How to Skin a Lion: the challenge

I spent much of 2014 in book heaven – that is immersed in the British Library rare books room. I enjoyed many days poring through Georgian, Victorian and early twentieth century books researching How to Skin a Lion: A Treasury of Outmoded Advice.

I selected snippets of fascinating information on a wealth of lost arts such as how to address a Maharajah, how to shoe a horse, how to train a falcon and how to read the future with snails.

As I compiled the book I realised that although many of the skills described were lost or forgotten, some of them were still relevant today. I resolved to collect some of the more doable skills (I would love to train a falcon but lack the necessary time, space and bird) and try them out myself.

I have just started this journey and will be blogging here about how I get on. The first task is to make mushroom ketchup (it sounds delicious) and I will report back shortly on how it went.