Next Year by Megson - a song for spring 2020

Anglian Annals – a whistle stop tour of East Anglian history

Last autumn I published Anglian Annals, the third in Norwich based writer, Peter Sargent's series of books covering the rich history of East Anglia, following A Moment in Time (2017) and A Place in History (2018).

Each book looks at 50 different stories covering the region's past from early days to the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Anglian Annals is slightly different to the first two books, as it covers folklore and legend, as well as history.

The Norwich area is well represented in all three books, as befits such a historic city, which is brim full of fascinating stories from the past. Anglian Annals includes the legend of St William, Stigand, the last Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury, who was a Norwich native, the building of the city's medieval walls and Kett's Rebellion. That's just for starters. Here are details of more Norwich stories, which Peter selects to both inform and entertain the reader.

In the Folklore and Legend section, Peter discusses the origins of Snap the Dragon, a colourful character who, accompanied by the Whifflers, is seen out and about every July in the Lord Mayor's Procession.

Snap began life in the early 15^th century, when the Norwich Guild of Saint George acted a play on the Saint's Feast Day. A member of the guild, acting the role of Saint George, rescued Saint Margaret from a dragon.

Peter explains: “Old Snap entered Norwich folklore, his first recorded archive entry being 1408. With his snapping jaws he would caper among the crowds, a complex figure of both fun and fear.”

“Writing as late as the 18^th century, local historian Benjamin Mackerell said: The Dragon, carried by a Man in the body of it, gave great diversion to the common People. They always seemed to fear it when it was near them, but always looked upon it with pleasure when it was a distance from them.”

“An inscription in Norwich Castle's grounds records some possible dialogue spoken by Saint George as he tackled Snap: Should twenty thousand dragons rise, I'd fight them all before your eyes! And now I'll slay the dragon, my wonders to begin. A fell and fiery dragon he, but I will clip his wing.”

'Medieval Marvels' features a story with the title 'As old as the Adam'. The Adam in question is Norwich's oldest pub, the Adam and Eve, which began life as an extension to the brewing activities at The Great Hospital. The first recorded customers were Cathedral workers who were paid with bread and ale in 1249.

Peter delves into tales of ghosts, smuggling and murder plots at the pub and produces the roll call of modern celebrity visitors including the late actor Sir John Hurt, political activist Peter Tatchell, dancer Wayne Sleep, Undertones former front man, Feargal Sharkey and comedian Vic Reeves.

The Adam and Eve is the perfect place to relax, enjoy a drink and immerse yourself in history and have a good browse through one of Peter's books.

Anglian Annals launch, 21 September 2019 at Jarrold Norwich, left Peter Sargent and right Paul Dickson 

Then in the Tudor era, what about the 1507 Great Fire of Norwich. Peter quotes poet John Skelton who wrote about the fire, “All life is brief, and frail all man's estate. City, farewell, I mourn thy cruel fate.”

There were in fact two disastrous Norwich fires in 1507. The first fire began in Tombland towards the end of April and burned a trail of destruction as far as Pottergate, destroying all the houses on Elm Hill except for the building we know as the Briton's Arms. It even made it's way across the river into the Colegate area. Then in June a second fire began in Colegate. Some 40% of the city was destroyed with more than 700 houses being burned to the ground.

Peter explores the reasons for the destruction: “A modern health and safety expert would have closed down 16^th century Norwich , and most other towns, as an accident waiting to happen. Buildings were largely timber-built, they had wooden chimeys and roofs made of thatch. It was a recipe for disaster...Once a fire took hold it was hard to stop. It was all hands to the job, but a few leather buckets, ladders and hooks for pulling down burning thatch were about as far as the technology went.”

Norwich rose from the ashes as the corporation brought in a fire prevention regulation, which required people to use tiles on roofs, rather than thatch, when building new houses. If you survived the fire you were allowed to keep your thatch – the roofing material still proudly displayed by the Briton's Arms.

Finally, an example of one of Peter 19^th century stories: the 1848 murder of Isaac Jermy, the Recorder of Norwich and his son Isaac Jermy Jermy by their tenant farmer, James Blomfield Rush, and his subsequent execution.

The mortgage on Rush's farm was about to be foreclosed and Rush decided that the only way to stay at the farm was to murder his landlord. On the night of the murders he also shot and wounded the Jermy's maid, Elizabeth Chestney, who recognised him as his disguise slipped. She was to testify against Rush at his trial.

The trial was a media sensation with the popular newspapers filling many column inches about Rush. He was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. Executions were still public and some 20,000 people witnessed Rush's death outside the Castle, brought to Norwich by the new rail network.

Peter records the crowd's response, “A reporter wrote: The greatest silence prevailed, the solemn stillness being only broken by the solitary shriek of a woman who had fainted in the crowd.”

Anglian Annals is on sale at Allthingsnorfolk.com and Amazon. For more information about Peter Sargent's books see www.pauldicksonbooks.co.uk .

Jamie Lonsdale - Footprints

Forty-two years ago I joined the Royal Navy with Jamie Lonsdale. I reconnected with him and several other former colleagues two years ago. It has been wonderful finding out how our careers and lives have developed over the years post Navy,

Jamie is now a trained singer and has just released his first album, Footprints, The album features 13 songs all written by Jamie in collaboration with friends and musicians. It's the perfect collection of songs for 2020 and the troubles unleashed on us by Covid-19. The songs, which are all richly orchestrated, take you into a fabulous musical world.

For more information see www.jamie-lonsdale.com and have a listen to the youtube trailer here:

Paul Dickson Tours - Coronavirus Precautions

Shardlake's Norwich Tour on Kett's Heights

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, I have had to cancel public bookable tours for the forseeable future.

This means that my regular Shardlake's Norwich tours, celebrating CJ Sansom's best-selling novel Tombland and looking at Norwich at the time of Kett's Rebellion (1549), are not going ahead.

I have also had to postpone the launch of a new tour, Norwich: the City of Stories. This tour celebrates the writers who have lived in Norwich and those who written about the city. Listen to readings and hear stories about writers from Julian of Norwich to Parson Woodforde, Amelia Opie, Harriet Martineau, Anna Sewell, JB Priestley, Ian McEwan and more; also learn about the city's proud history of libraries.

I will be back as soon as we can gather on the streets in groups again.

Stay safe.

More information at www.pauldicksontours.co.uk.

Win Books Published by Paul Dickson at Allthingsnorfolk.com

Head to Allthingsnorfolk.com and enter the competition to win the eight books that I have published to date. Click on the competition link here

Here are the books:

A Moment in Time, A Place in History and Anglian Annals: all East Anglian history books by Peter Sargent.

Miracle in Kigali: Illuminee Nganemariya and her son Roger's story of survival in the Genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda (1994) and subsequent life in Norwich.

Ink in my blood - my half century in newspapers: Neil Haverson's memoirs of his career, primarily with Eastern Counties Newspapers (latterly Archant), plus his favourite columns including the famous 'Fortress H' dispatches,

Curly Sheep's bad hair day and Molly Moo, the independent cow: children's books written and illustrated by Sandra Derry.

On the Edge: the debut thriller by retired Norfolk GP, Tony Ashman     

Ink in my blood - Neil Haverson - audiobook

Last year I published an audiobook version of Neil Haverson's Ink in my blood memoirs. The book is also available in print and as an ebook.

The audiobook 'voice' was provided by Neil's son Nick (Brat Minor for those of you who have followed Fortress H). Nick is a professional voice-over artist and audio-producer. You can read about his work here 

It was good to read Charlotte Runcie's piece in the Daily Telegraph (March 19) discussing the joys of the audio book: 'When you're stuck indoors, as we all are these days there is nothing nicer than reading a good book, except for, sometimes, listening to one. Hearing another person's voice telling you a story is a simple way of feeling more connected and less alone.'

So, if you'd like to sample Ink in my blood, do listen to this excerpt, click here 

The full audiobook is available as an Audible download here 

You can also buy a CD version at allthingsnorfolk.com 

For more background see pauldicksonbooks.co.uk

Happy listening!