There hasn't been much sign of the sabbatical yet! Anne has been busy with books that we had promised to do, reprints and the book of photos from the second exhibition we put on last August in the commune where we have our house in France. The latter went to the printers a couple of weeks ago and we hope to have the proofs to check shortly. We are off to France at the end of the month.

Jack Orrell's second book "I bought a boat (and ended up with 24)" went to the printers earlier in the week but it won't be launched until July. Jack and Sheila have just moved house and have had a rather traumatic time - there was a blizzard on the day they moved and when Jack went into the kitchen the next morning the main water inlet pipe had burst and the kitchen was flooded - and it was a Saturday!

Kingsthorpe Bookshop told us today that the second reprint of "Kingsthorpe - A royal manor explored" is continuing to sell well with a sixth of their stock having gone already.

Tuesday, 7th February, 2006

The second reprint of "Kingsthorpe - A royal manor explored" was delivered to Kingsthorpe Bookshop last Thursday just as they sold the last copy of the previous printing. Well done to the printers, CPI Antony Rowe of Chippenham, Wiltshire, who delivered the copies a day ahead of the promised time.

Thursday, 12th January, 2006

Things are getting back to normal after the Christmas rush. The reprint of Tony Horner's "Kingsthorpe - A royal manor explored" has almost sold out and we are thinking of doing another. In terms of the number of books sold over a short period of time "Kingsthorpe" is certainly our most successful book and we are delighted that all the author's hard work has paid off for him. We are also delighted with the high sales at Kingsthorpe Bookshop; proprietor Robert Webb says that the title has out-performed the "Harry Potter" books.

On Tuesday we went to Rotherham to see Ursula Sherratt, a delightful 83-year-old who has written a very moving autobiography. She was born in Germany to a Jewish mother and a gentile father and when they split up she was placed temporarily in a children's home, where she found short-lived happiness. When her mother married again, her new German step-father turned out to be a violent man who beat both his wife and Ursula but doted on her half-sister - his own child - who died of meningitis. Before and during the war Ursula was persecuted for her Jewish blood. A soldier who applied to the Army authorities to marry her was immediately posted to the Russian Front, never to return. She survived the fire-bombing of her home city of Hamburg and semi-starvation at the end of the war. Her mother was sent to a concentration camp and was traumatised ever afterwards by the experience. After the war Ursula met and fell in love with a British soldier, Frank Sherratt, who was in the army of occupation. She had his baby - leading to being labelled "a slut" and collaborator by her fellow-countrymen - and then moved to be with him in Yorkshire, where she was persecuted by many for being a hated German "enemy".

Anne promised a long time ago to help Ursula with her book - working title "The Bitter Years" - and will keep to this, in spite of the intended sabbatical (see above). Ursula has a perfect command of English and has been a member of a writing group for some years. She gives occasional talks about her experiences and was encouraged to write them down by her tutor. She heard of Léonie Press through one of our readers, after having her manuscript turned down by various publishers who thought it was too short. We believe, however, that what she has to say is too important not to be in the public domain. We think she is a remarkable woman and that her story is unique. We intended originally that it should be an e-book, available only on the Internet, but now we feel that we could also sell a small number of books, too. Anne will work on the title during the year when she has some spare time.

Thursday, 17th November, 2005

The demand for copies of "Kingsthorpe - A royal manor explored" has continued unabated at Kingsthorpe Bookshop and nearly all of them have been sold. We have ordered a reprint and more copies will be available in 12-15 working days - still in time for giving the book as a Christmas present; call in for one of the remaining copies or if they have gone, to reserve a copy!

Tuesday, 15th November, 2005

The first time Kingsthorpe Bookshop was open since the launch of "Kingsthorpe - A royal manor explored" on Saturday was 9am this morning. We understand that by noon they had sold virtually their complete stock of the book and needed further copies which were delivered at lunchtime.

W H Smith in Northwich phoned to place their third order for copies of "Tales of the Cut" which we delivered to them this afternoon.

Saturday, 12th November, 2005

The launch today of "Kingsthorpe - A royal manor explored" went better than we could possibly have hoped, thanks to articles in all the local papers and a lengthy interview on BBC Radio Northampton. We were expecting about 50 invited guests at St Aidan's RC Church hall between noon and 2pm, but after Tony Horner had been interviewed on Thursday afternoon by BBC reporter Willy Gilder, the programme presenter, Anna Murby, issued an open invitation to all interested listeners to turn up! Two or three times our original estimated number came along – the first one arriving at just after 10.30am when we were just putting the tables and chairs out in the room. At times the queue stretched through the hall, through the foyer and down the path... Anne was kept busy offering wine and nibbles to those who were patiently waiting, Alton Towers-style, for their opportunity to buy a book and chat to Tony. We sold well over 100 copies of his books and several other ones.

Tony Horner signing his book for a customer with Victor Dilworth author of "Happy Days and Heartbreak Days" seated behind.

Jack replenishes the stack of books whilst Tony keeps signing...

We were delighted to welcome our old friend Victor Dilworth, author of "Happy Days and Heartbreak Days" and his son, who live in Northampton. It was through Victor's book, which covers his childhood in Shropshire, that the sequence of events started which led us to publish "Kingsthorpe". Otherwise we would not have considered straying so far away from our remit of Cheshire and North West England.

Robert Webb, proprietor of Kingsthorpe Book Shop, also attended and when we went to have a chat with him later in the day we were thrilled to see that he had filled one of his windows with copies of "Kingsthorpe" and has high hopes that it will be the village's "must-have" Christmas present this year.

Kingsthorpe Bookshop

The window display of "Kingsthorpe - a royal manor explored"

Tuesday, 8th November, 2005

Carl was interviewed about his book on the Granada TV lunchtime news.

Carl on the Granada lunchtime news.

Saturday, 5th November, 2005

The launch of Carl Leckey's book "Tales of the Cut" was held last night at the Salt Museum, Northwich, and was a great success. Around 70 people attended from all over the country, with quite a few battling against appalling traffic jams and bad weather. We know that Carl is very grateful to them for putting so much effort into supporting him.

As usual, he had the audience in stitches during his speech, describing in particular his journeys in America and China as a Churchill Fellow. Some of his stories caused his wife Rose to hide her head in her hands... We recorded his address and were going to make it available on the website, but as large parts of it may provoke international incidents, we will have to censor it first!

Rose resorts to drastic measures to bring Carl's speech to a halt!

Carl signing books for friends