Welcome to Poppyland Publishing - East Anglian Specialists

Palling - A History Shaped by the Sea is a new addition to our 'Town and Village' series. Well, not entirely a new because we did first publish it several years ago but this new edition has been revised and extended by local author David Stannard, a good friend of the original author, Ronnine Pestell.

Since the first publication, much has come to light in north-east Norfolk to add to our knowledge of the pre-history of the area. From more recent Medieval and Tudor times, written records enable us to appreciate the continuing story. The constant battle with the North Sea, not least the account of the devastating floods of 1953, is a recurring theme. And beachmen, lifeboat crews and smugglers are all part of a history that is truly 'shaped by the sea'.

In 1980, the New Hanseatic League was founded in Zwolle in the Netherlands. Since then, 187 towns have joined this new European alliance, to share the benefits of trade, cooperatin - and mutual understanding of their past. Papers presented at two recent conferences in the Wash port of King's Lynn are published in this book, with the authors concentrating on their own specialisations and knowledge about the original Hanseatic League. Boston and Lynn on England's east coast were prominent ports in the originall League; they feature strongly in Six Essays in Hanseatic History as our knowledge of the great trading association of medieval times continues to be developed. You'll find the book at East Anglian bookshops or you can order by clicking the shopping basket below.

I Therefore Post Him as a Coward, the third title in our Norfolk Documents series, is the story of a Norfolk scandal in 1836. Genealogist and house researcher Gill Blanchard is renowned for her work in tracking down family histories, and occasionally stumbles upon a story which merits wider distribution, being an example of the social mores of a time gone by. Today's Burnham Market has absorbed a number of the earlier Burnham villages, including Burnham Westgate. When a dispute arose there through Sir Roger Martin appearing at morning service with his housekeeper sitting where a wife would be expected, the curate felt he had to act - and the outcome was the threat of a duel. Public handbills, family stories and private threats are all uncovered in I Therefore Post HIm as a Coward; click the basket below for the online order option or buy at your local bookshop.

Author Gareth H.H. Davies follows up his titles The Fall of Yarmouth Suspension Bridge and The Clown King - Popular Entertainment 18140-1860 with another dip into the entertainment world of the mid 19th century. With Pablo Fanque and the Victorian Circus he looks at the life of Norwich-born entertainer, horseman and impressario Pablo Fanque, born William Darby in 1810.

In describing the circus as "the ultimate form of spectator entertainment" the author relates how it professionalised, commercialised and industrialised types of performance that had existed for hundreds of year. The fact that Pablo was African British tells us something about Victorian Society, but so does the fact that he was born of very humble origins and became one of the best known and loved circus proprietors of the Victorian period. Click below to place an on-line order or check at your local bookshop

Using a range of early 20th century documents from the Norfolk Record Office, in Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives author Frank Meeres looks back to a time when women began to make their mark in politics and public life. From the suffrage movement and those who served in different roles in the First World War, the early break-throughs in the politics of Norwich and Norfolk in the 1920s, to moving stories from the Second World War, Ordinary Womenr, Extraordinary Lives focuses on determination, heroism and restoration in these women's stories

To order Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives click the shopping basket below, or call at your bookshop for a copy.

Happisburgh - The Story of Brtain Starts Here is a bold title for one of the booklets in our "Towns and Villages" series. But as well as recounting the story of the village in more recent times, author David Stannard goes right back to about 900,000 years ago, the date suggested for the footprints discovered in a layer of clay on Happisburgh beach.

The church and the infamous sands, the constant loss of land to the advancing sea and the story of wreck and rescue are all drawn together in this booklet, an ideal read to introduce you to a fascinating location. You can buy your copy at all good local shops or to order online, click the shopping basket below.

The latest offering from Norfolk's own humourist, raconteur and general wordsmith Keith Skipper - 'A Rum Ole Norfolk Year'. Keith, one of Norfolk's most colourful characters, scales his mountain of thirty years worth of daily diaries to pick out a wide range of memorable snippets. Hundreds of intriguing questions are answered in this new title. Click the shopping basket below for an on-line order, or pop into your bookshop or local store for a copy.

And to hear from Keith himself, click as he introduces 'A Rum Ole Norfolk Year'.

The years 1789 to 1815 were traumatic for British history in many ways A 'mad' king had lost the American colonies and now revolution in France, welcomed by many East Anglians, had invoked fear in many others. Thomas Paine and Horatio Helson were two Norfolk men who would come to prominence for very different reasons. Suffolk would be a temporary refuge for emigre French families. And Essex would be a marching ground for thousands of British troops who stood ready to throw back Napoleon's forces. Local voices preached revolution and loyalty. Offshore, the North Sea fleet sailed from Yarmouth, Harwich and numerous small coastal towns to combat the French privateers.

Click the basket below for your online order or check at your local bookshop. There's a video introduction at East Anglia against the Tricolor.

Boudica and Raedwald are two of the dominant characters in the early history of East Anglia, the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. What do we know about them and about the thread of continuity that links them? How close did Boudica come to driving the Roman army out of Britain in AD61? What influence did four centuries of Roman rule have on Raedwald, whose grave ship at Sutton Hoo contained such fabulous treasures?

In seeking answers to these questions, John Fairclough examines the discoveries of archaeologists over the past hundred years. Click the shopping basket below to order your copy of Boudica to Raedwald - East Anglia's Relations to Rome online, or ask at your local bookshop.

To complement one of our most recent titles, Lilias Rider Haggard - Countrywoman, we're pleased to bring back into print another book by Victoria Manthorpe, Children of the Empire - The Victorian Haggards, telling the stories of her several uncles. Their careers spanned the Army, the Royal Navy, the Diplomatic Corps, the Indian Civil Service and the Colonial Service, all at the peak of the British Empire. They were part of its successes, its foibles and its failures. It was their brother H. Rider Haggard who would be best know because of his many adventure stories, but their tales deserve telling in their own right. Click below to make an on-line order or pop into your local bookshop.

Overstrand in the Great War is the story of the men and women of the north Norfolk village one hundred years ago. In some ways of course it is not a unique village story but is shared with hundreds of towns, villages and communities across the United Kingdom. But of course it is a collection of individual stories, each unique in tis own right. Author Tim Bennett, a former Head Teacher in the village school, has collected together a vast range of material on the lives of the villagers, particularly those whose names appear on the War Memorial and the Roll of Honour.

From regular soldiers to VAD nurses, Territorials, Kitchener's volunteers and those who flew or went to sea, those who did not return and those who came back with changed lives, the author has gathered their stories.

To make an online order, clck the shopping basket below.

A History of Swaffham National Schools is a title we've added to our Norfolk Documents series, where we take the original documents from the county's archives and provide them with a context for a wider readership. Norfolk is fortunate in having a wealth of such documents surviving form the past millennium. In this case the author and his colleague bring us the log books of the National Schools of Swaffham from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. To a careful transcription of the texts, he has added introductions to give historical background and adds notes where appropriate; a selection of pictures further helps our understanding. It's available in local shops or on-line ordering can be used by clicking the shopping basket below.

Veteran broadcaster David Richardson introduces his book 'In at the Deep End' here and explains his first contact with Dick Joice of Anglia Television.

David is known throughout the farming world from his numerous magazine and newspaper articles of the last fifty years. BBC Radio listeners will be with familiar with his voice from his many years of broadcasting and viewers in the east of England are likewise familiar with his face from BBC East and Anglia Television. All the while, with wife Lorna, he has been actively looking after his own farm and bringing up his three children and now grandchildren. The book makes an enjoyable and informative read for all with an interest in the agricultural world and the food supply chain.

To go directly to the section where you can order the title online, click In at the Deep End.

The first British shot of the 1914-1918 war at sea was fired not far from the Suffolk coast on the morning of 5th August 1914. It was aimed at the enemy mine layer which had been laying a minefield in the coastal shipping channels. So begins Robert Malster's authoritative account of the maritime war in the North Sea. It was a war that did not end until months after the Armistice, with the need to clear the many minefields laid by both sides.

If you've enjoyed Robert Malster's two book on Norfolk's maritime history - and he's busy with a further title on Suffolk's story - you'll want to add this title to your collection. And if your interest is to look back on stories of the Great War, this is certainly one for you. It acknowledges the much-covered battle of Jutland, but concentrates on the considerable activities of the trawlers and drifters, destroyers and submarines, cruisers and naval aircraft that defended the UK shores from Harwich to Scarborough. Click North Sea War 1914-1919 for our 'Wartime' section, where you can order your copy.

For more than 40 years Mike Page has piloted his own aircraft to capture scenes across East Anglia from the air. Being both flier and photographer gives him to chance to choose the ideals days for using his camera and the results show in the quality of his pictures. This year the selection we've chosen shows Norfolk Country Houses from the Air in all their glory - and the settings in which they were built.

Many of the pictures will have appear on his web site, in the local press or in other titles, but this book gives a chance to present them around a common theme. We hope you'll enjoy the collection and appreciate yet another angle on the Norfolk countryside. The book is available in shops across Norfolk but if you'd like to order online, simply click on Norfolk Country Houses from the Air, then on the shopping basket and follow through the instructions.

I Walked by Night and The Rabbit Skin Cap are perhaps the two best-known of the books Lilias Rider Haggard brought to print. She acknowledged that both were written by countrymen that she knew; she had edited their words as little as possible to bring them to a wider reading audience. Norfolk Life, Country Life and Country Scrapbook were from her own knowledge and experience , bringing an understanding of the English countryside to both her Norfolk readers and an international audience. Her final work was to bring together the story of her father, H. Rider Haggard, in The Cloak that I Left . His many tales of wild adventures across the British Empire were known to tens of thousands of readers; this new biography Lilias Rider Haggard: Countrywoman confirms her status as an author in her own right. Click Lilias Rider Haggard for the section where you can use our on-line ordering facility.

As a disciple of the "don't throw that away 'cos it might come in handy one day" creed, Keith Skipper has a vast collection of pictures, newspaper articles anecdotes as a result of his years working in the print media, on the wireless and as a freelancer. With this new title, his 39th book, he has made a selection from this hoard and spiced it round with his usual humour to provide us with another chuckle or two.

Naturally it is a Norfolk collection. He pays warm tribute to his band of enthusiasts from all over Norfolk who have topped up his magpie's nest at regular intervals over the years. You'll find this latest title in shops across the county but if you'd like to order on-line, you can click on Keith Skipper's Norfolk Scrapbook, click the shopping basket and we'll get the dickey out and bring a copy over to you - or maybe the postman would be quicker!

Authors Pam Inder and Marion Aldis have made a speciality of researching the lives of 19th century women, particularly women who achieved commercial success in a world largely dominated by men. This latter statement was certainly true of the world of artists, but in researching the story of Catherine Nichols of Norwich for a chapter in an earlier title, they became convinced she warranted a biography of her own so A Forgotten Norwich Artist: Catherine Maude Nichols was written. To purchase a copy of the book, click A Forgotten Norwich Artist: Catherine Maude Nichols to go to our on-line order page or check out your local bookshop.

Friday 2nd May 1845 was a day of disaster in Great Yarmouth. Crowds had flocked to the suspension bridge across the River Bure to watch Nelson the clown. He was to undertake his usual stunt to promote the visit of Cooke's circus by travelling on the river in a wash tub - pulled by a team of geese .As the many on the bridge saw Nelson approach, they surged to one side and with a crack one of the supporting chains gave way. Hundreds were tumbled into the water and many did not survive.The Fall of the Yarmouth Suspension Bridge gives an account of the day, what led up to the disaster and life in Yarmouth at that time. Click The Fall of the Yarmouth Suspension Bridge if you'd like to order a copy on-line, or call at your favourite bookshop.

Doin Different: New Ballads from the East of England is certainly different for us! It's a collection of 39 ballads telling East Anglia stories - primarily about Norfolk events and legends. Verse, scores and songs from across the region provide their own way of telling our history. From Boudica to Bingo, Cromwell to Cavell, there's a range of subjects to enjoy - and the book leads to many on-line links for the songs and settings to the ballads in audio and video form. Click to go to the order page for Doin Different: New Ballads from the East of England.

Breeding Success - My Life as a Norfolk Farmer (Paperback edition) is the personal account of a family's journey from Scotland to the open pasturelands of east Norfolk and the success of the family members in developing award winning dairy herds of Friesians and then Holsteins. But the story is much more than that, for behind the personal account is that of agricultural development in county a part of its wide heritage in all sorts of farming. Within the story is the background to decision making in terms of cereal or dairy, land acquisition and mechanical development, all information which will add to the understanding of farming in Norfolk in the second half of the 20th century. Clicking on Breeding Success will take you to the section where you can order the paperback edition of the book

Breeding Success - My Life as a Norfolk Farmer (Hardback edition) is the personal account of a family's journey from Scotland to the open pasturelands of east Norfolk and the success of the family members in developing award winning dairy herds of Friesians and then Holsteins. But the story is much more than that, for behind the personal account is that of agricultural development in county a part of its wide heritage in all sorts of farming. Within the story is the background to decision making in terms of cereal or dairy, land acquisition and mechanical development, all information which will add to the understanding of farming in Norfolk in the second half of the 20th century. Clicking on Breeding Successwill take you to the section where you can order the hardback edition of the book

Maritime Norfolk Part Two completes Robert Malster's comprehensive study of Norfolk's maritime history. In the first volume, we travelled from Wisbech to Kings Lynn and then round the coast to Caister on Sea. This latest title concentrates on Great Yarmouth, from the first establishment of a herring market on the gradually forming sandbank, through to the gas, oil and wind farm businesses it hosts today. On the journey through the centuries, we see the town's part in England's medieval fleets, the Royal Navy's North Sea Squadron operating from the port, the great days of the drifter fleets and the time of the trawlers fleets of Gorleston - and many more aspects of this part of Norfolk's maritime heritage.

To order your copy, click on Maritime Norfolk Part Two and then on the shopping basket logo. Click to hear direct from author Robert Malster as he introduces this title and goes to some of the sites mentioned in the book.