Archives: November2009

• An Obituary

  From the Eastern Daily Press, May 8th 1926: Colonel Maurice Van Riper (born in Norwich 8th April 1850) has passed away aged 76, of heart failure. Having moved to London early in his teens, Van Riper first worked as a butcher before enlisting with the British Army and seeing action in Abyssinia, the first and second Boer wars among others, and being rightly and notably recognised for his leadership and firm resolve. Van Riper retired due to illness in 1920 [...]

• Years in the Wilderness

  It has now come to light that following the York Incident, Anthony Glass spent between 1933 and 1940 in Bootham Park Hospital, also in York. Whether this was a direct result of what happened at the City Art Gallery, or if his crumbling mental state finally required him to seek rehabilitation is not clear. Either way, the trail goes somewhat cold at this point. Bootham Park Hospital was built  as York County Lunatic Asylum around 1777, and was one of [...]

• A Recurring Dream

  Lately I’ve been having a recurring dream, which I can only assume is in some way linked to the amount of time I have spent researching the Glass mystery. It always starts the same way – a crack opens in my bedroom wall, and for some reason I climb through the crack and find myself in the bowels of a machine. Steam scorches my face and huge oil-slick cogs grind around me like slavering jaws, dripping their saliva on my [...]