Welcome to Poppyland Publishing - East Anglian Specialists
Whether you're living in Norfolk or Suffolk, Cambridgeshire or Essex, planning a visit, interested in local history, tracking down your family history or love the natural history of East Anglia, we hope we'll have some titles - books and DVDs - to interest you.
You can use your credit or debit card to make direct purchases from the site. In addition to Poppyland's own titles, we have the full range of titles in print from the prestigious Centre of East Anglian Studies. To use the 'Product Search' facility above, you only need to enter one word of interest - you don't, for instance, need to use the whole title of a book.
Try the buttons on the left for the different categories of titles we publish. And explore our 'Support and Resource' pages. These are all free - and always growing.
On the right you'll find short presentations about some of our products. To buy, click on the appropriate button in the left column. Ordering from this site is a First Class Post service direct from the publisher.
Author Jackie Stuart has spent many years interviewing airman who served as fliers or ground crew in the USAAF in England in the Second World War. Beneath the Clouds brings together their words. It is this framework which makes it such an essential read for those interested in that time of conflict.
The book seeks to complement those many books which tell of the flying adventures; it tells the story of that wartime life into which they were thrust - and from which they were equally rapidly withdrawn when the conflict in Europe ended.
The towns and villages of East Anglia have handed down many legends of wartime life. There remains a range of memorials and some physical evidence of the many airfields. This book brings us the stories direct from those who lived and worked on those bases - and sort to explore the country in which they found themselves. Click on author Jackie Stuart to hear her introduce the book and on Beneath the Clouds to order your copy online.
In the DVD Cromer in the Second World War memories of specific events remain as sharp as ever with some of those who have contributed. Their words are mixed with pictures and film from the war years, providing a picture of a town that was perhaps not of great strategic importance but was very much on the front line.
Veteran American journalist Norman Corwin, in 2011 a venerable 101 years of age and living in Los Angeles, has lent his memories to the project and pilot Flight Sergeant Jim Flint visited the town to recall how he ditched his aircraft just off the beach. Ramon and Beguna Arguelles tell of how their father's vessel, the Cantabria, was sunk by a Spanish nationalist gunboat just off Cromer and Jean Boden recountsf how she had the feeling that the bombers were following her round the town in the war years. Remarkable stories from a remarkable period of the town's history.
For a short introduction to the DVD, you can click on this linkor go to 'DVDs and Videos' to order your copy direct.
Attleborough, Aylsham, Diss, Downham Market, Dereham, Fakenham, Harleston, Holt, Loddon, North Walsham, Reepham and Swaffham are the twelve Norfolk settlements featured in Exploring the Norfolk Market Town. The book is an essential starting point for anyone interested in the detail of these towns but each chapter is also an exemplar of how to approach the study of local history. Through the author's information on the sourcing and use of local maps, the way to make us of documents in the local record office and the use of historic and contemporary photographs, it provides an exemplar of the way to study your own town and its people.
Christopher Barringer has lived and worked in Norfolk for 45 years, introducing individuals and local groups to the enjoyment and fascination of local studies and the book carries the benefit of those many years of experience. To order online click on Exploring the Norfolk Market Town; alternatively you can find it at any good bookshop in East Anglia. You can click for a video presentation by Christopher Barringer about the book.
There are few parishes in the British Isles which know as much of their own history as Sedgeford in west Norfolk. To the work of its own local history society can be added the annual excavation of sites in the parish which has been undertaken since 1996.
A unique hoard of coins, hundreds of human burials, detailed collections of shells and pollen, a golden torc, all these are amongst the finds on the site which help us understand over 150 generations of life in Sedgeford.
Sedgeford - Five Thousand Years is a DVD that tells the story of these years of excavation and the interpretation of what has been found. It also endeavours to illustrate the enthusiam of those who annually gather to 'dig' for the story. For a video preview click Sedgeford - Five Thousand Years and to order go to 'DVDs and Videos'.
Since Cromer's first guidebook was written in 1798, there have been two substantive histories written of the town, by Walter Rye and Alfred Savin. Cyril Crawford Holden contributed much to the research on the town and now local author Christopher Pipe draws on these and a great variety of other sources for A Dictionary of Cromer and Overstrand History.
With nearly 150 illustrations, a comprehensive index and listing of names associated with the town, it will be the key reference point for the years ahead for anyone interest in local and family history.
This title, published on 11th December 2010, is available in both paperback and hardback. Click A Dictionary of Cromer and Overstrand History to order your copy.
Local historian Alison Barnes continues to explore the fascination of the Saffron Walden area with The Flying Serpent, otherwise entitled Strange Things out of Essex.
With a new introduction she republishes William Winstanley's pamphlet of 1669 recounting odd goings on in and around the village of Henham. The Cock tavern was certainly there at that time and may have played more than its fair share in the story. Undoubtedly there was great fear and trepidation when reports came in of a dragon in the vicinity.
Over the years the pamphlet has been reproduced and others have come up with their explanations. We'll leave you to judge what was going on after you've read Alison Barnes's introduction to the strange tale.
In 1838 the Upcher family of Sheringham gave the money for the building of Sheringham's first rowing lifeboat. Thus the Augusta was built, protecting passing shipping and the fishermen of the town in their daily occupation. A few year later the Royal National Lifeboat Institution also decided to provide a lifeboat at Sheirngham and so a remarkable story of determination, courage and commitment to livesaving at sea continued, through to the present day.
The tale of The Sheringham Lifeboats over the years has been brought together through the interviews, historic photographs and film on this one hour DVD. Coxswains past recall their boats, an historic lifeboat is rowed to explain the effort required in the days of wooden boats and iron men and Anglia Television's Bygones presenter Eddie Anderson narrates the story. For an introduction to the DVD, you can click on this linkClick The Sheringham Lifeboats to order your copy.
A Mundesley Album is a revised edition of Eric Reading's book, first published in 1985. With digitally enhanced historic photographs and modern photographs by Paul Damen, it tells the story of how Mundesley developed into the village that we know today. As with a number of settlements on this section of the north Norfolk coast, it was the coming of the railway that brought a transformation from fishing hamlet to tourist location. From the visit of the poet Cowper in 1798 to post-war development, this title encapsulates the story of Mundesley in words and pictures. Click the Albums page to order your copy.
There is no written record left by Boudica's people. No surviving oral or folk memory has been identified. Nor is there a single discovered artefact which she is known to have handled or location at which her presence can be proved.
And yet she stands firmly at the centre of East Anglian and English history. We need to understand that she did exist and that the bare skeleton of the story of the rebellion, as recorded by later writers, is essentially accurate, even if some of the detail has been spun. Dr John Davies, Chief Curator at Norwich Castle Museum and journalist Bruce Robinson tell us the story. Click Boudica - Her Life Times and Legacy to find how to order your copy. You can click hear from the authors to listen to more of the background.
A special DVD made for the people of the village of Overstrand and a model of how a community can use multimedia technology to understand its past and present. Ancient geology, the earliest written records, the evidence of landscape archaeology and the coming of photography all help tell the tale. Add residents' memories and a touch of magic with 3D animation to enjoy a fascinating story.
Author Lucy Care first came into contact with the Paston family through the famous Paston Letters. Now, having settled in the village which bears the Paston name, she brings together history, walks and photographs to tell us of the rise and fall of the family between the 14th and the 17th centuries and where we can see evidence of thier heritage today.
Lucy and her father Jack Earl have always enjoyed walks and the exploration of the byways and footpaths of north Norfolk and further afield was a natural project to undertake. Churches and castles, moated manor houses and marble monuments are all here for further exploration and appreciation. To order your copy click Exploring Paston Country.
