Disraeli’s Primrose Day...

Press, 19 April 1980, Page 17

Disraeli’s Primrose Day...

The Book of Days. By Anthony Frewin. Collins, 1979. 414 pp. $18.95. (Reviewed by Naylor Hillary) Today is Primrose Day in Britain, observed by Conservatives who share the ideals of Benjamin Disraeli (who died on April 19, .1881), because the primrose was said to have been that Prime Ministers favourite flower. Today is also the feast of Pope Leo IV, a saint, and the day on which Venezuela declared its independence from Spain in 1811. In 1775, on April 19; the British lost the first skirmishes of the American War of Independence, when the “shots heard round the world” were fired by the over-taxed farmers at Lexington and Concord. In 1972 the Apollo 16 spacecraft went into Moon orbit; the astronauts landed two days later. As well as being Disraeli’s deathday, April 19 also saw the end of Lord Byron (1824), Charles Darwin (1882) and Konrad Adenauer (1967). Such odd juxtapositions will trip lightly off the tongue of those who browse through this new and comprehensive “Book of - Days;”' Every, day yields its little treasures. February 6, for instance, is noted as Waitangi Day. It is also the feast of Saint Dorothy, virgin and martyr (and seven other saints), the day on which Queen . Anne was bom (1665), ’’Babe” Ruth was born (1895), and Eva Braun (1912). A collection like this is a constant source of unlikely associations. For instance, Mussolini and Dag Hammarskjold had the same birthday, July 29. So' did Albert Camus and Billy Graham (November

7). The attraction of Anthony Frewm’s

book lies not onlv in its wealth of information, although in content it is probably more replete than any comparable book available, but also in its attractive presentation. Each day has a page to itself with sections on national and religious • celebrations, famous events in ; history, birthdays, and deathdays. (The author shares his birthday, September 11,’with, among other people, D. H. Lawrence and James Thomson, the author of “Rule Britannia”). Binding, paper, and typefaces, have all been carefully chosen. Notes are provided on tha origin of the calendar and the names of months and davs. . .. The author has the grace to write in his preface that “for corrections I will be both sad and glad.” No douot errors have crept in to such an undertaking. They will deserve correction in a new edition for this is a book which could well replace “Chamber’s Book of Days” as the standard work of reference for religious and , lay celebrations and occasions. . - ’ - » This. reviewer discovered, not necessarily with unrelieved delight, that he shares his birthday witj* George Washington, the pessimist philosopher Schopenhauer, and Robert Baden-Powell. ; The Prime Minister, Me Muldoon,' shares his birthday (September 25)' with a Chinese Emperor, Ch’ien Lung (born 1711). For those who want to pursue odd connections September: 25 is also the national day of Mozambique and Rwanda, the day ori which Columbus set sail on his second expedition in 1493, and the day King Harold won the battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 (he went on to lose .the Battle of Hastings on October 14).