Ordnance Farmhouse,
Guist Bottom, Dereham NR20 5PF
01328 829207 Email: Larks.Press@btinternet.com
Proprietor:
Susan Yaxley
An unrivalled piece of oral history describing the life of a large and poor family in Cavalry Street, Norwich, between the wars. Ethel is now 91 and some of her elder brothers fought in the Great War. She celebrates her mother's heroic struggle to keep the family respectable while Father drank away too much of the family income. ISBN 978 1 90400630 5. £8.50
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Forever
Juliet - by Martial Rose The Life and Letters of Gwen Ffangcon-Davies 1891-1992. Delightful biography of this distinguished actress whose career spanned almost all of the 20th century, drawing upon a wonderful archive of letters from Gielgud, Edith Evans, Olivier, Sybil Thorndike, Thomas Hardy, Dodie Smith and many others. Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies gained a cult following for her performance in The Immortal Hour in the 1920s and was John Gielgud's first Juliet. Illustrated with b&w photos of her most famous performances. £9.50. 400g. ISBN 978 1 904006 12 1 |
Is this you, Nurse? by Brenda Sayle (216pp. 30 line drawings, 8pp black and white photographs, weight 350g). An honest, detailed and humourous account of how the author was trained as a nurse in the 1950s, first at the Norwich Hospitals, and then at Simpson's in Edinburgh. Illustrated with line drawings by the author. A truly evocative picture of pre-polythene nursing. ISBN 978 0 948400 24 7. £8.50.
Diary of an Optimist by Mary Barnard (196pp. 20 drawings by the author, weight 400g). Diaries of the years of shortage following the year when Mary Barnard brought up six children in a rambling house on the outskirts of Norwich. Husband James was then City Treaurer and her chief support was her mother Nana Loomes with intermittent help from an entertaining succession of home helps. A lovely and amusing book about family life. ISBN 978 0 948400 32 2. £6.95.
Midsummer School by David Yaxley (140pp. 12 line drawings, weight 250g). The intelligentsia of Borshire gather at Great Mardle Hall for a feast of Borshire culture. Director of Studies, Dr Norton Subcourse, Cyril Thrigby, Mrs Ada Mulbarton, the predatory Miss Iris Overy and the rest, shepherded by the appalling Mrs Gorlestone, the dean's daughter, look forward to the tuition of William Hautbois and Roger Barton-Bendish, but all does not go smoothly. IBSN 978 0 948400 49 0. £5.95.
The Life that Jack Lived by Jack Troup (192pp. 23 photos, weight 350g). Experiences of a Norfolk soldier and policeman, 1918-74. Jack's story covers his childhood in a Catholic orphanage in Co.Durham, his life as soldier in the Norfolk Regiment in Gibraltar, India, Italy and Austria, and his career as a bobby on the beat in Norfolk after the war when police technology consisted of a bicycle and telephone. Thieves, drunks, road accidents and some royal encounters. ISBN 978 0 948400 56 8. £7.50.
Miller's
Daughter by Nancy Potter (128pp. wt. 300g.)
A true portrait of a Norfolk miller and
his family in the 20s and 30s. Spiky, strong characters of vigorous
speech, well written, with a good sense of period. Illustrated by the
author. ISBN 978 0 948400 74 2 £6.50.
The Strange
Family at Yorke's Hill
by Katherine
Yorke (176pp. Wt.
350g.)
Attlebridge, Norfolk seventy years ago, seen through the
eyes of a child with 'problem parents'. Excellent rural detail of
eccentric lifestyle in a shack in the woods.. Illustrated.. ISBN 978 0
948400 73 5 £7.50.
Memoirs of a Shannock by May Ayers (104 pp. line drawings and photos.) A picture of Sheringham as remembered by May Ayers and her parents in the years before the World War II, when it was a close-knit fishing community. ISBN 978 0 948400 33 9. £6.95.
The Boy at
Willows End
by Frank
Wrigley
Autobiographical
story of a boy of sixteen growing up in the Fens in 1940. The Home Guard,
bombs, Fenland wildlife and the Captain's beautiful wife all play
important parts. A beautifully illustrated book, rich in fenland
characters. 400g. ISBN 978 0 948400 80 3. £7.50.
Memoirs of a
Thatching Family, 1860 - 1968 by B. S.
Reeve. (80pp. 26 b &
w.
photographs, weight 200g) The late Bert 'Roper' Reeve
remembers his thatching days and those of his brothers, father and
grandfather, in the Bridgham and East Harling area and further afield.
ISBN 978 0948400 26 1. £4.95.
Liao Hongying -
Fragments of a Life
by Innes Herdan (144pp. 24 photos wt.
340g)
Life story of a courageous lady who came from rural China
to Oxford University and, after marrying a Norwich-born diplomat,
dedicated her life to Anglo-Chinese friendship. ISBN 978 0 948400 45 2.
£8.50 inc. postage.
The Mill House
& Thereabouts
by H. C.
Harrison (112 pp 6 b &
w photos. Drawings.)
An Australian engineer remembers his idyllic
childhood in the Mill House at Sprowston where the mill was worked by his
father at the turn of the century. Memories of cycling, sailing, deep-sea
fishing for herring plus excellent working drawings of one of the last
working post-mills in the country. ISBN 978 0 948400 67 4
£5.95.
To The Long
Pond by Ken Regelous
The story of an evacuee from East London to King's Lynn who was
also a keen angler in the legendary 'Long Pond'. Fishy and human tales in
wartime atmosphere, plus interesting ecological insights into the
waterways of Lynn. Photographs. ISBN 978 0 948400 82 7
£8.50.
Pavements to
Ploughed Fields
An Evacuee on a Norfolk Farm
1939-48
In
September 1939 Len Brown was evacuated from the East End to Fen Farm, Blo
Norton, on the Norfolk-Suffolk border. From near starvation he came, as he
saw it, to a land of plenty.
'The cornfield at the back of the
farmhouse stretched away into the distance and the apples were hanging in
bunches from the trees.... I just sat there fascinated by what I could see
and wondered whether it was all a dream.'
It was not a dream, and
years of very hard work followed, work that he remembered and recorded to
produce a wonderful picture of life on a Norfolk farm over fifty years
ago.
Illustrated. £8.50. ISBN 978 0 948400 93 3
The Gamekeeper's Boy A Tale of the North Norfolk Coast by Mike Cringle (96 pages with line drawings) Illustrated by Anne Cringle. The story of a young man growing up in Wells-next-the-Sea nearly a century ago. Fishing, sailing, wildfowling and soldiering all feature in this delightful memoir of the author's father. ISBN 978 1 904006 01 5. £5.50
Perpetual
Motion - A Refugee Childhood by Renate Melinsky
(96pp. 138 drawings, 200g). Driven from
Germany by the Nazi persecution of the Jews, she came to England and was
moved hither and thither, providing memories that she has delightfully
recorded with pen and pencil. ISBN 978 1 904006 24 4.
£6.95
A Cameraman
Abroad - Nat Crosby
From Panorama to Paranoia
Experiences of a leading BBC cameraman over a period of thirty
years, working with some of the great names of Television, including
Richard Dimbleby, David Attenborough, Alan Whicker and Robin Day. His work
in film drama won him three BAFTA awards. With a delightfully light touch,
he describes the highlights of his years with the BBC and later as a
freelance. Price £8.95. 350g. ISBN 978 1 904006 06 0.
In and Out of
Africa - Penny Aitchison
Adventures of one of the last batch of colonial wives, chiefly in
Nigeria from 1958-67. Promised 'a wonderful life', Penny coped with a
series of domestic, professional and medical disasters, some hilarious and
some tragic, while her husband worked for the eradication of the tsetse
fly. Twenty-five house-moves (including one to Norfolk) culminated in the
horrors of the Biafran War... compulsive reading. Price £9.50. 400g.
ISBN 978 1 904006 08 4.
