Somehow the book was deemed inherently obscene by a government official

04 September 2025, The Tablet

Christopher Howse’s notebook

If you stuck your head out of the window of the flat at the top of a tall Victorian building on Campden Hill belonging to John Ryan, the inventor of Captain Pugwash, you could see the water tower mentioned in Chesterton’s The Napoleon of Notting Hill. At least, you could until 1970, when it was demolished.

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