Anyone here ever written a local history book?

And if so, what was your approach, sources of information etc and have you any tips you'd care to share?

"The History Man" is your man. Perhaps PM him?

Good call Jack Straw. Thanks. Shall do.

Firstly if you have good knowledge of the subject matter and are sufficiently motivated to want to share the story, prepared to invest the time to create a working draft, then get it printed or even published - most probably at your own cost, then it really isn't that difficult.

I've just assisted and encouraged a local amateur author through drafting and publishing a detailed account of the contribution his small village made during WW1. Two of their men served in a small British unit in Russia during WW1 and were caught up in the 1917 revolution. An ancestor of mine served in the same unit so I happily shared my records with him and invested a decent amount of time in teasing out relevant facts, anecdotes, images and items of memorabilia. An unusual and interesting story that is highly topical in this centennial year. I cannot claim authorship however it was a very satisfying process and he now has a fine book to show for it.

This all spiralled out of an earlier and highly succesful local project to commemorate the centenary of WW1 in his village. Many comments from the community suggested the results as worthy of a book. So it was an obvious move to turn the accumulated information and images into a written record. This also prompted a successful grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund plus support from the County archives. This helped to manage costs and elevate the book to a proper commercial publication. A local publishing house specialising in such subjects happily took on the latter role thereby establishing it as a small commercial venture for an initial print run of 500 copies.

It helps that Mrs. SoC has a background in publishing and printing and recently helped a couple of locals write their memoires, guided them in formatting their drafts, proof reading etc. One author only wanted 50 copies in a simple pamphlet format. The other 1000 copies as perfect bound book, with images, colour etc. Mrs. SoC then arranged quotes for printing. These are not intended as blockbusters, merely for the satisfaction of telling their stories and mostly with the intention of circulating these among family and friends. ISBN numbers were issued and copies placed in the British library and local reference libraries. However one of these memoires has enjoyed modest commercial success and the author is now drafting a follow up.

So that is three local people without any publishing background who are now modest authors in their own right - and proud of it.

Of course there is also an Albion fan who is a fairly successful crime fiction writer with two or three titles on Amazon.

All the best to the OP.

Never written one, and never will. But I do enjoy reading about history, local or not. I find it more interesting if it is written clearly, in words I understand, and has lots of illustrations. I particularly like 'then and now' photos. And maps. Local anecdotes help too.
Where are you writing about?

Not local history particularly, but I am researching my grandfather's life, he was a successful billiards and snooker player in the period between the two world wars (sadly when players made next to nothing and, even sadder, I have inherited absolutely none of his talent for the game).

My main source has been the British Library. You have to register but it is free to use one of the most vast archives in the world. For example, I am working my way through a more or less complete archive of The Billiard Player for the inter-war period.

I also got in touch with the relevant snooker association, in this case the WSA.

As you probably know already, there are large numbers of local history societies around the country.

As others have mentioned, tell people what you are doing and ask for help. You never know who might know who, or what.

Hope this helps.

Thank you all!

Brilliant stuff... I have learnt from this as well. Thanks.

You can find a lot online but if you want to get access to lot of the most valuable material you will have to visit the major research collections. In the area of local history these are the British Library and the National Archives.

The British Library in St Pancras has loads of potentially useful material for local historians. This includes: historical collections of local and national newspapers an increasing number of which are digitised; electoral registers, maps, sound recordings (some Sussex dialects for example), images and lots more. You need to get a reader pass (details on the website) and you will probably need to use a number of different reading rooms but the staff can help you a lot. Here is the website: The Library is also involved in this service: [URL="http://findmypast.co.uk"]http://findmypast.co.uk

The National Archives in Kew is the place to go for official archive material and is particularly strong on family history research: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Local public libraries, like Brighton, will have local history sections of varying quality. Some of the more advanced ones have started to develop digital oral history collections but these tend to be the exception. They should all be a good place to find out about any local history groups.

I’ve not done local history research myself but work in a library which explains why they feature so much in my post.