The Secret History of Southend-on-Sea is full of intriguing information on the incredible residents, visitors and events that have played a part in Southend's story. Southend-on-Sea, the largest town in Essex, has had an amazingly rich history, and this book collects together hundreds of little-known facts and anecdotes that will make you see the town in a new light. Discover the 'Brides in the Bath' murderer, the top secret military operations performed just off Southend shore and the secret tunnels and smuggling dens used to hide guns, tobacco and Dutch gin. This captivating book will amuse and inform readers in Essex and beyond.

While Southend-on-Sea, like many seaside towns, may not have been at the forefront of the struggle for suffrage and equal rights in the lives of women between 1850 and 1950, there are surprisingly famous names linked to the town and its women. Novelist Rebecca West, living in nearby Leigh-on-Sea during the First World War (and her lover, H.G. Wells) played a key role in the suffrage and feminist movements and in women’s entry into the scientific and literary professions. Princess Louise, a visitor to the town, was known to be a feminist, regardless of her position, and Mrs Margaret Kineton-Parkes (founder member of the Women’s Tax Resistance League and involved in the Women’s Freedom League) gave a number of talks to the town’s female population. The most high profile of local residents was Mrs Rosa Sky, the one-time Treasurer of the Women’s Social and Political Union and an active member of the Women’s Tax Resistance League, but others were quietly active behind the scenes. This book is not about the distinguished and illustrious, it is about women from all classes, from all kinds of backgrounds, who entered the world of business, who rebelled against the traditional roles of mother, homemaker or domestic servant. It is about women struggling to come to terms with changes at home, in marriage, in education, in health care and in politics. It is the first to look at these issues as they impacted on a town whose population and visitors were growing in line with the expectations of its female population.

Secret City of Southend explores the lesser-known history of the town of Southend through a fascinating selection of stories, unusual facts and attractive photographs.

Including many conversations with Southendians, this title aims to recall life in their town, during the 1950s and '60s. It focuses on social change, as well as school days, work and play, transport, and entertainment. It also includes memories of the late '60s clashes between Mods and Rockers, and of the infamous Wall of Death at the Kursaal.

Based on quirky facts and fascinating data, with a discerning eye on the bizarre, the frivolous and the funny, The Little Book of the 1960s is nostalgia with a difference. The sights, the sounds, the lifestyle, the whole 1960s experience can be relived through the pages of this book, but be warned – you'll need a sense of humour. It's a book that can be dipped in to time and time again to reveal something new about the people, the fashions, the scandals and the enduring fascination of a decade that was truly the most colourful of all. Did You Know? When the Beatles played at the Birkenhead YMCA in 1962 for just £30 (the same year Decca famously turned them down because 'groups with guitars were on their way out'), they were booed off stage. When Barbara Windsor and the cast of Sparrers Can't Sing were filming in the East End in the early 1960s, the Krays were hired to provide security on the set. When Princess Margaret married photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones in May 1960, she became the first royal to marry a commoner for 450 years.

This is not a guide book. This little book brings together past and present to offer a taste of Southend-on-Sea. Learn more about the movers and shakers who shaped this fantastic city. The great and the good; the bad and the ugly. Small wonders, tall stories, triumph and tragedy. Best places and the worst places. Local lingo, architecture, green spaces, events, traditions, fact, fiction. Origins, evolution, future. Written by a local who knows what makes Southend-on-Sea.

An entertaining and engrossing collection of British customs, superstitions and legends from past and present. Did you know, in Cumbria it was believed a person lying on a pillow stuffed with pigeon’s feathers could not die? Or that green is an unlucky colour for wedding dresses? In Scotland it was thought you could ward off fairies by hanging your trousers from the foot of the bed, and in Gloucestershire you could cure warts by cutting notches in the bark of an ash tree. You’ve heard about King Arthur and St George, but how about the Green Man, a vegetative deity who is seen to symbolise death and rebirth? Or Black Shuck, the giant ghostly dog who was reputed to roam East Anglia? In this beautifully illustrated book, Dee Dee Chainey tells tales of mountains and rivers, pixies and fairy folk, and witches and alchemy. She explores how British culture has been shaped by the tales passed between generations, and by the land that we live on. As well as looking at the history of this subject, this book lists the places you can go to see folklore alive and well today. The Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival in Cambridgeshire or the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance in Staffordshire for example, or wassailing cider orchards in Somerset.