What brought Alexis Sheftel to Hastings is likely to consist of little more than guesswork but there are some clues, some of which bring us back round to bomb-making librarian, Alexei Teplov and his life after leaving Paris. But before we do that, we first need to take a look at the man who was…
Month: March 2026
Pulp Fiction and Cold Reality
Toplis was the rank and file army deserter masquerading as a monocled officer, a ‘fascinator of women’, a ruthless anarchist — the man who some claimed had led the notorious mutiny at Étaples Base Camp in 1917 — but was his extraordinary legend an invention of the press or the creation of an incorrigible fantasist?…