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Who?
Barry Kavanagh was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1739. He received a degree in English and philosophy from the old University College, Dublin in 1760, but was barred from further studies in natural philosophy because of his alchemical research into the elixir of life. During the 1760s he circumnavigated the globe aboard the Dolphin, the ship commanded by Foul-Weather Jack (the poet Byron's grandfather), and upon its return to Britain he was responsible for the tales of encounters with Patagonian giants that appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine and the London Chronicle. He worked for the celebrated 'electric medicine man' James Graham in the 1770s, then spent several decades pretending to work as an agent provocateur for and against various European powers and revolutionary organizations. This latter activity - whatever it was - mysteriously culminated in French financial support for the British scientist Sir David Brewster. This was in 1816, and upon receiving the money, Brewster immediately invented the kaleidoscope. Some say Kavanagh died in Norway in 1820, others say he spent the 1820s working on the commercial development of the kaleidoscope. In any case, someone with his name began writing novels in 1856, although the only work ever published was A Load of Blather, an anthology of malicious rumours and lies co-written with a tavernful of criminal lowlifes. All copies of the book were later eaten during the Paris Commune of 1871. The obscurity of Kavanagh's writings therefore kept him out of the public eye, although until her death in 1865, he was a known protégé of Princess Caraboo, who famously masqueraded as a lower class servant with the unlikely name of Mary Baker. He was a lover of Thérèse Humbert in the 1870s and Cassie Chadwick in the early 1880s. Little is known of his activities since then. The following may not actually have been created by him: four musical albums by the group Dacianos, entitled Mis-showbusiness (2000), Hold Music (2002), In a Weird Chalet 2004-2006, and Gratis? (2009) as well as a blog written from a secret Arctic hideout vaguely inside Norway, called North. Photo by Harry Thuillier Jnr (1864-97). Note: a "hellshaw" is a three-toed marmoset, and it brings good luck. We're tired of being asked.
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