Secret Great Yarmouth & Gorleston by Pete Goodrum

Of all the books I’ve written for Amberley Publishing Secret Great Yarmouth & Gorleston had the longest period of development. Not long after the idea was originally suggested a family tragedy would throw me off course and, with the huge support of the Amberley team, especially Jenny Stephens, for which I’m so grateful, the book sat still for a while.

I started to pull my notes and thoughts together and then the small matter of a pandemic got in the way. It began to feel that this could be the book that never was. But, over the following months I wrote more outlines, collected and took more photographs and began to feel that the book was coming together.

By then I knew that, not for the first time, my introduction to the book would have to include a reference to this being my personal selection of facts and anecdotes about Great Yarmouth and Gorleston. Firstly, it’s inevitably true. It was me writing the book. Secondly though I needed to address the fact that any view of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston would be subjective. Some aspects of the towns might be hugely attractive to some readers, whilst some might not.

And that was important. Because that’s the reaction that the towns generate in real life. For some the bright breezy, kiss me quick, seaside charm is delightful. For others it’s absolutely not.

I was born in Norwich and live there now. All of my life so far has been spent within twenty miles or so of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston. I’d seen the towns through different eyes in different times. As a child it was somewhere my parents took me, to let me play on the beach. As a teenager it was somewhere to go with mates and girlfriends. To be ‘cool’ (oh how we tried). As an adult I would go there on business and of course, as a parent, take my own daughter there. I will soon do the same with my granddaughter.

As my research and preparation took shape, and I began to feel the heft of the book, it became clearer to me that that this composite, this patchwork, was what makes Great Yarmouth and Gorleston so interesting.

As a Norwich native I’m passionate about how diverse and important Norwich is and has been. Even in 1700 Norwich was England’s second city, with only London more important. Now I began to see just how important Great Yarmouth has been. It was once probably the most important herring port in the world; and herrings were important. It had played a significant role in the country’s political history, especially in the Civil War.

Soon my findings were making it easy to map out the book’s structure. It was obvious. I had to cover ancient history, the geography and the civic development. But I could now develop sections to cover writers and writing, art, entertainment, inventions, medicine and commerce. Because Great Yarmouth and Gorleston had lots of involvement with all of them.

Which is why I had to make that personal selection.

I don’t know if this happens to other writers but for me the production and writing of a book like this has a strange sense of inertia. Sometimes, and definitely so in this case, it’s difficult to get the thing moving. Then it picks up speed. Before you know it, it’s roaring ahead and there’s a desperate need to regain control. And then, the calm sets in.

When the calm did set in, I reviewed what I’d done. I tweaked it. I took some pictures out, and put some more pictures in. I rewrote two sections because I wanted to change the tone. And then it was done.

I’m delighted with the book. The Amberley Publishing team have worked their magic again and the finished volume does everything I wanted it to.

I really hope that the book spreads the word about Great Yarmouth and Gorleston so that people who have not been there go to visit. I hope too that it stimulates some memories for people who know the places well. And of course, I hope that for everyone, even natives, it creates the reaction of ‘I never knew that!’

Secret Great Yarmouth & Gorleston by Pete Goodrum is available for purchase now.