Comment by Richard William Ineson on September 17, 2013 at 10:24

I don't know what portion of the book reading public he was aiming for, probably his posh customers, Baroness Burdett Coutts, the Rothschilds etc. His other book, 'The Cultivation of the Hands' is quite gripping, the plot has been criticised as being a bit thin, but the characterisation is very vivid, I read it straight through twice, it was described in the 'Strand Magazine' as 'unputdownable', and 'a real page turner' but that was in 1893, and times have changed, but it still has its moments.

Comment by TONY BRYAN on September 23, 2013 at 19:01

In case you were wondering:Alfred D. Cammeyer (born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1862) was accredited with the invention of the zither banjo, and he then went to England to compose and perform on his instrument to international acclaim. He wrote this piece at the time of WWI, and it is supposed to evoke all the sounds of trench warfare, including machine guns, bombs going off, shells flying past and even the odd bugle call. Cammeyer was in his fifties at the time, so didn't experience the sounds at first hand, but those of us who were there can confirm he got it about right.

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