Category Archives: Fiction

Bartitsu Gift Ideas

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 17th December 2016 The Bartitsu Compendium, Volume 1: History and the Canonical Syllabus (2005) and The Bartitsu Compendium Volume II: Antagonistics (2008) Compiled by members of the Bartitsu Society, volumes 1 and 2 of the … Continue reading

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John Steed’s Gentlemanly Art of Umbrella Fighting

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 28th December 2016 The recent blockbuster successes of the Kingsman movie and of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows have firmly re-established umbrellas as the signature weapons of gentlemen-adventurers.  This article pays tribute to the trope-setter, debonair … Continue reading

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“What Every Woman Ought to Know” (1911)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 20th April 2017 A short review from The Stage of 14 September, 1911, concerning a one-act polemic play that featured fight choreography by Edith Garrud: On Monday evening Mr. Martyn Roland and Miss Eva Quin appeared … Continue reading

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“What Every Woman Ought to Know” Reviewed (Daily Mirror, March 29, 1911)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 24th April 2017

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A “Suffragette Bartitsu Brawl” Video from Fight Rep

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 23rd June 2017 Fighting for the vote, the Suffragettes have planted an explosive device. As they attempt to make their escape, a husband sells out his wife’s cause to the special constables … Continue reading

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Suffragette Self-Defence

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 17th August 2017 In this short scene from the 2015 movie Suffragette, newly militant Maude Watts (Carey Mulligan) receives her first lesson in jiujitsu from Edith Ellyn (Helena Bonham Carter). In real history, Edith Garrud served … Continue reading

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Umbrella vs. Knife in a Hamburg Back-alley (Swing Kids, 1993)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 4th September 2017 In this short fight scene from the movie Swing Kids, Peter Müller (Christian Bale) takes on a knife-wielding member of the Hitlerjugend, applying some deft umbrella techniques that will be … Continue reading

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The Gentlemanly Art of 19th Century Cane Fighting in … 1990s Russia!?

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 6th September 2017 The 1990 Russian sociopolitical satire Bakenbardy (“Side-whiskers”) is distinguished as the only feature film in which walking stick fighting serves as a crucial plot device.  It’s also a pertinent warning as … Continue reading

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“… brutal flicks of peaky blinders …”

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 22nd November 2014 The historical drama series Peaky Blinders is named for a fearsome Birmingham street gang armed with razor blades sewn into the rims of their flat “peaky” caps.  But did that really happen? … Continue reading

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“John Steed’s Sword-Stick”: an Umbrella Fighting Tutorial from The Avengers Annual of 1967

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 2nd January 2018 Having already addressed the umbrella combat of debonair super-spy John Steed in general terms, our attention now turns to some of the specifics, as delineated in The Avengers Annual of … Continue reading

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