News From Nogdam End

News from Nogdam End gathers together the stories of a cross-section of people who lived and worked in Norton Subcourse, and the surrounding villages of Heckingham, Haddiscoe, Reedham, and Thurlton that lie in the south-east corner of Norfolk where the author grew up. The histories of those inhabitants offer a captivating glimpse of rural life during the 20th Century, while also documenting some of the most notable social changes that affected everyone. Recording the memoirs and thoughts, occupations and preoccupations of those chosen serves to reinforce the value of preserving memories in writing.

Besides the engaging first-hand narratives of marshmen, farmers, and ferrymen, the book also includes the memoirs and biographies of a few better-known inhabitants including folklorist Jennifer Westwood; the controversial Edwardian novelist, James Blyth, author Janet Hitchman, and those enduring Fen Tigers W. H. Barrett and James Wentworth Day.

The memoirs and histories included cover the first sixty years of the last century and reflect the characteristically rural nature of the people and places in this part of Norfolk, and it is often the humbler, more ordinary village folk who have the most extraordinary stories to tell when they put pen to paper. This truism is revealed in the writings of Sidney B. Smith and Arthur Broom, and in the life-affirming childhood recollections of Peter Randlesome, whose animated portrayal of village life for a schoolboy before, during, and immediately after WW2 makes for a compelling read.

News from Nogdam End runs to 306 pages and is copiously illustrated with over 200 black and white and colour photographs.

Lin Bensley regularly contributes articles to This England, Suffolk and Norfolk Life, Record Collector, and Yours Retro, and has also written for The Countryman, Evergreen, and Let’s Talk. He has had two books published previously: The Village Shop by Shire and The Book of Haddiscoe by Halsgrove , but News From Nogdam End is his first venture into self-publishing, a path he chose to allow himself more control over the layout and format.

“A veritable treasure trove of memories supplied by natives who lived and worked in and around this remote marshland outpost jostle for attention” Keith Skipper, Norwich Evening News