It was in August that we last had an entry in the occasional series of blog post about things that I've found tucked inside books. I really couldn't let this one go now could I? Made better still by the fact that it appeared to have been used as a bookmark inside a book on The Prayer Book of King Edward VI, this is a small folded prayer card given out to members of the Band of Purity at Twyford School.
Okay, so it is very amusing, and the comedy value of the name Vyvyan Ollive (sic.) Nicholas Donnithorne only serves to heighten the amusement, but it is also astonishing to think that so much time and effort was put into this. There is a book catalogue which isn't in my collection at the moment and which one day I must procure and read, it is titled Onanism: The Masturbation Panic 1756-1973. It was issued by Michael de Hartington and Burton Weiss in 2006 as a record of a collection they sold en bloc to Cornell University. This little piece of ephemera would surely fit well among such company.
Poor Vyvyan...