Surely this is related to the Henry James novel The Reverberator and the character of that name?
Brian Wheeler:
January 22nd, 2015 at 4:18 am
Yesterday we visited a fort built in the middle of the Solent ( a stretch of water dividing the English mainland from the Isle of Wight). This fort (Spitbank) was completed in 1878 as protection against Bonaparte III but never fired a shot in anger. Interestingly one of the rooms was labelled the Flack room. It was close to an ammunition magazine but the fort was never used as anti air defence so therefore no link to AA flak! Nobody seemed to know what the room was used for and the building obviously pre dates any publicity definition. Clearly a mystery unless somebody named it that out of humour (taking the flack) post 1940.
Leave a comment
Search us!
Search The Word Detective and our family of websites:
This is the easiest way to find a column on a particular word or phrase.
To search for a specific phrase, put it between quotation marks. (note: JavaScript must be turned on in your browser to view results.)
Ask a Question!
Puzzled by Posh?
Confounded by Cattycorner?
Baffled by Balderdash?
Flummoxed by Flabbergast?
Perplexed by Pandemonium?
Nonplussed by... Nonplussed?
Annoyed by Alliteration?
Jerry Pournellej:
July 3rd, 2014 at 2:28 am
Surely this is related to the Henry James novel The Reverberator and the character of that name?
Brian Wheeler:
January 22nd, 2015 at 4:18 am
Yesterday we visited a fort built in the middle of the Solent ( a stretch of water dividing the English mainland from the Isle of Wight). This fort (Spitbank) was completed in 1878 as protection against Bonaparte III but never fired a shot in anger. Interestingly one of the rooms was labelled the Flack room. It was close to an ammunition magazine but the fort was never used as anti air defence so therefore no link to AA flak! Nobody seemed to know what the room was used for and the building obviously pre dates any publicity definition. Clearly a mystery unless somebody named it that out of humour (taking the flack) post 1940.