‘Absolutely delightful. This is a generous, funny, moving, extensively researched tangle of ordinary people’s stories which will delight anyone interested in rural history or village life.’
Melissa Harrison, award-winning novelist, author of ‘All Among the Barley’.
‘Village’, my new non-fiction prose book, is now available to buy!
Here is the link to buy the paperback edition. This can also lead you to the 99 pence Kindle /phone/computer edition.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Village-Survival-six-houses-1841-1971/dp/B0FFBH41ZV
Review of ‘Village’…
I’m honoured to have ‘Villlage’ reviewed in the company of Mary Chambelain’s classic ‘Fenwomen’, which I recommend. Here are some highlights from this generous piece by Nicola Chester, Guardian Country Diarist and author of the excellent new non-fiction book ‘Ghosts of the Farm’.
‘Village’ is a glorious, generous compendium. A selection box of delights and a romp through stories, censuses […] and revelations, that overlap in layers, like a coloured tissue-paper lantern…full of the most beautiful, poetic language…’
What ‘Village’ gives back ‘with joy and affirmation, is tenacity, resilience and dignity; voice, and the song of a rightful place in history.’
You can read the whole review here:
https://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/11/village-fenwomen-nicola-chester/
Online article:
‘Re-discovering
Lincolnshire’s
Black Workers’
I am very grateful to North Lincolnshire Museum. Their staff asked me to write an article for the Museum website. The Museum helped me edit the dramatic story of the two Isaac Thompsons, featured in Chapter 2 of ‘Village’. They also obtained permission to reproduce the compelling Poor Law documents, beautifully written but brutal in content, which brought Isaac Thompson the younger and his new pregnant wife to my village…
Here is the link to a vivid introduction to ‘Village’s main historical re-discovery! I do hope that
researchers – or descendants – will add to what ‘Village’ can tell of the Thompsons’ story…
https://northlincolnshiremuseum.co.uk/discover/re-discovering-lincolnshires-black-workers
The Verb
And ‘Village’ and I have reappeared on BBC Sounds!
In this edition of ‘The Verb’, on BBC Radio 4, I appear at the end of the first item, talking about the village. Then the second item is my reading of a poem based on a Lincolnshire ghost story – mentioned, of course, by Mrs Rudkin.
The programme was broadcast on 1 June 2025 and will be available on BBC Sounds for a year!
Here is the link:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002cz8k
Finally, here is the link where you can buy the book, as a paperback or in its Kindle/phone/computer edition. The villlagers are here, with their stories… and their wheelbarrows! We send very best Lincolshire wishes…
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Village-Survival-six-houses-1841-1971/dp/B0FFBH41ZV
