Researching Local History: Your Guide to the Sources, by Stuart A. Raymond

This book is going to cost me so much money! No, not the price of the book (which is very good value indeed, given current book prices), but many of the other books and journals that Raymond mentions. I was unaware of several of the journals and I also now have a long shopping list of books. To be fair, though, several of the journals he mentions make older issues freely available online.

If you are really interested in researching history yourself, rather than reading stuff written by others, this book is invaluable. Before finishing Chapter 2, I was weeping with joy because I’d bookmarked a website containing stuff I’d previously been told wasn’t available online. (Private Bills of Parliament authorising the construction of railways in the 1800s, since you ask!) By the end of the book, I had many more bookmarked sites. Stuart Raymond has been studying local history for over 50 years and REALLY knows his sources. 

The book is structured well, with chapters covering a wide range of aspects of historical research. The chapter, “Preliminaries to Research” tells the reader where to find sources about sources. That is, it suggests bibliographies, websites, specialist libraries and societies that can provide lists of sources for your chosen topic. The Museum of English Rural Life was a new one for me. That one chapter contains references to:

100+ Webpages

50+ Books

10 journal articles

“People and Population” doesn’t just mention the usual suspects such as the births, marriages and deaths registers, but also sites like www.histpop.org that give summary reports based upon census information. Several chapters refer the reader to articles in scholarly journals such as the Agricultural History Review, where the issues from 1953-2018 are freely available online.

The chapters inevitably overlap. The Domesday Book, for example, appears several times. That’s understandable: it tells us who lived somewhere and what they did; what the land was used for; how much it was worth; etc. Initially, I was a little impatient with the numerous references to the National Archives guides but then I realised that Raymond’s one line reference to a well-written comprehensive 2–3-page guide prevents his book being much, much longer and more expensive. Thank you, Mr Raymond!

Do I have any quibbles? Yes – and you will share this first one... There’s not enough about MY area of research. I guess it depends upon your chosen area of research. I’m interested in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, so all the references to muster rolls and manorial court records won’t help me. I wanted more about municipal records of Urban District Councils, for example. However, it is highly unreasonable to expect an author to deliver a general guide that greatly assists everyone and also gives huge detail about every specialist area. As the introduction warns, “In a book of this length, it is not possible to deal with all the sources and topics that might be of interest to local historians. Nor is it possible to provide the detail that might be thought desirable.”

Secondly, a book published in 2022 probably ought to refer to GIS databases such as ukdataservice.ac.uk. And thirdly, although Raymond rightly mentions the excellent British Newspaper Archive, he doesn’t warn the reader about the often-appalling quality of the OCRed text that often thwarts searches for specific phrases.

I cannot believe how useful this book is and I’m about to recommend it to everyone on my MA degree course. Thank you, Pen and Sword, for sending me an early copy to review – and thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr Raymond for writing this book.

- Colin

Hardback, £16.99.

Order it now!

Spies in Canaan, by David Park

A thought-provoking, unique novel by Irish author David Park, following fictional character Mikey Miller. The novel is a little slow to grip you, but once hooked you’re engrossed in the plot and will not want to put it down.

The first half of the book follows Mikey as he works as a junior diplomat for the American forces in Vietnam, during the Vietnamese war. Park fantastically sets the scene, describing a humid, adventurous, and tense Saigon, as seen through Mikey’s eyes. As the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong close in on the city, Mikey is offered an exciting yet nerve-wracking opportunity to advance his career with a somewhat dubious role in espionage. However, drip-by-drip he becomes more and more disillusioned by his superiors and what ‘America’ are doing in Vietnam. As things come to a head, he feels increasingly out of control and out of the loop, and unable to provide any answers to the Vietnamese who have been promised lives in America for their loyalty, but are now being left on their own.

The second half of the book cuts to forty years later, where a widowed and retired Mikey is forced to reflect on his and others actions in Vietnam. The Vietnamese evacuee crisis is paralleled now with the immigrants illegally coming into America today, and Mikey is forced to confront his regrets and actions. 

Whilst set in Vietnam and America, this novel provokes one to think about the refugee crisis around the world; in Afghanistan, Ukraine, the Channel crossings, and how we as a society, and as individuals, are facing the catastrophes. Mikey’s soul searching cannot help but reflect one’s own soul searching in these times. 

A thoroughly enjoyable read that I highly recommend.   

4/5 stars

- Lauren

Lauren reviewed the proof edition of "Spies in Canaan."

It has now been published in Hardback, at £16.99.

Click here to order now!

Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt

Set in Sowell Bay, Washington, we begin our story with a diary-like entry from Marcellus, who just so happens to be an octopus. Marcellus has been living as an exhibit in the Sowell Bay Aquarium since his capture, and he's not exactly happy about it. A little way in though, during one of his 'adventures', he meets elderly cleaning lady, Tova, and the two form a sort of friendship.

Tova tragically lost her son over 30 years ago, and more recently lost her husband to cancer. She cleans the Aquarium to keep busy, but she is still haunted by the unanswered what-ifs surrounding the death of her son. Marcellus puts two and two together and tries desperately to communicate the truth to Tova, and we meet a new face in town also looking for some truths of his own. 

This is a cosy armchair mystery (without a great deal of mystery) that is easy to read and an easy narrative to keep up with. If you're feeling burned out lately, this may be the escapism read for you! I love the unique relationship between Tova and Marcellus, and the crochety voice Marcellus is given throughout the tale. The plot is quite predictable but it's a heartwarming read, with little quirks to the characters throughout. I think I would have loved more of Marcellus (or possibly even all Marcellus!) as he's such a unique voice and perfectly written as an octopus.

The ending doesn't quite tie up all the loose ends, which I actually really like in a story - a little ambiguity keeps the mind ticking! Although I liked the arc of the story I felt some of the details were quite random and unnecessary, and sometimes brought me out of the world of Sowell Bay while I tried to figure out why it was important to know the details of cleaning day when we're in the middle of an argument. The plot itself was quite clichéd - losing phones to give an excuse for an argument, an imminent move to create urgency, a disgruntled teenage son sabotaging his mother's date etc... But on the whole an enjoyable read, and a chance to escape into another world for a little while. A definite 'beach read'! 

- Emma

@emma.greenwood

Hardback, £14.99.

Click to order!

Illuminations, by Alan Moore

 Since announcing his retirement from writing comic books, Alan Moore has been hard at work concentrating solely on the written work, with short-story compendium Illuminations being the first offering of his new image-less era.

As is always the case when it comes to Moore, however, nothing is as it seems. Of the nine instalments in this book, one of them – What We Can Know About Thunderman – takes up half the volume. But more on that later.

Not all of them are new works – the first five tales were included in previous anthologies, with opening story ‘A Hypothetical Lizard’, described by Moore as “my first serious attempt at short prose fiction”, penned back in 1987. While its quintessentially sci-fi tale of a mysterious cult that hones its members’ specialist skills is evocative enough, it’s clearly the hallmark of a creative talent dipping his toes into another medium.

‘Location, Location, Location’ has a similarly intriguing gimmick, taking the Benjamin Button story trope of living life backwards and making it literal. ‘Not Even Legend’, about a seemingly eventless UFO discussion group, isn’t as memorable, but the craftsmanship and shock factor Moore is known for is clearly present. ‘Cold Reading’, meanwhile is arguably the pick of the existing stories, a haunting tale of a fraudulent psychic who gets more than she bargained for. The ending will be pondered on long after reading. Finally, ‘The Improbably Complex High-Energy State’ is harder to pin down: abstract, and with more than a bit of old-fashioned Lovecraftian dread about it. 

Onto the newbies! Title track ‘Illuminations’ bucks the trend by appearing to tell a story we can instantly relate to: revisiting childhood. This is attempted by a recent divorcee who visits the old caravan park he regularly frequented in his childhood. He isn’t sure what he’s expecting to find, but doesn’t expect to find what he does. To say any more would be to spoil a truly haunting story.

By far the longest story here, the 200+ pages of ‘What We Can Know About Thunderman’ serves as a chronicling of the comic-book industry that birthed the titular fictional character and subsequently grew around it as the character’s popularity exploded.

Of course, it’s a paper mint-thin parody of a certain caped superbeing, and Moore makes no attempt to disguise this. Whether he’s looking at the chaotic private lives of the character’s creators, ranking his favourite in-universe movies (just switch ‘Thunder’ for ‘Super’) or slamming the lack of credit the creatives received for their efforts (it’s impossible not to read this as a comment on the author’s own perceived treatment at the hands of various comics companies) or critiquing the state of the industry today, it’s clear that while Moore may be finished (for now) with writing comics, he sure as hell isn’t done writing about them.

After such a marathon, the remaining stories struggle to match up. ‘American Light - An Appreciation’ spins a publishing industry yarn that simply doesn’t grab the attention in the same way that the rest of the anthology does, and ‘And, At the Last, Just to Be Done with Silence’ feels hard to judge on its own, feeling more like a summary of what has come before.

As you’ve probably gathered, “Illuminations” is piecemeal by its very nature, and as such is invariably hit-and-miss. But it also showcases one of the greatest creative talents working today doing whatever the hell he wants. On balance, that has to be seen as a good thing.

- Stephen

Stephen reviewed the proof edition of "Illuminations."

Publication day is 11th October 2022. Hardback, £20. Pre-order with us now!

The Hollow Sea, by Annie Kirby

The Hollow Sea is an enchanting, winding tale, following Scottie and her personal discoveries on the archipelago St Hia. After deciding against another round of IVF, Scottie travels to the North Atlantic Ocean, hoping for a glimpse of where she truly came from. The seamless blend of contemporary fiction and mythology cement Kirby’s work as a must-read for anyone looking to add a touch of fantasy into the modern world. 

The Hollow Sea’s particular strength comes in its narrative style, beautifully encapsulating the vivid, if isolated, islands of St Hia. The setting is so intricately mapped, that the reader is unwilling to leave the islands, disappointed, even, when the plot returns them to a more familiar setting. Likewise, the narrative captures the character of Scottie fully, carefully, but honestly handling her trauma. Her mourning for the children she never had, and exhaustion at the fertility treatments she undergoes are heart-wrenching and layered. She grows bitter towards her friends who have children, yet remains kind and considerate towards children themselves. Scottie is never reduced to the stereotype of a childless, cold woman, only following her own self-interest in her rejection of her ‘biological role’. The issues surrounding infertility are complicated and, at times, conflicting, yet this experience is handled with care and consideration and, even among the fantastical elements of this tale, it feels overwhelmingly real.

The structure of this work is, as far as I can tell, quite unique. Chapters following Scottie in the present are interweaved with chapters on her childhood, and chapters on the characters Thordis and Susan. Scottie’s past is gradually revealed, developing her character slowly, unravelling small parts of her at a time, adding to the air of mystery Kirby creates. What makes this work unique, however, is the chapters following Thordis and Susan, which work backwards through Thordis’ life. By learning of what happened to her in this manner, the reader is subject to misconceptions and misunderstandings, grasping at a few known pieces of information in the same manner that Scottie is. Kirby brilliantly maintains the mystery right up until the two plotlines coincide towards the end, successfully keeping her reader in the dark just enough to create the magic of the various reveals. 

I believe the conclusion of The Hollow Sea may be a divisive one. By never confirming that the more fantastical, mythological, parts of St Hia are real or imagined, Kirby opens herself to acceptance (or otherwise) of the ending, based on which side the reader fell on. While the conclusion of Scottie’s arc feels fitting if the fantastical aspects are taken as purely metaphorical, this is not the case if they are taken verbatim. In this case, the mythological is lost in the conclusion, which is somewhat underwhelming. The ending of The Hollow Sea is a sudden one, and does feel somewhat rushed which may help explain its underwhelming arc. Spending longer on the final act of the novel may have perfected Scottie’s development and offer better justification of her final choices. 

On the whole, this is a fantastic read set in a beautiful and mysterious corner of the world and interwoven with just the right amount of fantasy. This intriguing take on mythology sets it alongside recent works such as When Women Were Dragons, blending the contemporary and magical worlds in order to uncover the realities of the female experience. 

I highly recommend The Hollow Sea by Annie Kirby and hope it will receive the praise it deserves. 

Abi’s rating: 4.5/5

- Abi

Instagram: @abbie.bessant / Twitter: @abiwritesbadly

Abi reviewed a proof copy of "The Hollow Sea."

It is now out in hardback! £18.99. Click to order!