Books

Different Drums

​One Family, Two Wars
Different Drums delves into the Manthorpe family's pacifist journey from religious non-conformity to humanitarianism. Set in Norwich, the story begins in February 1917 when Walter Manthorpe, a staunch Quaker, sought exemption from military service as a conscientious objector. His steadfast beliefs landed him in the military barracks at Mousehold, followed by a harrowing period of solitary confinement in Wormwood Scrubs while London was being bombed. Sentenced to five years in prison, Walter took the option of Alternativist service. This was supposedly an opportunity to contribute to society while withholding support for the war but turned out to be gruelling and pointless hard labour in penal work camps.
​
When he returned to Norwich, he ran one of the first health food stores in England. By 1923 he had been received back into civic life and elected chairman of the Norwich District Grocers' Association. Walter had two sons, Walter Jr and Jack, and as fate would have it, they both came of age as the Second World War gained pace. The bonds of blood and ideology were tested as the two brothers faced choices that would define their futures.
Nominated for the East Anglian Book Awards 2024 in the category History and Tradition.
Out on Poppyland Publishing

Lilias Rider Haggard, Countrywoman

Mention the name Rider Haggard to the 21st century reader and it is the novelist, Sir Henry Rider Haggard, author of King Solomon's Mines and She, who comes to mind. His wild adventures and stirring romances held their popularity from the late 19th right through to the later decades of the 20th century. But the East Anglian might also swiftly call to mind his daughter, Lilias, who was an accomplished authoress in her own right, a columnist for the Eastern Daily Press and a range of national publications. Hers is a very different story. While she had the privilege of sharing in some of her father's exotic travels Lilias also shared her own generation's tragic experience of the First World War. As a VAD nurse she watched as the harrowing conflict changed their world. When she returned to her Norfolk home she came back not only with a new depth and compassion but also with a determined affirmation of rural life that soon found its expression in her on countryside matters in many articles and books.

Available at: ​Poppyland Publishing |  Waterstones | Barnes & Noble & Amazon

Children of the Empire

The Victorian Haggards
This work paints a portrait of a famous Victorian family, the Haggards, looking at how they epitomized the imperial Victorian lifestyle. Although Rider Haggard is the only member of the family whose fame has lasted, his six brothers and three sisters were all successful in their own way.
"…scrupulous research”… “she writes lucidly”… “I found myself wishing the book had been at least five times longer."
Sarah Bradford, Daily Telegraph
“I must also add how much I like and respect your earlier Children of the Empire. There isn’t a sentence in it that doesn’t reflect deep research.”
Stephen Coan, author
Available at Poppyland Publishing | Barnes & Noble | Amazon

The Japanese Diaries of Richard Gordon Smith

From Gordon Smith’s diaries takes us from his first impressions in 1898 through his detailed observations of the inland sea and his environs, and through the Russo-Japanese war to 1907. A great number of paintings as well as mementoes and photographs are reproduced in the book so that the reader as Gordon Smith intended, may experience the kaleidoscope of old Japan. The text has been drawn from the eight volumes which gordon smith bequeathed to his family and which have lain closed for sixty years and an introduction has been provided which supplies the backgrounds to the diaries to Richard Gordon Smith, and to the events of his life.
Available at Amazon