The Children's Encyclopaedia of Arthur Mee An astounding, charming and highly Anglo-centric work of over 5,000 pages, dating from almost one hundred years ago (the first edition appeared in 1908). I find almost everything about this work appealing. It is organised almost at random (an interesting oxymoron), so that browsing is made much more pleasurable than would be the case with an alphabetical categorisation. When we start reading new sections, foot-notes remind us of the theme with quaint little lists such as "Crafts - Games - Needlework - Puzzles - Science experiments", or "Romance - History - Dramas - Essays - World Classics". The style of writing is pleasant, authoritative and correct (with quaint use of what a grammarian would call the 'Oxford comma').  The diagrams are most endearing, both in content and in choice, and even more so in title - for instance, a cave-man drawing is entitle "Quaint group of fiures of the stone age". Another diagram bears the title-cum-caption "Gentlemen, I salute you," said Major Reed to the American soldiers who offered themselves, and their lives if need be, to save the world from yellow fever. Other title-cum-captions taken at random include gems such as "Harvey explains to King Charles how the blood circulates throught the body", "A harvester on the rolling plains of Canterbury" and "Pakistan is proud of its army pipe bands". There are some most charming maps. The articles are quite addictive, depending on one's mood. An interesting feature of Mee's work is the series of 'moral instruction' articles, precepts from another age - for instance, the exhortation on Duty in Volume 4. Would that be found on a CD-ROM today? Witty indeed are the pieces dedicated to children's amusements - making shadows on walls, constructing submarines from pea-shooters, building dolls' houses, basing games on anagrams, making a hectograph. Extracts from vols I to V Read this Extracts from vols VI to X Read this (Note that, for copyright reasons, no pictures or diagrams have been included.)