 At the end of this page you can read about the progress that we have been making in the past 18 months or so and how we plan to celebrate coming out of lockdown with two Book Launch events.
Initially funded by grants from Reading Borough Council and Southern Arts, it became a club of volunteers from 2001, encouraging them to produce their own titles as well as joint ventures.
Following the popular photographic record George Palmer School in photographs in 2004 (updated version in colour in 2014), many of its titles have encompassed aspects of schools and education, although Taylor-made Jackpot in 2012 tells the story of a Reading born and bred back-street bookie who developed his own chain of Bookmakers shops (Taylor’s Racing Service).
In September 2017, Daphne launched Long may our Lion Roar, which charts the 140 year history of one of England's most successful Schools - Kendrick School in London Road, Reading.  Daphne was a pupil at Kendrick Girls' School from 1955 to 1962 and has maintained strong links with the school and her peers. Kendrick School celebrated its 140th Birthday with a special event for over 200 Old Girls on Sunday 1st October, 2017 (photo left). You can read more about Long may our Lion Roar here. 250 Years of Exmouth's Firsts, which tells the story of 24 Exmouthians who were the first to achieve something special in their respective fields, was launched in 2019. Since then, we have worked on two projects but, due to the problems with planning book launches during the Coronavirus pandemic, we are waiting until the summer of 2021 when we hope we shall be free of lockdowns! The first project is a small book called Granny June's Alphabet Stories. The author of these, June Dingwall, had written many articles for our Church magazine Temple Link. When she told us that she had also written some children's stories, we asked her if we could compile them into a book with some of the proceeds to go to the FORCE Cancer Charity. We had arranged to publish this book in May 2020 but Coronavirus intervened so we are now hoping that its launch can be held in the summer of 2021. Please see the page dedicated to that book for more details. The other project is Finding the Booty. The first part of this book is based on more than 20 letters written by Gold Prospector John Parkinson and sent from Australia to his wife's family in Bristol in the 1850s. The other half features George Oxley's Boot and Shoe Order Book from the 1870s and details his many Royal and Noble Clients while he was working in London. The two halves reveal a fascinating reflection of two separate ways of life during the mid to late 19th century. The wives of both men - Mary Ann and Clara - were sisters and it is debatable which family found the greater booty, the ones who stayed in England or the ones who travelled half way round the world. |
