Cut throat bandits!

I've given myself perimissin to finish reading all the books I started but havn't yet finished over the years. They're all books off the bookshelf... books collected by my father, his father and his father before him. They were all I read in high school. Victorian novels about sea adventures, detectives, pirates and more. I didn't realise how different my world view was from my class mates was untill I saw a group of them kicking a guy on the ground. I later niavely said to one of them "but you never hit a man when he's down." "Yes you do. You go hard" was the reply.
The steady stream of Folk ballads and 19th century boys adventure books I fed on in the 90's also still affects my parenting today. For example... Catherine went to bed early in disgrace tonight for stabbing holes the arm of our living room chair with a knife. I could have sent her to bed with no supper but I realise this is not actually Victorian England. Plus its probably illegal.
One of the books I'm lapping up at the moment is called "Beau Sabre" by PC Wren. It's about a guy who served in the French Foreign Legion, learnt Arabic and served as a spy in the middle East. I'm right up to the bit where he's organising a defense against enevitable holy war after saving a woman from a gang of cut throat bandits armed to the teeth. Good stuff.