August 4, 1914

On August 4, 1914 Great Britain declared war on Germany. 

What became a world war, affected every aspect of life,  and this included children's literature. Books like Malice in Kulturland (1914) are travesties of common cultural classics, reflecting war time hysteria. In this category is also a parody of an extremely popular nursery book, Heinrich Hoffman's Der Struuwelpeter.  Shockheaded Peter was first titled in the original German version, in words that translate to Funny Stories and Whimsical Pictures. This set of stories about the consequences of children's bad behavior, first appeared in English in 1848 and became a "classic of the English nursery. "

In the changed times, E. V. Lucas rewrote the text, and retitled the book: Swollen-headed William. Painful Stories and Funny Pictures. After the German! According to David Blamires, author of Telling Tales: The Impact of Germany on English Children's, Books 1780-1918 (2009), the revised version was so popular it sold out after being published on October 1, 1914. The book was republished on October 6.  Following the war time emotions, all is blamed on the German Kaiser, Wilhem II.

The book begins in sarcastic terms:

Here is cultured William, see!
An enlightened soul was he.
He killed the doves and broke the chairs,
And threw the Grey cat down the stairs,

.....

That Grey cat is the British Foreign Secretary, at the time-- Sir Edward Grey (1862–1933). Grey had held that post in the government since 1906 and based on his experience of resolving previous international crises, like that in Morocco (1911),  had not anticipated the drastic abyss that  international alliances posed. No one else had either.