Merrily's Border:
The Marches share their secrets with novelist Phil Rickman & photographer John Mason

112 pages with over 90 colour and 60 black and white photographs
Hardback   £20   (ISBN 978 1 906663 16 2)
Paperback   £12.95   (ISBN 978 1 906663 17 9)

A land where ancient mystery is never far below the surface: the Knights Templar and the Green Man; the secret lore of apples; the lair of the real Hound of the Baskervilles; a pentagram of churches; a serial killer’s dark legacy; the unchronicled links between the composer Edward Elgar and Alfred Watkins, discoverer of ley-lines.
    With its uniquely authentic blend of crime and the paranormal, Phil Rickman’s addictive Merrily Watkins series about the diocesan exorcist for Hereford has virtually established a new fictional genre. But the fiction is never far from an often surprising and occasionally disturbing reality. All the novels are set in actual locations along the Welsh Border, with real history – recent and ancient – and indigenous folklore. Revealing the sources and the inspiration, this book takes readers, for the first time, to the heart of it all ... and an area which itself has been one of Britain’s best-kept secrets.
    Apart from the Merrily Watkins thriller series, Phil Rickman has written nine other novels, (including two for children under the name Thom Madley.) He was born in Lancashire, but has spent most of his adult life in Wales and the Marches, now living near Hay-on-Wye with his wife Carol and a bunch of animals. He has worked as a BBC radio and TV reporter, winning a couple of awards, and still presents radio features including the book programme, Phil the Shelf, on BBC Radio Wales. National acclaim for the Merrily Watkins series includes: ‘First class’ The Guardian;  ‘First rate’ Daily Mail;  ‘Wonderful’ Daily Express; ‘Terrific’ The Times.
    John Mason has worked with Phil Rickman over the years to produce cover images for his books, and is noted for his atmospheric photographs of haunted Britain and use of infra-red photography.

The Celtic Christian Sites of the central and southern Marches
by Sarah & John Zaluckyj
Paperback, 448 pages, with some 250 photographs  ISBN 978 1 904396 57 4  £12.95

Introductory chapters detail the arrival of Christianity in Britain and its early nature and style. The philosophy behind what became the Celtic brand of Christianity is discussed and biographical details given of saints who had contact with the area covered. The nature of a llan is described, as are the features often considered to indicate early Christian sites: holy wells, yew trees, circular and/or raised churchyard enclosures, and the Christianisation of pagan sites denoted by barrows or yews. This sets the scene for looking in detail at the 168 sites covered in the gazetteer, 21 in Montgomeryshire, 28 in Radnorshire, 42 in Breconshire, 30 in Herefordshire (that part which was the kingdom of Erging) and 47 in Gwent. Sarah & John Zaluckyj are bookdealers who live near the Welsh border and have also written: Mercia – the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of central England – also published by Logaston Press.

Flying for Fun in the southern Marches
by Tony Hobbs
Paperback, 128 pages, 75 b/w illustrations  ISBN 978 1904396 79 6  £9.95

This book looks at the history of manned flight in the southern Marches. It considers whether the earliest manned flight in Britain was made in Shropshire, the contribution to ballooning made by Charles Rolls, and a man who helped test parachutes. More recent activities covered include a commercial airfield at Hereford to developments at Tilstock (Shropshire), Shobdon (Herefordshire) and Staverton (Gloucestershire), and Gliding Clubs at Shobdon, in the Black Mountains and on the Long Mynd; Ian Ashpole’s attempts at ballooning records; the development of hang gliding, paragliding, and microlight flying. Each of these activities the author attempts, in the hope it may encourage others to ‘have a go’. Tony Hobbs has written The Pubs of Ludlow and Neighbouring Villages and The Pubs of Radnorshire for Logaston Press, as well as accounts of his walks from Land’s End to John O’Groats and along Offa’s Dyke Path

Artisan Art: Vernacular wall paintings in the Welsh Marches, 1550-1650
by Kathryn Davies
240 pages with 312 mainly colour plates
978 1904396 93 2 Hardback £24  ISBN 978 1904396 92 5 Paperback £17.50

Many ordinary people in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries had art in their homes – not the high art of easel paintings but a form of rough and ready art painted on their walls. This book looks at what this decoration was, how it was done and its significance for those commissioning it. Kathryn Davies has researched vernacular buildings throughout the Welsh Marches and discovered extensive painted decoration in houses surviving from this period. They reveal the ways in which people hoped to impress their friends and neighbours, for wall paintings were a status symbol in their day just as houses and cars are today. This book will appeal to art historians and those interested in social history and vernacular architecture as well as serving as a reference book; a gazetteer includes photographs of almost all the paintings, and a map shows where in the Marches they are to be found (most of them in private houses not generally open to the public). Dr Davies studied vernacular architecture at Manchester University and completed a doctorate at Oxford University. She has worked in building conservation for many years, including 15 years in Shropshire, where her interest in wall paintings developed. She is currently a Historic Buildings Inspector with English Heritage.

The Fitzalans, Earls of Arundel and Surrey, Lords of the Welsh Marches (1267-1415)
by Michael Burtscher
Paperback, 192 pages with 52 b/w illustrations  ISBN 978 1904396 94 9  £12.95

The Fitzalans ruled over estates in Sussex, Surrey, and Norfolk and were also powerful lords in the Welsh Marches where in their time they tangled with the Mortimers and Owain Glyn Dŵr. Two of them were beheaded for treason: Earl Edmund, a staunch supporter of King Edward II, was executed at the hands of Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer, while Earl Richard III, who became embroiled with King Richard II for his role as one of the Lords Appellant in the 1380s, was similarly condemned. The Fitzalans also supported Henry Bolingbroke in the coup d’état against King Richard II. The careers of the five earls are considered here, along with the management of their estates and their financial dealings – for it was on this wealth that the power of the Fitzalans rested. Many of the castles they built can still be seen, not least Arundel Castle and its gothic Fitzalan Chapel, but also many of their Marcher castles: Chirk, Oswestry, Clun and the ruins of Holt and Shrawardine. The family is also associated with Haughmond Abbey near Shrewsbury and with what is believed to be the tomb of Earl Richard II and his wife Eleanor of Lancaster at Chichester Cathedral, the inspiration for Philip Larkin’s poem ‘An Arundel Tomb’. Michael Burtscher was raised in Bellinzona, Switzerland, and holds degrees in medieval history from the Sorbonne and Oxford University. In preparing his doctoral thesis, he researched largely unstudied original documents relating to the Fitzalan family. He is a former editor of the Journal of the Oxford University History Society.