Books

THE FIRST BOOK IS NOW PUBLISHED!

THE JOLLYMAN LETTERS: Trench Fever, Kite Balloons and 163 Cups of Tea

Herbert Jollyman was a jolly decent chap who started in the Army as a Home Service man and ended in the Royal Air Force in France. A fascinating series of letters written during the First World War from Herbert to his ‘darling little wife’ Hepsie in Billericay, Essex – a wonderful English story of love, war, and gardening.

FULL COLOUR (1st Edition), BLACK-AND-WHITE (2nd Edition) and EBOOK versions of both colour and b/w. AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON.

The other Jollyman Letters books are still in progress.
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THE BRISTOL LETTERS: Travels to Australia, Africa and Other Foreign Parts

The tale of Peter Cornock, a Bristol grocer who travelled to Australia on the Chesterholme in the 1870s, and what happened to the daughter he left behind, Alice Drew Cornock. Includes the Jollyman family of Bristol, a portrait by Bristol artist James Curnock, and the connection between the Anvil Street Chapel and the tobacco firm of WD & HO Wills.

THE STORY OF ASHLEY: One Hundred Years of a Billericay House

Built by Herbert and Hepsie Jollyman in 1903, and remaining in the family for almost a century, Ashley saw amazing changes through the generations, as the town of Billericay changed around it.

THE HANSFORD LETTERS: An Isle of Wight Love Story from the Victorian Seaside

The story of Hepsie’s parents: a charming set of letters written in the 1870s to Mary Hansford on the Isle of Wight during her courtship by George Millman, despite her disapproving father William, owner of Hansford Bros. Includes how Joseph Hansford’s stubborn attitude nearly ruined Ryde as a seaside resort.

THE MILLMAN LETTERS: Islington, the Isle of Wight and the London City Mission

James Millman’s early life in Chagford, Devon, and how he came to be the longest-serving London City Missionary. With letters to George and Mary Millman while they were living in Islington, London, and a diary of their adventures while holidaying on the Isle of Wight in 1892 with their young family.

THE YOUNG LETTERS: Health, Religion and Death in Victorian Ryde

The family of Mary Hansford’s mother, Hephzibah Young, including nine generations of Anthony Youngs, and some Victorian letters between her sister Priscilla Young in Ryde, Isle of Wight, and their cousins, Ann Young (married to John Phillips) in London and Huntingdon, and Jane Young (married to Sanders Baker) in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.

If you have any information about the Jollyman, Millman, Hansford, Cornock, Young or Paice families, please get in touch via the Contact page.