The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Terry David John Pratchett) читать бесплатно онлайн полную версию книги

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Dick Livingstone is an amalgam of Dick Whittington and Ken Livingstone.

Dick Whittington is a character in British pantomime, loosely based on the real-life Richard Whittington. Dick is a boy from a poor family who sets out for London to make his fortune, accompanied by his cat. At one point he loses heart and turns to go back home, but then he hears the bells of London ringing out, saying: “Turn again, Dick Whittington, three times Lord Mayor of London.” The real Richard Whittington was mayor of London under Richard II in the late 14th century.

One of Ken Livingstone’s first acts as new mayor of London after being elected in 2000, was to get rid of the famous pigeons from Trafalgar Square. He did not get his cat to eat them (at least not as far as is known), but he just removed the street-traders who sold bags of bird-feed to tourists there — if pigeons don’t get limitless food, you stop getting huge flocks in one place.