This is the complete list of the Léonie Press books which we have published. Click on a title to obtain more details about a particular book. If you are interested just in books about the British in France or just about Local History, Biography and Poetry, please click the appropriate link.

Author	Title	Description
Lenna Bickerton	Memories of a Cheshire Childhood	Lenna describes life in Northwich, Cheshire, England around the First World War through the sharp senses of a child. Her memories are vivid: duck eggs for breakfast, dancing to Grandad’s gramophone, a near tragedy at a watermill, her schooldays, the sights and sounds of the old town, the smells of wild flowers, busy boat traffic on the canal and the menacing Ginny Greenteeth.
Jackie Hamlett and Christine Hamlett	A House with Spirit: A dedication to Marbury Hall	The authors spent three years researching the history of Marbury Hall near Northwich, Cheshire, England and tracing the lives of its aristocratic and often high-spirited owners, through archives, reference libraries and personal interviews. But they also have another perspective. As clairvoyants they have their own theories about its famous ghosts, the Marbury Lady and the Marbury Dunne. They have tapped into the memories which they say still hang around the site of the demolished hall and they believe these have enabled them to communicate with its essence.
K M Thomas	Kathleen: Memories of a girl who grew up in wartime	The author writes of her childhood and early teenage years in Scotland and England. Against a background of austerity and rationing she describes an RAF plane crashing into the sea and nights spent sheltering from the bombing of Hull. At a Hornsea riding school she encounters the Free French leader General Leclerc and accompanies a French Major on regular rides through the countryside in the run-up to D-Day.
Sqn Ldr R L Stanley MBE and Joy Bratherton	Of Those Who Lie in Foreign Fields: In remembrance of the men of Colton who served but did not return	The authors trace what happened to each person who is commemorated on the village war memorial in Colton, Staffordshire, England so that future generations will understand why these brave men - mostly of the First World War - should be remembered.
G C Kanjilal	Who says you are there no more?	When his beloved wife Nana died after 34 years of happy marriage, retired consultant psychiatrist G C Kanjilal found solace in writing poetry. His work is moving, amusing and self-deprecating and his deep love for his wife shines through everything.
Peter Thomas and Kathleen Thomas	Ulu Tiram: A cameo of life in Malaya at the time of 'The Emergency'	In 1952, as a young British officer on active service in Malaya, Geoff Farrer is forced to shoot a wounded pregnant terrorist to end her agony. He does not know that he is being watched by the woman’s lover who vows "to kill the bastard Englishman", but when he starts work as a rubber planter his life is threatened several times. The book is based on the experiences of the Thomases - Peter was Mentioned in Dispatches for his services to Malaya as a young soldier - and is published to mark the 50th anniversary of The Emergency.
Anne Loader	A Bull by the Back Door: How an English family find their own paradise in rural France	An unexpected legacy enables the Loader family to buy an old farmhouse in the depths of the French countryside. It has been unoccupied for years but they are drawn to the charm and dignity lying under the grime and cobwebs. Even before the purchase goes through "Les Anglais" are welcomed with genuine affection by their new neighbours. From their very first day at St Paradis they begin to make close and lasting friendships in spite of the language barriers. But it is not only their neighbours who welcome them. Soon they are aware that the spirit of the former owner seems delighted to see her family home being restored to life. Indeed, it appears almost as if she has chosen the Loaders for this task..
Les Cooper	The Way We Were: Omnibus Edition incorporating "Over my Shoulder" and "Another's War"	This book is an omnibus edition of Les Cooper's Crewe memories, "Over My Shoulder" and "Another's War", originally published separately in 1996 by Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council when the author was Mayor and now reprinted by popular demand. The first work describes his childhood in the railway town during the Depression and the second his war experiences as an apprentice in a reserved occupation at the LMS railway works.
Alan K Leicester	A Nun's Grave: A novel set in the Vale Royal of England	The Nun's Grave at Vale Royal Abbey has been a source of mystery and ghostly stories for generations of Mid-Cheshire folk. Alan K Leicester's frightening experience there as a young man led him to undertake years of research into the subject and he has woven his findings into a thought-provoking novel on two time-scales. The 14th century fates of novice nun Ida Godman and young monk John of Dutton become inextricably entwined with the present-day lives of newlyweds Ian and Jane who buy a house on the site of the abbey. The author stresses that his enthralling book is fiction and not a work of scholarship.
Anne Loader	The Duck with a Dirty Laugh: More family adventures in rural France	This much-requested sequel to the acclaimed "A Bull by the Back Door" continues the story of the Loader family in rural France. Renovations to their old stone farmhouse in the depths of the countryside are going well but slowly, as they tackle every aspect of the work themselves. They have promised the spirit of the former owner that they will bring the place back to life but not change its character. She still seems to be with them as they get busy installing electricity, plumbing and drains and doing the decorating. Old friendships prosper and new ones are made. Just when it seems everything is perfect, tragedy strikes at home in England and they face a period when just ‘hanging on and surviving’ is the simple goal. Their first test at St Paradis is coping with the coldest weather in Europe for a century: it’s -12ºC outside and 1.6ºC in the kitchen, the water is frozen, it’s snowing hard and everyone in the hamlet is ill...
Geoffrey Morris	Only Fools Drink Water: Forty years of fun in Charente-Maritime	The author and his wife - jokingly dubbed "senile delinquents" by their son - have been enjoying hilarious escapades in the Charente-Maritime region of France for more than 40 years. They have lived there for 20 years and are now naturalized French. This beautifully-written book, full of wit and self-deprecating humour, describes their experiences among the Charentais farmers, fishermen and bureaucrats. It is surely one of the most amusing books about life in France ever written in English.
Grace McKee	Où est le 'Ping'?: Gascony - the fulfilment of a dream	Pathologist Grace McKee tricked her unsuspecting husband Phillip into a French property-viewing holiday in June 1992, revealing her secret at 8am on their first morning in France. He made her promise not to buy anything unless it cost almost nothing - and only after a long discussion. A couple of days later they found Larroque, a 250-year-old stone house, nestling in the rolling hills of Gascony. After a two-minute conversation, they agreed to take out a second mortgage to buy it. It was in need of almost total renovation - a task that was to take the next seven years.
Peter Marsh	Round and Round in Circles	Adman Peter Marsh's lifelong love of yottin' finally found its zenith in the purchase of his own yacht, a 22' trailer/sailer which, after a season sailing around Anglesey and the coast of North Wales, he trailed to a lake in France and there spent the summer of a lifetime. Quite an adventure and one which Peter now wishes to share with others. This is the story of that adventure, a mildly scurrilous tale in which Peter makes observations of the people he encounters and places he visits, as well as some reminiscences, yarns of yottin' and life itself.
Austin Hughes	Diesel Taff	Austin Hughes was born in rural North Wales in 1922. He loved heavy machinery and eventually learned to operate a bulldozer. Then in October 1940 he was called up to join the Royal Engineers - an experience which changed his life and earned him his nick-name 'Diesel Taff'. As a young sapper he was posted to bomb disposal in London and then was shipped to the Middle East where he travelled thousands of miles across deserts and mountains, transporting heavy plant, building roads and air strips, clearing avalanches and ferrying refugees.
Elizabeth Ellen Osborne	Nellie's Story	Elizabeth Ellen Osborne was born near Northwich in Cheshire, in 1914. Her father was an agricultural worker. She worked her way up the pecking order of servants from lowly 'between maid' to lady's companion/help. Following her marriage she was a nurse, a 'dinner lady' and a much-loved foster-mother. Her recollections paint a vivid picture of times when infant mortality was high, school discipline was brutal and her mother often received second-hand clothes in lieu of wages. She describes the flashes and meadows, flowers and birds of her rural surroundings and can even list the names of all the other children at her school.
G C Kanjilal	The Picture of Innocence	G C Kanjilal's second volume of poems is a further tribute to his late wife Nana and to his much-loved four-legged companions, their poodle Tiggy and his Airedales - Benji, Hector and Barnie. He also writes about the wildlife in his garden, visits to Nana's native Germany and his philosophy of life. But it's not all serious and sad - he also throws in some humorous verses about traffic cones, dreams of a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce and 'flu jabs that don't work...
Geoffrey Morris	Two Birds and No Stones: It's a short life - Fill it	Geoffrey Morris has followed up his successful first book "Only Fools Drink Water", which chronicled his experiences in France, with an autobiography which takes him from conception to retirement, via his wartime service in tanks as a soldier in the 8th Army and his years as a school teacher. In 45 hilarious chapters (each illustrated by Patricia Kelsall) he describes a lifetime as "one of Nature's fall-guys". As his hard-pressed mother said wearily: "He's like a bad penny - you'll never get rid of him."
Alan Fleet	Woollyback	Alan's Fleet's moving and vividly-written novel, set in Winsford, Cheshire, centres on a father/son relationship and the folly of prejudice and resistance to change. The title comes from the name given to the people of Winsford by the incoming Liverpudlian 'Scousers' who flocked to the town when it was chosen for overspill development in the 1960s. Nothing was ever the same again.
Margaret Dignum	A Whiff of Fresh Air: A collection of humorous Cheshire monologues	Margaret Dignum is well known in Cheshire and Staffordshire for her appearances on BBC Radio Stoke and her frequent public speaking engagements where she performes Cheshire dialect monologues about those everyday events which affect us all. This collection of 60 is accompanied by a CD containing her personal selection of 14.
Lenna Bickerton	'We'll gather lilacs...'	In this sequel to "Memories of a Cheshire Childhood" Lenna wrote about her later life as a young woman, wife and mother in Cheshire, covering the 1930s and early 1940s. She died when she was doing the last chapter, and the book has been finished with a special "Part Two" by her daughter, June Hall. The book celebrates the simple things in life - cycling in the countryside, picking wild flowers and lilacs, working in her parents' greengrocers and setting up home at Rudheath.
Peggy Anderson	Lilac and Roses: Our home in the Cévennes sun	Peggy and Alan Anderson bought a ruined farmhouse in the Ardèche in 1963 long before it had become fashionable. Set amidst vineyards and sweet chestnuts, it cost £900 and they spent the next ten years, and most of their savings, renovating it. Their friends thought they were mad but by the time the couple came to retire they had transformed the ruin into an enchanting home. Peggy wrote a book about their experiences in the early 1970s - before Peter Mayle arrived on the scene - but publishers turned it down on the grounds that "no-one would be interested" in home-owning in France.
Eleanor Francis	Butterflies on Mimosa	This book has the sub-title "The pleasures and pitfalls of owning a gîte" and is about a couple who buy a cottage in Charente-Maritime as a holiday home. They decide to rent it out to holidaymakers in the summer so that the small amount of money raised this way can go towards the running expenses. Nothing is straightforward and they immediately learn to expect the unexpected.
Mary Curry and Patricia Keeves	A Ninety Year History - Winsford Church of England Primary School (St Chad's Primary School) 1909 - 1999	The book tells how, in 1906, one of the schools in Winsford, Cheshire faced closure as a direct result of the salt extraction industry. The local people battled to maintain a Church school in the area. The authors relate the story of that battle, and the problems and successes once the school finally opened. It is not just a school history but encompasses the lives of many local people, relives some of the problems caused by a country at war and mirrors the social changes of an expanding town in the 1960s. The book also chronicles the changing expectations of education made by Acts of Parliament and by society at large.
Phil Pearn	Upton Park, Chester - A community for 150 years	Planned in the 1850s to provide a clean and tranquil rural setting just outside the overcrowded city of Chester, the private residential estate of Upton Park was largely completed by the early 1900s and has retained a unique charm and sense of community. Now a Conservation Area, it is rich in history with a Proprietors’ Association Minute Book dating from 1899. The book is about the evolving place that is Upton Park, the people who have lived there and the factors that have combined to create such a special community. It makes fascinating reading for those who know the Park but also provides rich insights for anyone interested in social history.
Anne Loader	The Bells of St Paradis: A Love affair with the Limousin	Anne Loader’s amusing and honest books about life in her family’s 200-year-old Limousin farmhouse are a big hit with Francophile readers – who have begged her to continue the saga. “We’ve lived every moment with you,” is the most common comment. “Please tell us what happened next!”. This third book covering the period from August 1998 to April 2000, introduces new characters and situations as well as describing old friends and familiar places.
David Woodley	Knutsford Prison: The Inside Story	In 1811 there were so many prisoners in Cheshire that the authorities decided to build a new Sessions House, Grand Jury Room and House of Correction in a convenient situation near the town of Nether Knutsford. Retired prison chaplain David Woodley has researched the history of the prison and describes the work of its governors, chaplains, surgeons and visiting magistrates. He looks at the role of the warders and at the lives of the male, female and juvenile prisoners who made up the gaol community.
Elizabeth Ellen Osborne, Geoffrey Mellor, Peter Buckley and Bruce Fisher	Mid-Cheshire Memories: Volume 1	The last century has seen more change than any other in history and we believe that the memories of those who lived during this period should be collected for posterity before it is too late. This book is the first of what we hope will be a series covering ways of life and occupations that have now changed out of all recognition or vanished for ever - The Horseman and his family; The Apprentice Mechanic’s Tale; The Apprentice Fitter’s Tale; The Fireman’s Tale of the End of Steam
Louise Franklin Castanet	Bananas in Bordeaux: Self-sufficiency for dreamers	After Louise Franklin Castanet's French husband resigns from his hated job as a photocopier salesman the couple leave their Bordeaux flat and take on a riverside rented farm with their new baby and a growing menagerie of animals. The English born young mother keeps a daily diary of their adventures and the sub-title, "Self-sufficiency for dreamers", says it all. This witty and moving book is the ideal antidote to the metropolitan chick-lit genre of "Bridget Jones's Diary". It has 306 pages and colour illustrations by the author.
Sheila Wright	Bon Courage, Mes Amis! Thoughts on restoring a rural ruin	When Sheila Wright buys a ruined Limousin farmhouse at the "bottom end of the market" in 1994, she needs all the luck she can get. She even discovers a personal penchant for working with stone and mortar. Over the years she and her family renovate the building and bring it back to life, filling the granite-walled rooms with music and laughter. Sheila also writes about many other aspects of rural French life and her own experiences in the country. She has illustrated the book with pen and ink drawings.
Percy Youd	Tales from a Sporting Life: Memories of a Mersey man who made his mark.	Percy Youd was a man’s man: born in 1879, he excelled at shooting, bowls, athletics and fist-fighting. He was born in Frodsham, where he ‘wagged off’ school; worked in Helsby at the cable factory; was sent as a foreman to its sister works in Prescot where he also ran a popular sporting pub; was an NCO in WWI; set up business as an auctioneer in Ellesmere Port; and had a landlady in Birkenhead with a crystal ball. He was a friend of Selwyn Lloyd MP and organised a 100,000-name petition to save a murderer from the gallows.
Valerie Thompson	The Hidden Triangle: A French Odyssey.	When musician and artist Valerie Thompson bought an old stone house in a village on the banks of the Dordogne, it became a perfect holiday home and also opened the way for her to pursue her interest in the local culture, cuisine, arts, wildlife and history. This book not only tells about buying and renovating the house but is a veritable pot-pourri of all the French things that fascinate the author.
Gay Pyper	Polly takes the Scenic Route: Through France by pony and trap.	Map-reading and short cuts are not horse-mad Gay Pyper's forte, so when she declared her intention of driving across rural France from Normandy to Gascony by pony and trap the reaction of friends and relations was one of amazement. But soon the plans for the epic journey started to take up all her spare time, and everything seemed perfect when Polly the skewbald pony entered the Pypers' lives. Then Fate started to take a hand...
Victor William Dilworth	Happy Days and Heartbreak Days: A farmer's son relives his 1920s childhood.	Victor Dilworth has written a sensitive evocation of his childhood on a Shropshire farm in the 1920s that is so full of detail that it immediately comes to life. The youngest of a large family - "the scratching of the pot" as he calls himself - his busy parents have little time for him until he can play a useful part in the household, so he watches everyone at work and asks endless questions about what's going on. In this gem of a book he describes his feelings and experiences from the time of his very first memories until he is a schoolboy.
Andrew Moilliet (Editor)	Elizabeth Anne Galton (1808 - 1906): A Well-connected Gentlewoman	Elizabeth Anne Galton dictated her memories to her daughter at the end of a long life which had started in the days of dancing bears and ended when motor cars were the latest status symbol. She attended Queen Victoria's Coronation and Wellington's public funeral. A list of her connections would be a "Who's Who" of the 19th century. The great Charles Darwin was her cousin and she was related to many of the famous Quaker business families. This book is a treasure trove for social and family historians alike - readers will find fascinating new facts on every page.
Tony Bostock	Owners, Occupiers and Others: 17th Century Northwich	Leading local historian Tony Bostock has produced a detailed book about life in Northwich, Cheshire during the 17th century - a time of great religious, social, political and economic change. Drawing on many years' research into contemporary documents he describes the traditional and highly-regulated way that salt was made in Northwich - an industrial town in a pre-industrial age - and looks at the daily lives of its inhabitants.
William K Blinkhorn	A History of Whiston: From the Stone Age to the Plastic Age	William K Blinkhorn's wide-ranging book is a fascinating and readable dip into the past of the Merseyside coal-mining town of Whiston. He traces the story of Whiston from its Stone Age beginnings to the closure of one of its most modern industries, a plastics factory. He looks at numerous facets of the town's history including the lords of the manor, place-name derivations, religion, schools, agriculture and industry.
Kathleen Hall	Pinafore Street: A Fenland childhood	In vivid and witty detail, Kathleen Lord describes her childhood in Boston, Lincolnshire in the years after the First World War, bringing a long-gone era sharply into focus. Now nearly 90, her memoirs were written after she retired about 30 years ago and will be read with nostalgic pleasure by her contemporaries and with great interest by those who love social history.

There are always new books coming along so you can see what to expect in the future by looking at the Future Publications List. Where they have reached the stage that we have got an estimated publication date it is shown. If a launch date is given and you would like to come along, just ask.