The Clumsiest People in Europe

"No people in Europe are as clumsy and awkward with their hands, as the Portuguese..." No matter who your ancestors were or where they came from, Victorian children's book writer Mrs. Favell Lee Mortimer had something disparaging to say about them.

Whether describing the vices of Europe ("Russians are generally not to be trusted"), Asia ("the religion of Taou teaches men to act like madmen") Africa ("the worst quality in any character is hypocrisy, and this is to be found in the Egyptian") or America ("They make their prisoners comfortable - perhaps too comfortable"), Mrs Mortimer's pronouncements are gloriously inappropriate, bizarre, hilarious and occasionally strangely poignant. "New Zealand is remarkable for lying just opposite Great Britain.

Could a tunnel be dug straight through the earth from our land, that tunnel would end in New Zealand.

But men cannot dig so deep." Remarkably all these confident assertions come from a woman who lived near the Welsh borders but had never been to Wales, let alone met or visited the Spaniards ("not only idle, but very cruel"), the French ("not very clean") or the Afghans ("terrible-looking creatures") in their home countries. But Mrs Mortimer was not one to allow a lack of personal experience to stop her dispensing her dubious wisdom about the evils of just about every nation on earth.

The men of Abyssinia crave only "raw meat" and "delight in slaughter"..."Yet these barbarous men attend to the dressing of their hair as much as the women - always soaking it in rancid butter." One hundred and fifty years later, three of her forgotten classics have been compiled into "The Clumsiest People in Europe", reviving the comically misinformed and startling prejudices of this unique Victorian eccentric.