SYLVIA KENT'S READING & WRITING FORUM

A history and lifestyle journal www.swwj.co.uk

Saturday, August 18, 2007

GET READY FOR A WONDERFUL NEW BOOK ABOUT ESSEX!

Elizabeth Wallace's new book CHRISTMAS PAST IN ESSEX will soon be released by Tempus Publications of Stroud. I've had a chance to take an early peek through this intriguing book which Elizabeth, an Essex-born girl, has researched and written over the last year.During her search for Christmas stories, she interviewed many interesting folk from different walks of life.

However sophisticated many of us think we are, we tend to hark back to our childhood at this special time of the year. So we learn how the rich celebrated Christmas and also the poor. We discover how doctors, firefighters, postmen and the myriad of other Essex people who were forced to work their shifts and duties, still managed to enjoy Christmas. Often, there were no expensive toys around as there are today, but still children seemed to have had a lot of fun with, in many cases, very little due to the deprivations of post-war austerity.

Elizabeth gives us more than sixty photographs and sketches, many of which have never been published. Cherished photographs were taken from frames and albums to be included in this book. Every part of Essex is included, from Epping to Southend, Saffron Walden to Romford.Even though Elizabeth now lives five thousand miles away in Denver, Colorado, her heart is never far from her family, friends and the wonderful people of Essex.

Labels: CHRISTMAS PAST IN ESSEX