How I researched my second novel

How I researched my second novel

My grandfather returned from his six-year tour of duty in South Africa and India in 1906 to a different England to that he had known. When he left Tyneside in 1901, the year of Queen Victoria’s death, the most critical technologies of that era had been the steam...
How I researched my first novel

How I researched my first novel

My Rutherford Chronicles book series follows my grandfather Joe Rutherford, my father, myself and other characters, luminaries and simple working-class folk, through the 20th Century on four continents. The first book begins in the dockyards of Tyneside, North East...
How much researching our past has changed

How much researching our past has changed

When I was doing research for my papers at university during the 1960s, this is what I learned to do. First, I’d visit the library and plan for many hours of scouring the card catalogue, standing at cabinets filled with drawers of index cards that described and...