http://strangeflowers.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/concerning-the-eccentricities-of-ronald-firbank/ English novelist Ronald Firbank, was born on this day in 1886 and thus belonged to the generation prior to Howard’s, which was probably all for the best. Had he been younger, his wit and thirst would probably have swept him into the frantic frippery of the Bright Young Things and we may have been denied the subversive brilliance of the dozen or so books that he left. Howard himself called Firbank’s Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli “the wittiest book ever written”. (Sketch of Firbank by Augustus John) Firbank, it seems, was born blushing; his associates never fail to mention his social awkwardness, particularly the incessant fluttering of hands (or compulsive washing of same) and the hysterical laughter which would periodically erupt, leaving him incapable of completing an anecdote. Attempting to embolden himself with drink merely exacerbated the problem. The key to Firba