled in architecture. He had two sisters, Paulina and Blandina, and one brother, Milton, who died at an early age. Jerome was registered as Jerome Clapp Jerome, like his father's amended name, and

1054-568: Was married to Lucy Maisie Smith. He died at the age of 74 in Weston-super-Mare , Somerset, leaving an estate valued at £15,172 (£893,200 as of 2024). After his death, his widow presented a collection of all his published books to the Hammersmith borough libraries, for reference use only. Bramah had lived in Hammersmith for some 30 years, not far from Ravenscourt Park . Jerome K. Jerome Jerome Klapka Jerome (2 May 1859 – 14 June 1927)

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1088-502: Was opened in 1984 at his birth home in Walsall, but it closed in 2008 and the contents were returned to Walsall Museum . May you live in interesting times Despite being so common in English as to be known as the " Chinese curse ", the saying is apocryphal , and no actual Chinese source has ever been produced. The most likely connection to Chinese culture may be deduced from analysis of

1122-528: Was rejected by eight publishers before Grant Richards published it in 1900. It was still in print a hundred years later. The Kai Lung stories are humorous tales set in China, often with fantasy elements such as dragons and gods. With Kai Lung, Bramah developed a style of narration typified by the following passages: The Kai Lung stories include many proverbs and aphorisms, such as the following: Bramah also wrote political science fiction. What Might Have Been , published in 1907 and republished as The Secret of

1156-412: Was three years ago. Research by philologist Garson O'Toole shows a probable origin in the mind of Austen Chamberlain's father Joseph Chamberlain dating around the late-19th and early 20th centuries. Specifically, O'Toole cites the following statement Joseph made during a speech in 1898: I think that you will all agree that we are living in most interesting times. (Hear, hear.) I never remember myself

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