Several readers, including Sam Patterson of Melba, remain "gobsmacked" at reports that late Edgar Penzig would fire a percussion pistol during public presentations during the 1970s.
The bushranger afficionado, who penned more than 20 books on Australian bushrangers and colonial history, especially the gangs in southern NSW, apparently used it as a technique to keep his audiences on their toes, or at least to check they were listening.
