I will be at Bishop’s Stortford Tourist Information in the Market Square on Saturday 6th December 2014, from 10am until 12pm, signing copies of my new local history book on the town.
I look forward to meeting some of my readers then.
If you can’t make the book signing, but still wish to purchase my book, then please do click the picture below to purchase (in book format or Kindle) from Amazon.
In October 2014, I had a virtual book tour around the internet talking about my book and Bishop’s Stortford. I visited the following blogs:-
About me
I have a MSt in Local and Regional History (Cantab); a BA History (Open University) and an Advanced Diploma in Local History (Oxon) – all gained as a mature student. Having been a business technologist in the City of London for the last 30 years, I am currently taking time away from my City career to write. My first history book, Bishop’s Stortford Through Time, was published by Amberley Publishing in September 2014. I have been commissioned to write a further three history books for them:-
Sudbury, Lavenham and Long Melford Through Time (due to be published summer 2015);
Saffron Walden Through Time (due to be published summer 2015); and
Postcards from the Front: Britain 1914-1919 (due to be published summer 2016).
I live in Essex, England, and regularly write about the local history of Essex and East Anglia on my blog.
Today is my spot on the Worldwide Genealogy blog – a daily blog written by a collaborative group of genealogists/family historians and historians. Click on the image below to read my post about The Chelsea Pensioners of the 19th and 20th centuries.
You may also be interested in researching your military ancestors
If you decide to signup to access records from the Forces War Records website, type the code “AW40” at the checkout to receive a 40% discount for any type of subscription.
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This blog
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Yesterday was a very emotional day for me when I visited my granddad’s old school, Emanuel School, in Wandsworth, South London, and heard about his life as a school-boy on the eve of the Great War. As Emanuel’s school historian comments on the board displaying my granddad’s photo.
“In the summer of 1914 Emanuel boys went about the normal lives. They played cricket on the field, they sang in a School concert in Battersea Town Hall and they attended prize giving…We broke up in July [1914] under the shadow of Armageddon and reassembled [in September] to find it a reality.“
Emanuel at War Exhibition, November 2014
Visiting Emanuel school was intensely moving for me. Not least, because I never knew my granddad, as I was two when he died. A man who I’ve spent a great deal of time researching his family history and a man I would have loved to have known. A man I’m proud to call my granddad. He joined the York and Lancaster Regiment one day short of his 18th birthday in 1917 and returned home, injured, after the Great War to his loving parents and child-hood sweetheart, never to mention those terrible times again to another living soul.
My granddad, as a 15 year school boy, outside Clapham Junction on the eve of Armageddon, in the school uniform of Emanuel
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The whole day was incredible moving for me because on my way through to South London from North Essex, I stopped by the ceramic poppy display at the Tower of London.
I had heard a lot of negative comments about these beautiful poppies before I went, and also heard plenty more negative remarks whilst I spent 2 hours walking and contemplating the exhibition. Directly behind me, a man commented (clearly aimed at me) “90% of the people here don’t know what it’s about and have come to gawp.” Well, sir, leaving aside that your comment aimed at me was incorrect because I’ve spent the last 10 years of my life researching my own local war memorial in Great Dunmow (long before it was “fashionable”), you totally missed the point about the remaining 89.999% of visitors.
It doesn’t matter that previously 90% showed no interest in the past. The fact that they are showing interest today, and have stopped during their busy 21st century lives to take photographs, comment, ponder and wonder, means that all those 888,246 lost lives have not been forgotten. 100 years after the start of Armageddon, hundreds of thousands of people have flooded to see this incredible display of lives and families destroyed.
I saw young heavily fake-tanned women taking “selfies”, along with old veterans displaying their medals. I saw fully kilted uniformed Scottish soldiers, along with twenty-somethings wiping tears away. Veterans, pensioners, London workers, tourists, young people and children all stood shoulder-to-shoulder. The fact is, Paul Cummins’ remarkable Sea of Blood is for absolutely everyone to pause in their lives and to reflect back to that terrible time 100 years ago.
The Great War affected all our families 100 years ago, and is now touching their descendants hearts today.
The controversy of the display at the Tower reminds me back to the days even whilst the Great War was still raging when the question of War Memorials started to be hotly debated all over towns and villages of a devastated Britain. The building of War Memorials were highly emotional with bereaved communities totally unable to decide what was the best way to commemorate their dead. My own North Essex town of Great Dunmow has a war memorial – but reading the meeting minutes regarding its building shows that in 1918 this was a deeply divided and grieving community. These are cold-hard meeting minutes reporting facts, but even now, they show unwitting testimony of highly charged and emotional council meetings. No-one being able to decide anything: a community torn apart in their grief and frozen in their clerical indecisiveness.
Back to today, and yes, the Tower of London Poppy display is controversial, and the motives of some of its visitors questionable. But it is a very visual display of a shattered nation, and a shattered world.
If you have a chance to see the Tower of London’s “Blood swept Lands and Seas of red” before it is dismantled after 11th November 2014, do go. Take photos. Put them on Facebook, tweet them, publish them. By doing so those 888,246 lost souls – indeed the world’s lost souls from all the combatant nations – will always remain in our hearts.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
The walls of the ancient Tower of London hemorrhaging the nation’s blood
In among the poppies, a poignant reminder from a bereaved family
The poppies and London’s iconic Victorian landmark – Tower Bridge
The old and new icons of London – with the blood of the nation
Somewhere in this sea of blood lies poppies representing 4 lost lives from my family.
The ghostly images of Emanuel’s 1913 XV projected onto the school building. Eight of those boys never returned from the Great War. They were my granddad’s schoolmates and later, his comrades in arms. Among the 888,246 poppies at the Tower of London, 8 poppies represent the lost lives of these boys.
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I had a fantastic week last week, touring the internet and talking on various blogs about my life long passion for “all things history”. I would like to thank all the wonderful bloggers who hosted my posts throughout the week. I have been truly overwhelmed by the response and lovely comments I have received on all the blogs.
As well as touring the internet, I was also busy researching my next two books for Amberley – Sudbury, Long Melford and Lavenham Through Time, and Saffron Walden Through Time.
Last week, I had considerable breakthroughs with both books, which hopefully I can share nearer the time of each book’s publication next summer. However, for the moment, I would like to share with you a picture I bought on the internet some months ago. This week, I managed to identify the lady and also, with the help of Google Maps, exactly where she is sitting in Long Melford. The picture had puzzled me for some time, because the angle of photograph made the building in the top left corner seem like one of the maltings buildings still in existence within Long Melford. But it’s not, it’s actually a large red-brick building from the 1860s.
Meet Kate Salter, Edwardian resident of Long Melford, taking a break in the roadside outside Daniel Spilling’s Saddlery shop in Hall Street, in summer 1907.
I look forward to bringing you tales about Sudbury, Long Melford, Lavenham and Saffron Walden Through Time in the run-up to my next two local history books being published next year.
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My book
My local history book on the historic East Hertfordshire town of Bishop’s Stortford has just been published. Please do click on the image below to buy my book.
This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom. If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do click Like button and/or leave a comment below. Thank you for reading this post.
This week, to celebrate the publication of my first local history book, Bishop’s Stortford Through Time, I am very excited to be doing tour around various blogs talking about various aspects of my book: not just the subject matter, but also about writing and researching “history”.
One post a day – so 7 posts in total – spread across a wide and diverse mix of history-related blogs.
Today, day 7, I am back on my own blog to show some the postcards, photographs and pictures of Bishop’s Stortford which got away. Postcards and images which I couldn’t include in my book for one reason or another.
Two mile start Unfortunately, I was unable to identify this image of the “Two Mile Start”. There is a group of women central to the image, which when zoomed in, shows that they are wearing very elegant Edwardian summer dresses with hats. The official standing in front of the flag on the right is very formally dressed with what appears to be a watch on a chain. The hoi polloi appear to be the crowd on the left edge of the postcard.
Whatever event this was, it looks to be have been supported throughout the entire town, from all ranks of Edwardian society. Its location could have been on the cricket pitch by Cricketfield Lane on the outskirts of the town.
Where or whatever this was, it is a fantastic social history postcard of Bishop’s Stortford at play. Distance views of the town
1821 etching by J Mawman showing Bishop’s Stortford in 1669. The town’s Norman castle in the foreground and the parish of St Michael’s in the distance.
Edwardian view of the town photographed from the rooftops. The parish church’s spire in the distance.
Edwardian view of the town photographed from the top of Waytemore Castle mound. The ever-present parish church’s spire in the distance.
The Causeway The rural beauty of the Edwardian Causeway. Now a busy major ring-road within the town centre.
Windhill Victorian and Edwardian children going about their business in Windhill – compared to the modern-day influx of cars. At least the lamp-post has remained! The first photograph is a carte de viste photograph from 1866.
The CDV photograph of St Michael’s church is fascinating. I wrote a blog post about it here and explained why I think it dates from 1866.
I had great problems photographing this area of Bishop’s Stortford – I must have visited it to take photographs on varying days and at varying times at least 20 times. But always always there were cars. Windhill was originally going to be the front cover of my book, but the cars were just too prominent in all the modern day photographs. So we had to ditch that idea.
On one particularly eventual day, we decided to visit early on a Saturday and take the photographs of my children and their spouses. This is the photograph which opens Chapter 2 of my book. Getting my children all together at the same time was the first problem and a feat in its own right. The second problem was that as we all drove up to Windhill, my husband decided to park his car in the area exactly where the photograph was to be taken. I wasn’t impressed with this, and nor was he when he had to move the car. (Yes, there were “words”!)
Our final problem was… After my girls and their spouses had left, I decided to pay a quick visit to the church to take a couple of photographs. We were only gone no more than 10 minutes. But by the time we came out there was a traffic warden fast approaching our car… I’m glad to say we (just) beat him to our car…
I suspect the Victorian and Edwardian photographers of these images didn’t have such problems!
Workman’s revenge Finally, this newspaper article in the Chelmsford Chronicle in June 1912 tickled me My blog tour I have thoroughly enjoyed doing a blog tour around the internet. It has felt very self-indulgent being able to talk about my hobby – history – which has been a life-long passion for me. Thank you for taking time out and reading my posts.
To recap, I have been on the following blogs this week:-
Friday 24 October – Essex Voices Past: Bishop’s Stortford’s postcards which got away.
About me
I have a MSt in Local and Regional History (Cantab); a BA History (Open University) and an Advanced Diploma in Local History (Oxon) – all gained as a mature student. Having been a business technologist in the City of London for the last 30 years, I am currently taking time away from my City career to write. My first history book, Bishop’s Stortford Through Time, was published by Amberley Publishing in September 2014. I have been commissioned to write a further three history books for them:-
Sudbury, Lavenham and Long Melford Through Time (due to be published summer 2015);
Saffron Walden Through Time (due to be published summer 2015); and
Postcards from the Front: Britain 1914-1919 (due to be published summer 2016).
I live in Essex, England, and regularly write about the local history of Essex and East Anglia on my blog.
Please do click on the image below to buy my book.
This week, to celebrate the publication of my first local history book, Bishop’s Stortford Through Time, I am very excited to be doing tour around various blogs talking about various aspects of my book: not just the subject matter, but also about writing and researching “history”.
One post a day – so 7 posts in total – spread across a wide and diverse mix of history-related blogs.
Today, day 6, you can read me on Bishop’s Stortford’s Museums blog talking about Local history and Bishop’s Stortford. Please click on the link or picture below to read my post.
My blog tour You can catch me on the following dates and blogs discussing “all things history”, along with explaining about my recent book, on the following dates and sites.
Friday 24 October – Essex Voices Past: Bishop’s Stortford’s postcards which got away.
About me
I have a MSt in Local and Regional History (Cantab); a BA History (Open University) and an Advanced Diploma in Local History (Oxon) – all gained as a mature student. Having been a business technologist in the City of London for the last 30 years, I am currently taking time away from my City career to write. My first history book, Bishop’s Stortford Through Time, was published by Amberley Publishing in September 2014. I have been commissioned to write a further three history books for them:-
Sudbury, Lavenham and Long Melford Through Time (due to be published summer 2015);
Saffron Walden Through Time (due to be published summer 2015); and
Postcards from the Front: Britain 1914-1919 (due to be published summer 2016).
I live in Essex, England, and regularly write about the local history of Essex and East Anglia on my blog.
Please do click on the image below to buy my book.
This week, to celebrate the publication of my first local history book, Bishop’s Stortford Through Time, I am very excited to be doing tour around various blogs talking about various aspects of my book: not just the subject matter, but also about writing and researching “history”.
One post a day – so 7 posts in total – spread across a wide and diverse mix of history-related blogs.
My blog tour You can catch me on the following dates and blogs discussing “all things history”, along with explaining about my recent book, on the following dates and sites.
Friday 24 October – Essex Voices Past: Bishop’s Stortford’s postcards which got away.
About me
I have a MSt in Local and Regional History (Cantab); a BA History (Open University) and an Advanced Diploma in Local History (Oxon) – all gained as a mature student. Having been a business technologist in the City of London for the last 30 years, I am currently taking time away from my City career to write. My first history book, Bishop’s Stortford Through Time, was published by Amberley Publishing in September 2014. I have been commissioned to write a further three history books for them:-
Sudbury, Lavenham and Long Melford Through Time (due to be published summer 2015);
Saffron Walden Through Time (due to be published summer 2015); and
Postcards from the Front: Britain 1914-1919 (due to be published summer 2016).
I live in Essex, England, and regularly write about the local history of Essex and East Anglia on my blog.
Please do click on the image below to buy my book.
This week, to celebrate the publication of my first local history book, Bishop’s Stortford Through Time, I am very excited to be doing tour around various blogs talking about various aspects of my book: not just the subject matter, but also about writing and researching “history”.
One post a day – so 7 posts in total – spread across a wide and diverse mix of history-related blogs.
Today, day 4, you can read me on Pauleen Cass’s blog Family history across the seas talking about Correlation between local and family history. Please click on the link or picture below to read my post.
My blog tour You can catch me on the following dates and blogs discussing “all things history”, along with explaining about my recent book, on the following dates and sites.
Friday 24 October – Essex Voices Past: Bishop’s Stortford’s postcards which got away.
About me
I have a MSt in Local and Regional History (Cantab); a BA History (Open University) and an Advanced Diploma in Local History (Oxon) – all gained as a mature student. Having been a business technologist in the City of London for the last 30 years, I am currently taking time away from my City career to write. My first history book, Bishop’s Stortford Through Time, was published by Amberley Publishing in September 2014. I have been commissioned to write a further three history books for them:-
Sudbury, Lavenham and Long Melford Through Time (due to be published summer 2015);
Saffron Walden Through Time (due to be published summer 2015); and
Postcards from the Front: Britain 1914-1919 (due to be published summer 2016).
I live in Essex, England, and regularly write about the local history of Essex and East Anglia on my blog.
Please do click on the image below to buy my book.
This week, to celebrate the publication of my first local history book, Bishop’s Stortford Through Time, I am very excited to be doing tour around various blogs talking about various aspects of my book: not just the subject matter, but also about writing and researching “history”.
One post a day – so 7 posts in total – spread across a wide and diverse mix of history-related blogs.
Today, day 3, you can read me on Ross Mountney’s Notebook talking about Home educating and history. Please click on the link or picture below to read my post.
My blog tour You can catch me on the following dates and blogs discussing “all things history”, along with explaining about my recent book, on the following dates and sites.
Friday 24 October – Essex Voices Past: Bishop’s Stortford’s postcards which got away.
About me
I have a MSt in Local and Regional History (Cantab); a BA History (Open University) and an Advanced Diploma in Local History (Oxon) – all gained as a mature student. Having been a business technologist in the City of London for the last 30 years, I am currently taking time away from my City career to write. My first history book, Bishop’s Stortford Through Time, was published by Amberley Publishing in September 2014. I have been commissioned to write a further three history books for them:-
Sudbury, Lavenham and Long Melford Through Time (due to be published summer 2015);
Saffron Walden Through Time (due to be published summer 2015); and
Postcards from the Front: Britain 1914-1919 (due to be published summer 2016).
I live in Essex, England, and regularly write about the local history of Essex and East Anglia on my blog.
Please do click on the image below to buy my book.
In September 2014, my first local history book, Bishop’s Stortford Through Time was published by Amberley Publishing. This week, I am very excited to be doing tour around various blogs talking about aspects of my book: not just the subject matter, but also writing and researching my books.
In yesterday’s blog post The process of writing a local history book on Worldwide Genealogy, I answered Julie Goucher’s questions about writing my book. Today, day 2, it is my turn to ask the questions and for my publisher’s Amberley Publishing’s to answer.
My overriding question to Amberley is that thorny topic:
How to get a publisher interested in your book or history project?
Whilst writing my books, when I have been out and about researching or photographing, many people have asked me about how to go about getting a history book published. My book publishers are Amberley Publishing – very successful publishers who specialise in local history and general history books. I was extremely lucky in that one of their commissioning editors stumbled across this blog just under a year ago. The editor read some of my stories, and then she contacted me and there followed a couple of weeks’ negotiation. After which, Amberley commissioned me to write 3 books for them (this has recently been updated to 4 books).
I was lucky: Amberley approached me.
However, it made me ponder: how do you go about getting your local or specialist history book published? I came up with 9 questions, and posed my questions to my Commissioning Editor at Amberley Publishing. Here are my questions, and Amberley’s answers.
1. What makes a good history book? The local history team tends to publish within several predetermined series, and many of our titles are heavily image led. We place a real emphasis on our books looking really good, so great images are essential. We also look for books that are well structured, clearly written and contain interesting information. With more stand-alone titles, we are always attracted to new and exciting concepts, though it is vital that these are also commercially viable.
2. What makes a good author? Anyone who is passionate about their subject is a great potential author. It really comes across when people are enthusiastic and knowledgeable. As images are so important in Amberley’s books, it’s a real advantage for authors to have ready access to a good image source, whether this be your own collection or an archive. It’s also important for authors to have a clear writing style.
3. I don’t have any formal qualifications (degrees etc) in history or related subjects. Would you still be interested in a submission from me? Many of our authors have no formal qualifications, and this is certainly not a prerequisite. Amberley isn’t an academic publisher. Authors should certainly be knowledgeable about their subject, but there is no need for an academic degree!
4. If I am writing a history book, should I use an agent or approach a publisher direct? For any company with a submissions link on their website (or with details for a submissions editor) feel free to send your submission through directly to them. Amberley don’t tend to work with agents often – the vast majority of our submissions come through this channel [website]. However, larger trade publishers won’t generally accept direct submissions, so might be best using an agent.
5. The Essex Voices Past blog was read by one of Amberley’s Commissioning Editors. Do editors regularly go through the internet to discover new authors? On the local history team, we frequently use this method to find potential new authors. If someone has a real interest in a subject and is clearly knowledgeable, we will often get in touch to see whether the blog/website owner might be interested in writing a book.
6. I want to write a local history book about my town about its experiences during the First World War. What would be your appetite and criteria for publishing this? In general, this sounds good. Our first consideration would be the suitability of the book’s content for our target market. As the 100th anniversary of the First World War took place this year, general interest in the topic is high, so this would definitely be seen as positive. This type of book is also similar to previous successful titles, which is a real advantage. However, a key concern with any local book is the sales profile of the town in question, so we would seek advice on this from our sales department before moving ahead.
7. I want to write a very specialist history book, eg, about the Napoleonic Wars. What would you would expect to see in a submission for this? As with any submission, we’d be looking for general details about the book, for example a summary of its content, word count, details of any images you would be looking to include. In the case of a very specialist book, we’d be looking for evidence of in-depth knowledge of the subject and a clear awareness of what makes your book stand out from others on the market. Every publisher has their own specialist subjects for which they are known in the market, so it would be best to look at the output of each publishing house before you make your approach.
8. I have an idea for a history book: what do you want to see in a submission? Here at Amberley, we ask for potential authors to provide a single-page summary of their book. This should include a brief description of what the book is about, along with the book’s proposed word count and details of any images. There is no need to send in your entire manuscript at this point, as the commissioning editor will request this at a later stage if necessary. A sample chapter or chapter list can be very useful, though.
9. I have made a submission for a book: what happens next and how long until I hear back from you? The first person you will hear from is our submissions editor, who is the first port of call for all submissions. If the submissions editor can see potential in your proposal, this will be passed to the relevant commissioning editor (depending on subject area) for consideration, and we’ll let you know that this handover has taken place. The commissioning editor will be the next person you hear from, and if your book looks like a good potential title we’ll take it from there. Timescales can vary significantly, but we aim to get back to everybody who contacts us as soon as we can.
My grateful thanks to Amberley Publishing for answering these questions. I hope this helps any budding historians reading this blog. I have certainly found my contact with Amberley to be very positive and a life-changing experience.
My blog tour Tomorrow, I am delighted that my blog tour will continue on Ross Mountney’s Notebook where I will be talking about helping children, particularly home educated children and children with special educational needs, to become passionate about the art and discipline of history.
You can catch me on the following dates and blogs discussing “all things history” along with my recent book.
Friday 24 October – Essex Voices Past: Bishop’s Stortford’s postcards which got away.
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About me
I have a MSt in Local and Regional History (Cantab); a BA History (Open University) and an Advanced Diploma in Local History (Oxon) – all gained as a mature student. Having been a business technologist in the City of London for the last 30 years, I am currently taking time away from my City career to write. My first history book, Bishop’s Stortford Through Time, was published by Amberley Publishing in September 2014. I have been commissioned to write a further three history books for them:-
Sudbury, Lavenham and Long Melford Through Time (due to be published summer 2015);
Saffron Walden Through Time (due to be published summer 2015); and
Postcards from the Front: Britain 1914-1919 (due to be published summer 2016).
I live in Essex, England, and regularly write about the local history of Essex and East Anglia on my blog.
Please do click on the image below to buy my book.
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The ghostly images of Emanuel’s 1913 XV projected onto the school building. Eight of those boys never returned from the Great War. They were my granddad’s schoolmates and later, his comrades in arms. Among the 888,246 poppies at the Tower of London, 8 poppies represent the lost lives of these boys.
1821 etching by J Mawman showing Bishop’s Stortford in 1669. The town’s Norman castle in the foreground and the parish of St Michael’s in the distance.
Edwardian view of the town photographed from the rooftops. The parish church’s spire in the distance.
Edwardian view of the town photographed from the top of Waytemore Castle mound. The ever-present parish church’s spire in the distance.
