User:Barbieflower/sandbox

Eric Cross studied chemistry in London and after graduating went on to write a chemistry textbook. After graduating he worked fifteen years as a researcher for biochemical companies. Towards the end of his time there he began working on warfare methods for a large corporation and at that stage decided to leave his position and become a writer instead. During his career he invented the original OXO cube! and later a type of turf briquette. He is credited with formulating the mineral-like substance, ‘magnastone’, which resembles marble. In 1968 he published a map he designed called the ‘Map of Time’, this showed Ireland and other world history from 400AD to present. During World War Two he found a way to make knitting needles out of the spokes of bicycles, and later he invented a way to make platform shoes from rejected bungs of Beamish porter barrels.

In later life he wrote over 200 talks for ‘Sunday Miscellany’ and RTÉ radio show and he also wrote short stories for the BBC. In 1978 he published a collection of folk stories called ‘Silence is golden’. However, perhaps most notable is his book ‘The Tailor and Ansty’. Originally submitted to ‘The Bell’ in 1941 as a collection of articles, ‘The Tailor and Ansty’ was his impressions of Tim Buckley, a seanchaí and retired tailor, and his wife Anastasia. The following year, in 1942, he expanded the articles into a book of the same name. It received enthusiastic reviews from critics such as the Irish Independent, however, the book was the subject of one of the most high-profile censorship cases of the 1940s. The debate in the Seanad lasted four days. Cross stayed silent during this time. The book was banned on the 28th September 1942, however, the ban did not last long and was rescinded in the 1960s. It was the first book to have its ban rescinded.