Thread by @hobbb

More eBay treasure ... I bought this scrapbook because its newspaper cuttings were provided by an agency (you pay them to gather cuttings on particular topics, people, organisations) and I'm interested in the history of newspaper cuttings agencies. 1/6

But really it's of interest to #middlebrow scholars, as it seems to have been the property of early Mills & Boon novelist Louise Gerard (1878-1970) , and has cuttings from her first success in 1910 to the 1920s. 2/6

Apparently all the plots were similar, set in exotic locations, which she researched in person, and often featured the heroine falling in love with her (white) rapist. Plenty of racism too -- here's the cover of one. These images are deep in our culture in Britain. 3/6

There's a few items between the pages, including this pic of 3 white women with an Egyptian(?) man and his camel. It's from Dora -- wonder if she was the friend to whom Gerard dedicated most of her books? 4/6

There's also this envelope. Her family were soap manufacturers. 5/6

Inside is a pretty bad manuscript poem about a railway in Ghana (then the British colony of Gold Coast).

There's a couple of other photos and a Mills & Boon booklet with an extract from someone else's novel.

Er, that's it. 6/6