It records the complete history of many of Kenilworth’s notable landmarks, including both cinemas, The Kings Arms, The Globe Hotel and clock tower, and houses such as Kenilworth Hall, The Firs, Crackley Hall, Chesford Grange, etc

Within each chapter are the life stories of the occupants and their contribution to Kenilworth life. ‘The Globe Hotel’ chapter includes a fresh look at the land mine explosion in 1940; the clock tower history also records the lives of its benefactor and architect.

The full story of Kenilworth’s largely unknown bicycle pioneer is told in a Kenilworth book for the first time, as is the early days of the Scouting and Guides movement.

Other chapters record Harry Eykyn and his garage, Kenilworth’s first pilots, the influence of the Bourne family, the long-lost once-flourishing chemical industry, and Rouncil Towers – that became the country’s first Motel.

 There are over 125 illustrations, drawing on archives from noted local collectors, records offices, libraries, and the local newspapers, as well as my own archives and original photographs dating back some 30 years.

A Review By Frances

This beautifully presented slim little volume represents some of the work that Carol Ann Duffy has created since being made Poet Laureate.  Her linking theme is bees and two of my favourites are “Virgil’s Bees” which closes with the warning, “bees are the batteries of orchards, gardens, guard them”

And “The Human Bee”, inspired by the dearth of bees in China, which has resulted in cross pollination being done by hand – in spite of the skill of the human bee,  “I could not fly and I made no honey”

We heard Carol Ann Duffy read from this collection at Warwick Words recently, and hearing the stories that were the inspiration to the poems certainly adds to their poignancy and humour.  A particularly clever riposte is “Mrs Schofield’s GCSE” using  examples from Shakespeare of knifings, stabbings and other crimes of violence.  (One of Duffy’s own poems mentioning knife crime was removed from the GCSE syllabus when it was deemed unsuitable for young minds.) “Water” is an ode to her late mother, whose loss Duffy is still mourning, and there is a wonderful rant about the loss of the use of counties in addresses in, “The Counties” where Duffy’s sparky wit is given full reign, “But I want to write to an Essex girl..”

 Another lovely collection to treasure.

THE GAME’S AFOOT…It is November 1890 and London is gripped by a merciless winter. Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are enjoying tea by the fire when an agitated gentleman arrives unannounced at 221b Baker Street. He begs Holmes for help, telling the unnerving story of a scar-faced man with piercing eyes who has stalked him in recent weeks.

Intrigued by the man’s tale, Holmes and Watson find themselves swiftly drawn into a series of puzzling and sinister events, stretching from the gas-lit streets of London to the teeming criminal underworld of Boston. As the pair delve deeper into the case, they stumble across a whispered phrase ‘the House of Silk’: a mysterious entity and foe more deadly than any Holmes has encountered, and a conspiracy that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of society itself…With devilish plotting and excellent characterisation, bestselling author Anthony Horowitz delivers a first-rate Sherlock Holmes mystery for a modern readership whilst remaining utterly true to the spirit of the original Conan Doyle books. Sherlock Holmes is back with all the nuance, pace and powers of deduction that make him the world’s greatest and most celebrated detective.

Terrific reviews…..

Prize-winning author Adam Nicolson tells the story he was born to write — the real story of England. It is the gentry that has made England what it was and, to a degree, still is. In this vivid, lively book, history has never been more readable.

We may well be ‘a nation of shopkeepers’, but for generations England was a country dominated by its middling families, rooted on their land, in their locality, with a healthy interest in turning a profit from their property and a deep distrust of the centralised state. The virtues we may all believe to be part of the English culture — honesty , affability, courtesy, liberality — each of these has their source in gentry life cultivated over five hundred years. These folk were the backbone of England.

Adam Nicolson’s riveting new book concentrates on fourteen families with a time-span from 1400 to the present day. From the medieval gung-ho of the Plumpton family to the high-seas adventures of the Lascelles in the 18th-century, to more modern examples, the book provides a chronological picture of the English, seen through these intimate, passionate, powerful stories of family saga. The families have been selected from all over the country and range from the famous to the unknown.

Some families are divided by politics , such as the family that took different sides in the Reformation; others destroy their inheritance through reckless gambling or investments . All of them are vivid depictions of the life and code of the gentry, and have left deep archives of family papers which the author has been able to use, often for the very first time. THE GENTRY is first and foremost a wonderful sweep of English history.

It presents a convincing argument on what has created the distinctive English character but with the sheer readability of an epic novel.

‘Mattress Falls Off Truck Into Kidderminster Road’…’Man Stole Tortoise To Pay For Booze’…’Aquatic Centre Roof Sag Explained’…Every week Britain’s local newspapers bring their investigative skills to stories of vital historical importance. While global conflicts rage, the local paper looks closer to home to the events that really matter. These can be as diverse as animal news (’Smug Swans Attack Dalmatian’), human peril (’Man Found Nailed To Bench’), domestic crisis (’Oven Removed From Home’), or disaster avoided (’No Flood Warnings for North Somerset’).

“Whitstable Mum in Custard Shortage” is the first book to collect and celebrate these triumphs of British journalism – from surreal billboard headlines to the full text of the classic articles. If you like QI and The News Quiz, you’ll love this book. And the next time there’s a seismic global news event, just remember: somewhere a local reporter is crafting 500 words on the ‘Youth Found In Phone Box With Fork’, while their fellow hack is collecting ‘Tributes As Popular Lichfield Cat Dies’…

And yes there are two entries from our very own Leamington Courier!