Welcome to Poppyland Publishing - East Anglian Specialists

While other fishermen around the British Isles had similar stories to tell about their wartime experiences this is the story of the Lowestoft men and boys who found themselves in the frontline of the economic war with Germany.

During the First World War Lowestoft fishermen were required to make statements under oath to a Board of Trade official in order to seek compensation for losses. These unpublished statements, which were also used by Naval Intelligence in their vital work to defeat the U-boat menace from Germany, lay unresearched in the National Archives. Not all have survived, but those that have form the main primary resource material for this book. In examining these statements, the author, Alan John Curtis, provides an insight into what one might argue has been an overlooked area of the region's maritime history.

Alan came across the records while researching his family history. The family's ties to the history of the fishing industry in the town are strong. His grandfather, George Francis, being the last of the family’s driftnet fishermen, had married Barbara Isbister a ‘fishergirl’ from Shetland. However, it was through discussions with his father and his collection of books, old photographs and newspaper cuttings that inspired the initial research and in the end the writing of this book.

This short history of the town in our Town and Village series replaces the original 1980 publication long since out of print. It covers important aspects of the town’s history, including its defence over the centuries, civic pride and authority, the rise and decline of both its fishing and holiday industries and its revival in the late 20th and early 21st century, servicing the oil and gas and renewable energy industries.

It is the first of our publications to enable readers to access augmented reality technology through the use of their smart phone or tablet bringing the printed image literally to life on the page.

Suffolk’s second town has been characterised by its relationship with the sea whether it be through ship-building or the fishing industry. Competition led to tension with Great Yarmouth, but their historical development followed different paths. Lowestoft came into its own through the entrepreneurial zeal of wealthy townspeople in the Middle Ages and of one man, Samuel Morton Peto, in the 19th century.

This short history in our Town and Village series looks at key aspects in the growth of the community, the town’s move to the cliff top in the 14th century, its gains and losses in the 19th and 20th centuries and its re-branding today as the renewable energy capital of the United Kingdom.

Competition among the London grave-robbing gangs was fierce during the early 19th century. As the demand for bodies increased, so the risks in obtaining them grew. In 1827, they were to be discovered robbing Great Yarmouth’s graveyard. What made it more unacceptable was the involvement of Sir Astley Cooper, the eminent surgeon, who had been brought up at the vicarage in his youth.

The first of our new pamphlet series, looking at individual aspects of East Anglian history, explores this grizzly event in Yarmouth’s past.

Interested in the history of the county of Suffolk? - then this is a title you will certainly want to have on your bookshelf and will find intriguing when you pick it up to read. It starts with the story of the vessel which held the magnificent treasures now attributed to the Saxon king Raedwald and continues through to the twentieth century and the dramatic and continuing rise of the port of Felxistowe.

Along the way he outlines the leading role of the county in emigration to the New World, the events and significance of the Dutch wars, the shipbuilding industry, the fishing industry and Suffolk's part in the saving of life at sea. Lowestoft, Southwold, Felixstowe and Harwich, Aldeburgh and of course Ipswich are just some of the towns featured in this comprehensive and important book. Obtain from your local bookshop or online by clicking on the shopping basket below.

19th century popular culture is exemplified by this exploration of ten entertainers who came to the seaside town of Great Yarmouth.

Through Charles Marsh, the itinerant beach entertainer, who fell from the Naval Pillar, to John Thurton, the brilliant local ventriloquist and mimic from Woodbridge, the author provides an insight into the changing nature of entertainment as the holiday industry grew. While many represented in this book are now forgotten, some are perhaps more well known, such as Charles S. Stratton (Tom Thumb) and Jem Mace, the first heavyweight champion of the world. All can be found in this fascinating and accessible book.

There are quite a number of books about the north Norfolk town of Cromer. One of the reasons they are so comprehensively illustrated is because of the number of photographers working in the distirct at the beginning of the 20th century.

Not a full time photographer - he had a hotel to run - Philip Vicary kept a record through the century of the district and the changes taking place. In this album his son Adrian adds pictures of his own, to present us with a new selection of Cromer in times past. With both black and white and colour images, we can recall some of the famliar scenes - and some of the less evocative, that have now gone. You'll know some of the pictures but perhpas not the background to their taking which Adrian now provides; other pictures are published for the first time. An essential for the north Norfolk book collector.

Since the visit of London journalist Clement Scott to north Norfolk in the 1880s to the Cromer and Overstrand area, the name has 'Poppyland' has been used in many ways. It has been written about in many books, not least in some we have published.

Echoes if History makes a valuable addition to those accounts by taking us deeper into the story of the characters and families of the time, those who already resided on the coast and those who came as a result of Scott's writings.

It was a remarkable time as actors and writers, royalty and members of parliament, decided they need to find out about this unexplored part of the coast. Overstrand resident David Thornton has read himself back into the closing years of the Victorian period and into the Edwardian era. His account will add greatly to the enjoyment and appreciation of north Norfolk for those who live there and those who visit.

The West Norfolk Archaeological Society was founded in November 1967. To celebrate the 50th anniversary and to acknowledge how society has become more inclusive since that date, a conference in November 2017 was addressed by women speakers. A local cohort of heritage professionals and amateur researchers were invited to speak on their own inspirations, about famous women in the history of west Norfolk and of archaeological projects in which they had been involved.

Women in the Archaeology & History of West Norfolk is a collection of the presentations made at that conference, giving all a chance to share in the research and the presentations of the day. With brief biographies of all the speakers and a short history of the Society, it serves as both a record of the day and an introduction to many areas of further interest.