My Work
Coming first are the publications that are available now. If you are interested in obtaining copies of any of these, you can place an order via the Shop page.
Scroll down to find past work, and finally also some unpublished research that my readers may find interesting.
Available now
Available now
The History of the Post Office in Midhurst, West Sussex
Printed in full colour £7 | Paperback | Also available as an eBook to download FREE
This is an informative account of the various sites in Midhurst where the Post Office has provided its services from, and most of the content relates to when it was based from the building on Grange Road. The text is peppered with memories from ex-posties, or family members where the postal worker is sadly no longer with us.
The eBook is an exact replica of the printed version, and available to download.
For Children:
Sunwood Discovered
Full colour cover, black and white internal illustrations: £6.99 | Paperback
The first in a series of five books for boys and girls of ages 7 yrs +. Sunwood is a place like no other. Hidden in the depths of a wood in southern England, Sunwood provides shelter to creatures from all over the world, all now living freely and peacefully together. There is a reason why this could happen.
Will explorers Jack and Olivia discover the power of Sunwood’s magic? Join them on their new adventures and discover the amazing animals and birds that make Sunwood so special. Some may even say magical!
Continuing the Sunwood series:
Sunwood in Danger
Full colour cover, black and white internal illustrations: £6.99 | Paperback
The adventures for Jack and Olivia in Sunwood continue in this second book of the series, though not necessarily in a way they could have anticipated.
Storms have raged through the area, creating damage and unforeseen danger to the animals. Urgent action is needed to keep them protected. Jack and Olivia help with the rescue, but not all goes according to plan!
Read Sunwood in Danger to learn how they got on. Would you have handled the situation differently?
I am delighted to be able to introduce the Sunwood illustrators to you. The cover design has been beautifully created by Siski Kalla, who is a Londoner by birth, but has lived in various countries, including North and South America and Asia. She loves to paint watercolour illustrations of nature of all kinds, animals and children. More than anything, she loves children’s books (well, not as much as she loves her family and her dogs, obviously!)
I always like giving young students the opportunity to increase their experience, and was very excited when Emily Simmonds agreed to draw the chapter illustrations. At the time of giving her help, Emily was a student of art, music and psychology at Guildford High School. She has always had a love for books, drawing and anything arty, and is hoping to take her love of art into the future.
Being such a busy student, Emily does not have the time to do all of the Sunwood series, so another artist, James Warwood, has been recruited to do three of the five books. James is a writer and illustrator who lives on the borders of North Wales and is the best-selling author of the Excuse Encylopedia and the Truth or Poop series.
I am very lucky to have such a talented team!
Sunwood Magic at Christmas
Full colour cover, black and white internal illustrations: £7.00 | Paperback
The story opens on Christmas Eve, when Haslemere has some festive stalls on the High Street in the evening. The Goodhouse’s begin their fun by having a special drink in their favourite coffee house, Hemingways, whilst sitting in the window so they can watch the activities outside.
This book is all about having fun, although - as has so often happened with Jack and Olivia - they get more than they have bargained for. Despite that, you may well end up wishing your Christmas was more like theirs!
The button on the Shop page for this entry currently shows the wrong title. Don’t worry, it is correct in the order form. I am currently trying to correct the button text.
Other works, currently in the pipeline……
A book about the brickmaking industry local to Midhurst.
A general book about the heritage of brickmaking.
A novel set in the local area.
There are thoughts for a couple of more books, but I can’t mention them yet because … well, just accept that there may be more coming!
Past work
Past work
As mentioned, I had previously toyed with writing and here are the results.
Moving Monuments: can heritage be exported and still be appreciated? 2013
This is the dissertation from my MA in Egyptian Archaeology at UCL. I was proud of my research, and the dissertation was well received for my studies, but the subsequent publication was a great disappointment. I had removed the appendices to ensure confidentiality, and the publisher offered no additional editing. Also, the asking price on Amazon was far too high. I live, I learn.
THIS PUBLICATION HAS NOW BEEN REMOVED FROM THE MARKET.
I am considering republishing it myself, so watch this space!
‘Behind the heavy oak doors’, in Midhurst Magazine
Spring edition 2021, pages 7-11 for part 1, and Autumn edition 2021, pages 7-11 for part 2
While I was doing the research for this article for the Midhurst Society about the old Post Office building on Grange Road, I realised there was so much more that I wanted to say. As a lot of that additional information did not fall within the guidelines for the Midhurst Magazine, it was with mutual agreement that we decided I was free to publish a wider article myself, hence the birth of A History of the Post Office in Midhurst, West Sussex.
‘Reflections on lost traditions since the 1960s Nubian diaspora’
in Sudan & Nubia, Vol. 24, pages 311-317 2020
This article was based on the oral histories’ element of my research for the MPhil in Archaeology at University of Exeter. It was an enlightening experience for me, and is when I became immersed in the importance of cultural heritage.
Unpublished research
Unpublished research
Every now and then I will want to conduct research into projects that interest me, but which might not yield sufficient information to produce a book. You will find the results in this section.
Research into the names ‘Blackdown’ and ‘The Devil’s Punchbowl’, 2022
The names for each of these sites have variously been used in two different ways: Blackdown/Black Down, and Punch Bowl/Punchbowl. I wanted to find out whether any evidence existed for one way being more correct than the other.
I have not been able to get a definitive answer yet. There is one more source to follow up, which I have been denied access to but will continue to persevere. Until then, I can only tell you what I have found out so far.
For the case of Blackdown, I consulted the records at West Sussex Record Office, Surrey History Centre (as the area spans West Sussex and Surrey), the National Trust, Ordnance Survey and South Downs National Park Authority.
It should be noted that this research relies totally on information that is publicly available.
Blackdown / Black Down
The outcome of the research, as shown by the following images, is that both terms have been used since at least 1744, therefore no strong influence exists on either format. My personal opinion is that, in the absence of other proof, we might wish to be swayed into using the format adopted in the Tithe map, i.e. Blackdown.
It is interesting to note from the table below that the Ordnance Survey used ‘Blackdown’ in the draft of their first map of the area but, by the time it was published, it had become ‘Black Down’. Had something happened between 1840 and 1875 to prompt this?
|
Year of map |
Cartographer / Publisher |
Reference Code |
Name of area in question as shown on map |
|
1610 |
John Speed |
pm 249 (4A) |
Blackdoune Beacon |
|
1724 |
Richard Budgen |
pm 249 f5 |
Blackdown Hill |
|
1740 |
Philip Overton / Thomas Bowles |
pm 249 f10 |
Blackdown Hill |
|
1795 |
William Gardner / Thomas Gream |
pm249 f15 |
Blackdown Common |
|
1808-1809 |
OS (draft of 1 st map) |
pm281 f4 |
Blackdown Common |
|
1840 |
Lurgashall Tithe |
TD/W80 |
Blackdown |
|
1875 |
OS 1 st edition, 25” |
OS XI/9 |
Black Down |
|
1880 |
OS 1 st edition, 6” |
OS XI |
Back Down |
Information collated from maps held at WSRO
I have selected just three of these to illustrate the differences :
The above just relates to map research. The following relates to textual documents.
|
Year of entry |
Type of document |
Reference Code |
Name of area in question as shown in document |
|
1635 |
Indenture (deed) |
WSRO, Cowdray Mss 4942 |
Blackdown Hill |
|
1744 |
Will of John Yaldwyn |
WSRO, Cowdray Mss 1176 |
Black Down |
|
1761 |
Letter from W. Scutt |
WSRO, Cowdray Mss 4813 |
Black Down |
|
1810 |
Indenture |
WSRO, Cowdray Mss 1773 |
Blackdown Cottage |
|
1813 |
Indenture |
WSRO, Cowdray Mss 1441 |
Black Down |
|
1881 |
Accounts |
WSRO, Cowdray Mss 1871 |
Blackdown |
By courtesy of Lord Cowdray, and with acknowledgements to the County Archivist, West Sussex Record Office
Here are three more depictions of the difference in styles:
The Devil’s Punch Bowl / The Devil’s Punchbowl
This research was conducted at the Surrey History Centre. There were far fewer documents available for me to look at, so the results cannot really be called significant.
The sources were:
· 1827 County of Surrey map
· 1846 Apportionment of Tithe map of Thursley
· 1897 Large canvas map comprising OS Survey map XXXVII and Hampshire series
However, the entries for all three of the sources matched, with all using the two-word format, i.e. ‘The Devil’s Punch Bowl’. On this basis, it would be difficult to argue that ‘The Devil’s Punchbowl’ is the version that should be adopted, especially if we follow my advice about following the format given in the Tithe map.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the County Archivists and their teams from both offices who helped me with the research, and Malcolm Ogilvy, Membership Secretary of the Black Down and Hindhead Supporters of the National Trust, for approaching the NT on my behalf. Some of this work was quite time-consuming, especially that conducted in Chichester, and everyone’s help has been appreciated.
As mentioned earlier, this was the subject of my MPhil in Archaeology, and became one of my passions. The research was largely split between two topics: one was to receive memories from older Nubian people about life before the diaspora, which was covered in my article in Sudan & Nubia, as already shown on this page.
The other aspect, not yet published, concerned identifying how many Nubian artefacts were in museums all around the world and, of these, how many were easily accessible via their websites. A key component was how many of these websites offered translations in Arabic.
I am currently considering how best to promote that part of my thesis, and am delighted to announce that Mustafa Osman, who I worked with in southern Egypt, has agreed to translate the outcome into Arabic. That is exactly the thrust this project needs.
Meanwhile, here is a video of an ad-hoc interview at Kom Ombo. This was a very last-minute visit, conducted on my last full day in Egypt. This snippet shows how I managed to record getting their permissions to use their memories, and captures the ease with which I could chat to the Nubian people and their desire to be of help.