Monday, 10th December 2007

We were very shocked to learn this evening that Peter Marsh, author of one of our early books "Round and Round in Circles" had been drowned some time ago in a sailing accident in a Spanish harbour. We hadn't heard from him for a long time but weren't worried as the last time he came to see us he told us that he was going sailing in the Mediterranean , for an indefinite period and would see us "some time". We extend our sympathy to his family and friends - Pete really was a "one-off" who was a legend in advertising circles and as a sailor. He will be much missed. He had planned that "Round and Round in Circles" would be the first of a trilogy and a few years ago we read the rough draft of the scurrilous sequel. Sadly that will not now see the light of day.

Wednesday, 26th September 2007

We were extremely sorry to learn today that Margaret Dignum died suddenly on 17th August at the age of 76. After an evening out at the British Legion at Davenham - which was where we first met her at the launch of Nellie Osborne's book "Nellie's Story" - she felt unwell on returning home, collapsed and died.

Through her performances of her comic monologues on BBC Radio Stoke, to many local groups and, of course, through her book "A Whiff of Fresh Air" Margaret brought a lot of pleasure to many hundreds of people. We always enjoyed going round to see her and her husband, Howard, and we will miss her very much.

On a happier note, Anne's column on www.pontnoir.com has been declared "a great success". She writes every week about some aspect of the Creuse, where we have our house. At the moment she is doing a series called "Creusois house detective", which people say they have enjoyed very much.

Sunday, 12th August 2007

We are in the process of updating the website to, in addition to other things, reflect the rises in postal costs introduced by Royal Mail in April. We have always charged postage and package at cost which has made it difficult to give p+p costs for an order for several books but the introduction by Royal Mail of a size/thickness charging structure has further complicated things. Reluctantly we have decided that we will have to quote p+p charges based on the books being sent as a packet.

This update will mean for some time there may be inconsistencies in the quoted p+p costs in different places on the site. However the order form (opens a new window) has the definitive p+p price for the UK and Northern Ireland. For Eire, Europe and the rest of the World please e-mail us and we will let you know the appropriate cost.

Sunday, 29th July 2007

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN ST PARADIS?

Fans of Anne's three books about St Paradis ( "A Bull by the Back Door", "The Duck with a Dirty Laugh", and "The Bells of St Paradis") will be pleased to know that they can continue to follow the story of her experiences in the Creuse department of the Limousin region of central France. She now writes a weekly column for www.pontnoir.com - a website that is devoted to all things relating to British people interested in the Creuse, whether as residents, holiday-home owners or dreamers.

Called "Crazy about the Creuse", the column comes out each Thursday in the Features section of the site under the pseudonym of "Annik". Anne's aim is to inform and entertain, and she is greatly enjoying writing for a new medium. We hope that readers of the St Paradis trilogy will be able to use it to continue to get their "fix"! Ideally, the articles should be read in reverse order to make the best chronological sense of them, as the latest is always at the top of the list.

Monday, 23rd July 2007

From July 2-22, Anne's five "French books" were on sale at an exhibition which we organised in our twin town of Mornant, near Lyon, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the signing of the twinning agreement. The exhibition featured Anne's photographs of Cheshire scenes, enlargements of old postcards of Hartford and Northwich (showing the salt industry and the damage caused to Northwich by subsidence, mostly from the collection of John Chesworth), prints of water-colours by Léonie Press artist Patricia Kelsall, and paintings by amateur artists in Hartford.

Anne signing one of her books.

The poster advertising the books, in the Maison de Pays at Mornant

Anne showing our hostess, Chantal Vallet, some of her photos in the exhibition.

A special viewing was held on Sunday, July 15, as a highlight of a weekend of events staged to entertain a delegation from Hartford, and this was combined with a book signing by Anne. Mornant and the twinning have featured in the "St Paradis" trilogy and people were keen to keep their collection of these titles up to date - copies have been winging their way round Mornant as birthday and Christmas presents for years! Other residents who were interested in French social history bought copies of the books of old photographs of St Dizier la Tour, Souvenirs de St Dizier la Tour and Images de St Dizier la Tour

Wednesday, 28th March 2007

Roy Clinging, author of Cheshire Folk Songs & associated traditions has researched and written "A Poor Man's Heritage" - an evening of songs and drama exploring the lives of the poor in Victorian Britain. It will be performed at the Salt Museum, Northwich at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, 18th April 2007. Tickets are priced at ٢ and are available from the Salt Museum or by calling 01606 41331. This is a most appropriate venue as the building which now houses the Salt Museum was originally the Northwich Workhouse. There is more information available about the Salt Museum via this link.

Wednesday, 14th March 2007

Today "Speaking of Palm Trees - Letters from Egypt 1946-1947" by Kathleen Taylor Smith was formally published under our Greenridges press imprint.

At the same time as printing this new book we reprinted ten of our other books so that we have plenty of copies of all our titles available to cover demand in the next few months. The reprints included the updated version of "Souvenirs de St Dizier la Tour"; since the first edition was published we have been given more names to add to the lists identifying villagers in the photographs. The book sold out last year and the second edition is eagerly awaited when we go back to France again this year.

The books were printed and bound on a very complex and expensive new machine recently installed by our local printers, Poplar Services of St Helens - who always do an excellent job for us. We are very pleased with the books and the photographs show a visible improvement over what used to be achieved with the older technology.

Friday, 26th January 2007

The Rotherham Advertiser carried a very nice half page interview and review of Ursula Sherratt's book "Ursula - Pain and prejudice" by their feature writer Howard Poucher. Appropriately it shared the page with an article about the Mayor and Mayoress of Rotherham, Cllr and Mrs Peter Wooton, signing the Rotherham Book of Remembrance for National Holocaust Memorial Day (27th January) and inviting their fellow citizens to join them as a mark of respect and remembrance for all the victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution.

Born in Hamburg to a Jewish mother and German father, Ursula was persecuted by the Nazis and branded as "an undesirable, worthless human being". At the age of 15 she was forced to work on a farm where she was badly treated. In 1944 her mother was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to the Stutthof Concentration Camp near Danzig, from which she was liberated by the advancing Russians and made her way to the West, posing as a refugee to avoid re-arrest by the Nazis. She never recovered from the physical and mental trauma of the experience.