On the Trail of Sherlock Holmes – FIRST REVIEWS
Books are these days sometimes put out for review prior to publication. It can be quite nerve-wracking waiting for them to come in! This is what happened with this book. All the following are genuine, independent and verifiable by checking Netgalley.com Armchair Or...
Walking Literary London
Currently working on ...I have a wonderful assignment for Pen and Sword Books – Walking Literary London – which is due for submission by February 2022. It will be on time (not always the case as books tend to have a life and character of their own and can play up). It...
20 Facts about Norwich and Norfolk
20 facts you may not know, and some questions for you, about Norwich and Norfolk This article is based on information in the book ‘Visitors’ Historic Britain: Norwich and Norfolk – Stone Age to the Great War’ by Stephen Browning and Daniel Tink, published in February...
Cloudesley Walks to Work
This tale is taken from ‘Visitors’ Historic Britain: Norwich and Norfolk’ by Stephen Browning and Daniel Tink and published by Pen and Sword in February 2020 at £14.99 A fictional story based on genuine news reports in the local papers of the day The year is 1814 and...
Top ten Sherlock Holmes
To celebrate sending my book ‘Walking Sherlock Holmes’ to the publisher – due out about Spring 2021 – I have compiled a ‘Top Ten’ of my personal favourites, for one reason or another, of people who have played the great consulting detective. In the book we analyse the...
Special places in the life and works of Charles Dickens
Many see Charles Dickens as the world’s greatest novelist, and this includes some of his illustrious contemporaries such as Leo Tolstoy. His life proceeded almost as dramatically as his plots – his father was imprisoned for debt when he was 12 years old and yet, just...
The crash landing
The following is a fictional account of a real incident recorded on page 207 of my book ‘Norfolk at War 1939-45’. A crashed German pilot tried to surrender in the dead of night at a remote Norfolk pub but was told to ‘Go away!’ by the landlord who did not realise what...
Norfolk Coast in the Great War talks and reviews
‘Norfolk Coast in the Great War’ by Stephen Browning. Pen and Sword, paperback, £12.99 Available in good bookshops, including Jarrold, Waterstones, leading independents and online at Amazon, Blackwells, Foyles, WH Smith and all usual suspects. TALKS... I have been...
Darkest Hour review
DARKEST HOUR – FILM REVIEW Stephen Browning The final words of this amazing film stay with me. In the House of Commons, after the famous ‘We will fight them on the beaches’ speech and with the House cheering Churchill to the rafters, one man asks another ‘What has he...
Norfolk at War 1935-45
A new book published 7 November 2018: NORFOLK AT WAR 1939-45 by Stephen Browning. It is a paperback from Pen and Sword: Priced at £12.99, it has 336 pages with over 300 illustrations. It traces the war, year on year, from the perspective of the people of Norfolk and...
Norfolk Coast in the Great War
Norfolk based author Stephen Browning talks about how his new book came about and some of the most interesting stories he unearthed while writing it. Present day photo: Daniel TinkThis book came into being several years ago whilst having tea in the Britannia Café,...
Be My Valentine!
Who was St Valentine?Saint Valentine’s Day, 14th February, is recognised as a special ‘lovers’ day’ in many countries although it has never been a public holiday anywhere. There are different St Valentine’s Days in different religions, for example, in Eastern Europe...
Food Design
FOOD DESIGNSome of us cannot, quite literally, get enough of food! How to cook is everywhere on the media. Similarly, design in everything from the Mini to clothes to buildings like the Shard, is something the UK does very well and is part of all our lives. But put...
A City Centre Great War Walk
A City Centre Great War Walk - NorwichAs it is 100 years since the Great War, here is an idea – an outing looking at some of the Fine City’s notable connections to the ‘War to end All Wars’ as it was known. TIME: maybe half a day, depending how long you linger...
The Mystery of the Cressingham Diamonds
A NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES TALETHE ADVENTURE OF THE CRESSINGHAM DIAMONDSNarrated by Dr John H WatsonMy diary tells me it was in ’02 that Holmes and I were sitting in companionable silence in our sitting room at 221b Baker Street. It was an unseasonably cold February...
The Greatest Christmas Novel of All Time
BAH HUMBUG!It is 1843, and six days to Christmas. Charles Dickens, already world-famous for a series of best-selling novels, releases ‘A Christmas Carol’. It is to rapidly sell out six editions. More than that, it redefines a rather lacklustre and cold Pagan festival...
The Adventure of the East Cheam Retirement Home
A brand new Sherlock Holmes tale The Adventure of the East Cheam Retirement HomeNarrated By John H Watson MD An agitated young man rushes into Dr Watson’s surgery but flees before the good doctor can question him as to what might be the trouble. He leaves behind a...
A walk around Norwich Lanes
A STROLL AROUND THE FAMOUS NORWICH LANES A walk through St Benedicts Street, Cow Hill, Upper St Giles Street, Pottergate and the Lanes, taking in Maddermarket Theatre and Strangers’ Hall.To start this fascinating walk you need to ‘drop down’ from the town centre to...
Hunstanton’s Great Secret
Present-day photographs by Daniel TinkThis is a fabulous walk along the cliff tops from Old to New Hunstanton. There is much to see, fascinating historical facts and myths to consider, and an awesome secret that was kept under wraps for decades.Why not? Reached from...
Norfolk on Invasion Alert
COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY DANIEL TINKWilliam the Conqueror managed it in 1066 but since then no foreign power has ever managed to invade these islands. There has been no shortage of attempts and plans from the Spanish Armada, to Napoleon, to Hitler but, by courage or...
Rupert Brooke and Cley next the Sea
I have written a fair amount in various publications about the effect of Norfolk and its coast on our most illustrious writers. Possibly the greatest of the Sherlock Holmes stories, ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’, was inspired by events at Cromer; Charles Dickens...
Kings Lynn, cordite and conkers
In another post, we talk about ‘Hunstanton’s Great Secret’ which was pivotal in changing our fortunes in the Great War. Yet other towns also played a vital role in the conflict and no story is more fascinating than that of Kings Lynn: although experts still debate the...