Three titles, originating from my family history research, offer a range of county interest.

Hannah Gee’s Unique Sentiments was primarily intended for my family but has been purchased by local and family history societies. It has no ISBN, so bookshops may be reluctant to order it for you. The other titles are available wherever you buy your books

I recommend The Bookcase in Lowdham and Five Leaves Bookshop in Nottingham

On New Years Day 1864, a nineteen year old woman from Radcliffe on Trent opened her notebook and set down her thoughts about nineteenth century life in rural Nottinghamshire. Three years later she married Thomas Horsepool and, as Hannah Horsepool, she kept her little book through the twenty years when she was raising a lively family in the market town of Bingham. She introduces us to people whom we might have met in a Radcliffe tavern or on a Bingham street more than one hundred and fifty years ago.  We learn how she feels about things – spoilt children, drink, Kitchener, Robbie Burns, her childhood, her community and, fundamental to everything, her faith in a hereafter. In this edition, one of her great-great-grandchildren has taken that framework and attempted to build a ‘Hannah’s World’ that we are sure to enjoy. £7.99 (This book has no ISBN)

The plague of 1604 reduced the population of Bleasby, Nottinghamshire, by 30%, a demographic deficit that would not recover for two generations. Family documents and local records bring detail to this figure and, when placed in the context of broader history, offer an understanding of the village social and economic dynamics. £25

James, John, William and Stephen Horsepool were born in Nottinghamshire’s market town of Bingham and played a pivotal role in establishing the town’s early cricket team. With an eye on the club’s future, they sought to improve by taking on superior teams. Within a generation, they established a reputation as ‘Knights of the Bat’ and, when it was time to hand over to younger men, they pitched their junior teams against the seniors. Noble complains that too many cricket histories regard these early matches as episodes of prehistory rather than part of any continuous development. With careful research, he presents a stronger context in which we can fairly assess these brothers’ contribution to grass roots cricket in Nottinghamshire. Malcolm Noble has written several acclaimed crime novels as well as radio drama and criticism. Genealogy has been his life-long hobby. Now he brings together the lessons of forty years ancestor hunting and turns his attention to a sporting chapter in his family’s past £6.99