Amberley Blog

A model railway often sets out as an entity within a room, and it usually describes an orbit in its early form. The notion of a ‘train set’ where a locomotive, some rolling stock and often an oval of track, is one familiar to many. The railway I built takes the model railway to operate between separate buildings and hence...

I was born at St Alfege’s Hospital in 1954, nine years after the end of the Second World War, when Greenwich residents were still living under the rationing of food, and bombsites were a visible reminder of the recent global hostilities. The hospital, originally erected as the infirmary of a workhouse in the 1800s, was named after the 9th century...

Since junior school history of all ages has fascinated me, from ancient history to modern, showing how little emotions and motives have changed through the epochs. Later, I came to be particularly entranced by the Tudor and late-Plantagenet periods. I read all the history books I could get hold of and hungered to actually read the contemporary accounts and letters...

I have always been fascinated by urban history, particularly those towns where continuity and change co-exist, or where new communities spring up alongside historic ones. The first chapter in my book ‘Lost King’s Lynn’ is titled ‘The Lost North End’ which was its fisherfolk quarter. Around 1870 these Northenders were fishing in the Wash in traditional wooden sailing smacks as...

Prior to living in Northampton frequent visits were made to see family as well as the buses, for me at least! In early 1993 the transport scene was one which had changed very little over the preceding years. Council-owned Northampton Transport’s smart red buses dominated the town services using a standardised fleet which later favoured products by Volvo. Its routes...

Of the four major railway companies that were combined to form British Railways, the Great Western was perhaps the most independently minded. Resisting the corporate image of British Railways, the Western Region often seemed to be able to retain some of its Great Western charm. Well after other works had adopted standard liveries, Swindon tended to retain their own version...

Five Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Secret Dorking Dorking has a long and fascinating history dating back centuries, but it also has many secrets hidden just below the surface. Many of these secrets have been long forgotten or excluded from the history books … until now! My latest book Secret Dorking uncovers many of the town's deepest and darkest...

Steam Railways - Final Operations in the Southern Region and the Early Preservation Years, published by Amberley Books is my first book. It traces my first years as a railway photographer, from which the enthusiasm for photography generally has blossomed. As a child I was encouraged by my father to watch trains, jotting down the engine numbers and names in...

One question often asked of authors of books is, “How long did it take to write?” for many authors, myself included, this is a surprisingly difficult question to answer. It all depends on the starting point. Out of curiosity more than anything else, I started researching the UK’s onshore oil industry during the winter of 2014/15. This early research showed...

On 15 May 1940, five days after becoming Prime Minister, Churchill ordered the creation of a new intelligence agency to focus entirely on Germany. M.I.3’s Lieutenant-Colonel Kenneth Strong, and the small staff of three regular officers that had comprised M.I.3’s ‘German section’ immediately had conferred on them the status of a full-blown intelligence department, that would henceforth be known as...