…an inherited Victorian adventure book by G.A. Henty

Henty (1832-1902) was a prolific English writer of derring-do novels, some 122 in total. (Wikipedia)

A Roving Commission is a fictionalised account, published in 1900, of the successful black slave revolt against the French in Haiti a century earlier.

For further information on the revolt see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Revolution
 

It is something of an understatement to say that the fervent imperialism of this and other Henty novels does not sit well today. 

In the final sentence he gives his assessment of the current state of the country:

“Fetish worship and human sacrifices are carried out in secret, and the fairest island in the western seas lies sunk in the lowest degradation – a proof of the utter incapacity of the negro race to evolve, or even maintain, civilisation, without the example and the curb of a white population among them.”

Sacre Bleu!!

…a dog-eared ticket for a David Bowie concert

When Bowie played Worcester: (Worcester England, that is, not Worcester Massachusetts.)

On Monday 4^th June 1973, David Bowie in his persona of Ziggy Stardust, and the Spiders from Mars, alias guitarist Mick Ronson and his group, performed a brilliant concert at the Gaumont Theatre, Worcester, as part of their UK tour.

Remarkably, someone made an illicit sound recording of the Worcester concert which has found its way to YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjRhh-yk95g

This recording, scratchy though it is, is nevertheless fascinating for those of us who were there that night.

The final performance of his character at the Hammersmith Odeon a month later resulted in the film Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture.

Better hang on to yourself.