Village Recorder's annual report

Whew, at last! All done for another year! As a Suffolk Local History Council Recorder for a nearby village I have to put in a couple of sides of A4 each year, summarising events there that might otherwise be passed over. I always fret, and feel guilty that I haven't been putting in enough time 'on the ground'. But they now have a fabulously enthusiastic History Group, so that gives me useful contacts.

The idea about having such Recorders is to provide some reference points for future local historians. In my own village a group of us put together and published a book of reminiscences and photographs from the late 19th century onwards. It was amusing (and frustrating) how often certain events were mis-remembered, or had varying interpretations put on them. It is to be hoped that past Recorder's reports, kept on file at the Record Office, will eventually provide some solid evidence for future history writers. In this way, a community can be represented contemporaneously, not through the fog of frail human memory.

Name dropping

After I moved to Suffolk and began to take a more serious interest in history, I discovered a small out-of-print volume about our village written by a former vicar. Some years later it came to my attention that his son Diarmaid had grown up to be a historian too. In fact he was eventually exalted to be a Professor of the History of the Church at St Cross College, Oxford. In my time at Queen Mary he had chaired a seminar that I had attended, and later I followed his BBC4 series on the history of Christianity. I finally had the chance to meet him in person last year at a talk hosted by the Bury Past & Present Society on the topic of the historical forger, Robert Ware. The great man confessed he had once written a book in which he had relied on a so-called speech by Cranmer to the newly crowned Edward VI that had been concocted by the above scoundrel. Afterwards I couldn't resist doing the groupie thing, introduced myself and my friend, and got him to autograph one of his late father's local histories.

World Book Night developments

So things are gradually coming together! Pick-up point for our books will be the local bookshop. We might have preferred the library with all the bad news lately in that area. But our own branch looks safe. The Bookshop could also do with some interest as it struggles against the 'big boys'. That's another story, however. We are hoping to begin the actual give-away at our village pub where Reading Group has met for the past 3 years. Bury Free Press seem anxious to attend and take photos, so I am trying to gather as many people as I can for that. Look East, a local TV programme, might also be interested...

One of our group is designing a commemorative bookplate for each copy of Cloud Atlas, urging the recipient to pass it on to someone else once read. They are also being asked to contact us to say what they think of the book, which could result in a torrent of emails or nothing at all! All we need now is more information from World Book Night themselves. But, as this is the inaugural, I guess there are teething problems.

Adjusting one's aim

Six years ago when I began transcribing, and consequently engaging with, the 200-plus pages of a local sixteenth century manorial survey, I began to entertain the notion of producing a book about it. The source material compared favourably to the subjects of other published commentaries; I had a growing confidence in my academic skills; more importantly, I felt that, if I could attempt a competent analysis of the text, it would add to the existing body of documentary knowledge about Suffolk – and others might want to read it.

My self-belief drove me onwards as I proceeded to record the entries in the survey. In all I took several hundred digital images of its pages. I worked on these at home, zooming in on the unfamiliar scribal hands and scribbling furiously as I unpicked the language of Tudor England. There were some pages in formulaic Latin – not too many, thank goodness, as Latin is not one of my strengths – and I'm proud to say only a handful of lines escaped translation. Really, once you have 'got your eye in', the idiosyncratic letter constructions and spellings soon became as manageable as things one's grandparents might have written in a shaky, elderly hand.

Analysis of the content gradually developed through my physical contact with the book. A mental image of the sixteenth century community began to emerge, and thus questions formed themselves as to the nature of land use, or the functions of particular characters – the tanner, the miller, the local gentry. Finally, with the textual analysis complete, I pulled together five years of research, note-making and imaginitive reconstruction into a novel-sized whole. I was not done, however.

To keep my work focused I had frequently referred to The Field-book of Walsham le Willows (K.M. Dodd, SRS 1974), using it as a model of good practice. But I was hoping to produce something broader by adding illustrations and maps, as well as imitating Dodd's chart of tenants and holdings, and three indexes. Even with all this effort I still felt the temptation to go on tweaking, to overdevelop some aspects of my study. But eventually I had to be satisfied that I had created something worthwhile and stop 'fiddling'. 'By metes & boundes' was ready to walk unaided.

History writing is one thing – seeing it in a proper published form is quite another. I had approached Suffolk Records Society quite early on, shortly after completing a basic transcription of the manuscript survey. It was from them that I received my first kindly rebuff, on the grounds that my study was too similar to other SRS publications, my unvoiced response being that my source was what it was and I couldn't change that. Then I submitted an article to the Suffolk Local History Council Review outlining my work to date, and was gratified to at least see that in print. I also knew that it would be reaching something like the right audience. And so I worked on until the last stages of indexing, when I began to apply to other publishers, five in all. Thank you Boydell & Brewer; Manchester University Press; The History Press; Carnegie Publishing and the University of Hertfordshire Press. At least you didn't rubbish my efforts, but you did all reject me. 'By metes & boundes' was either too academic or not rigorous enough for their requirements. Ah well, time to adjust my aim!

What have I actually achieved? I have uncovered a long-hidden view of my community as English society was still wrestling with questions of the Reformation. There is absolutely nothing standing in the way of me disseminating my findings amongst local historians for myself. I have let it be known that I am available for lectures. So far three history groups have invited me to give illustrated talks. Speaker's fees won't cover my expenses of the past few years – time, travel, paper, postage, printer ink etc. - but it's a start.

Mad Men

No, not those idiots on 'Top Gear', but those impossibly suave egotists who persuaded the world to spend its money from sleek offices in Madison Avenue. I have hung on every word, every gorgeous image of the four series shown so far on BBC4. And what now? Only that series 5 has been gobbled up by Sky Atlantic, so for me it's all over! Never mind that this new channel has been trailed by the likes of Dustin Hoffman - what a low blow for one whose favourite film is 'The Graduate'! I don't subscribe to Sky or its ethics. Well, kids, you know what I shall want for future Christmases - DVD boxed sets. How could I survive without knowing if Don continues with his charade; if Betty and Henry make a go of it; if Sally grows into a liberated woman; if Peggy gets her own ad agency. I love their brashness, their faults, their perseverance, and the way I feel at the close of each perfect episode.

Developments re World Book Night

Well, we have been accepted to give away 48 copies of Cloud Atlas! The books will be shortly arriving at our local bookshop, and we must try and whip up some press interest - in our part of Suffolk at least. I'm hoping all members of our Reading Group will turn up to the handover. They are now submitting their lists of recipients. I have been in contact with our local High School where ten lucky students will be accepting free copies. What I hope for are two things - that we encourage a few more people to join our group, and that those who read David Mitchell's book will tell us what they think of it - really!

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/cloud-atlas-by-david-mitchell-571361.html

Literary Luddites

At an earlier meeting of our Reading Group a reckless soul suggested we collectively buy a Kindle. I was prepared to hear some dissent, and we do have mixed feelings about abandoning paper for a microchip. However, some of us conceded it could have its uses - those who habitually pack a stack of books for their holidays could lighten their load; a Kindle could facilitate reading for particular kinds of disability; techies always like a new toy. But one or two have become almost panicked at the thought of the devil's handiwork in electronic form. I have found someone willing to lend us one for an evening so we may see what all the fuss is about, and you would think I had opened a coffer of plague-infested bedlinen! By the end of February I should be able to say whether the pestilence has taken hold or not!