Amberley Blog

For many people, a car is just a tool to get them around which is a pity because not only is it a very expensive tool , but this very complicated piece of, quite frankly, amazing engineering gives them the potential of freedom that nothing else can, both of which seems to be lost on them. Kevin Warrington asks, in...

Another book of old Brighton photographs? There have been so many over recent years (and I’ve written seven of them!) it might seem there really isn’t the need for another. What’s different about this new book is it contains a large number of really old photographs of the town, some dating to the 1840s. I doubt if any other seaside...

Whilst researching my book Cardiff in the Headlines, I came across many references to the unsolved and gruesome “Jack the Ripper” murders, and the fear that the perpetrator of the horrific crimes in the Whitechapel District of London in 1888 had planned to visit or had been spotted in the town. No doubt there have been serial killers before, and...

I was not a young man when I came to sailing with a first cruise on a yacht from Southampton to Weymouth aboard a 38 foot Sigma. A fine boat sailed in company with an experienced crew. At the end of four days I recall saying – Well I enjoyed that but I don't think it's going to change my...

One of the pleasures of writing local history is, of course, the research. Yet, even the hardest bitten historian who thinks he has uncovered all that his local area can conceal will sometimes unearth gems and nuggets of the past which will pleasantly raise the eyebrows and bring about a little surprised shake of the head. Such as it was...

My interest in fire stations was sparked by a single building. As a student of architecture studying in Bloomsbury, I would wander about looking at buildings and streets, and kept finding myself back at Euston admiring the beautiful purpose-built 1901 fire station there, designed by HFT Cooper for the Fire Brigade Branch of the London County Council’s Architects Department. I...

Ferio Ferendo – ‘I strike by carrying’ From a young age I was fascinated by aviation! Initially it was general aviation that caught my eye but eventually, after visiting a number of Royal Air Force (RAF) and United States Air Force (USAF) open days, I was hooked on military aviation. Strangely, it wasn’t always the fast and loud fighter aircraft...

During a summer’s walk along the idyllic Longdendale today, the loudest noise you will probably hear will be bird song, the barking of a pet dog or happy children. Thirty-six years ago, it would have been very different: the foot path you are walking or cycling along was once part of the first railway line linking Manchester and Sheffield. The...

The quest for Catholic emancipation during the reign of James II resulted in Ireland becoming a proxy battleground between competing European powers, the legacy of which has blighted modern times. Two Irelands evolved: an impoverished Gaeldom and a more prosperous class which lived well on incomes gleaned from confiscated land. It was an uncompromising system which between the years 1728...

I’m pretty sure that when I tell most people that Steve and I write books, they envisage us wafting around the countryside on lovely sunny days before returning to our mansion to scratch out a few words before dinner.  Well, it’s not really like that – and this book was particularly not like that. First of all we had to...