Category Archives: Fiction

Bartitsu in the Court Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 25th May 2015  Tybalt (Owen Black, left) and Benvolio (Ben Freeth, right) engage in some Bartitsu cane fighting in a rehearsal for the Court Theatre’s (Christchurch, New Zealand) production of Romeo and Juliet. This … Continue reading

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The Life’s Work of Percy Longhurst

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 5th March 2016 Percy William Longhurst (1874-1959) was a lifelong wrestling and antagonistics enthusiast, a prolific writer and a significant figure in the history of Bartitsu. Unfortunately, comparatively little is known of … Continue reading

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Shades of Esme Beringer: Double-Weapon Fencing in “Penny Dreadful”

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 12th October 2016 The final season of the popular dark fantasy/drama series Penny Dreadful introduced the character of Catriona Hartdegen, a historian, thanatologist and expert swordswoman played by actress Perdita Weeks. As the series … Continue reading

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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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