The Residents of Romiley Road is now available to pre-order

Pre-order the paperback here

Pre-order the ebook here

or here

With the release of "The Residents of Romiley Road" coming up in just over a fortnight's time, I've been busy trying to get the word out. I have contacted the local library and Serenity Booksellers to see if they would be interested in stocking it. I am hoping that a few people might request the book so they'll be more inclined to buy a copy or two!

But the most lovely interaction I have had came from the Friends of Romiley Station.

I contacted the volunteer group to see if they would be interested in a copy of the book to keep at the station (where hopefully people will return the book when they are finished with it or pass it on to others). They were incredibly kind and offered to print off some posters and flyers for me, even including my book in the next newsletter.

The help I received was so uplifting for me. I have been suffering from poor health all year and many of the ideas I had originally planned for the book launch had to be binned. I had considered doing a walking tour along the road, talking about the inhabitants, or perhaps a pub tour of the street. I had even considered posting flyers to all of the nearby houses. Unfortunately, due to my breathing issues, none of this was possible, and I had been feeling quite glum and deflated. With the posters and flyers I feel like I might have a fighting chance of my book reaching some of the local people, and that feels really positive.

I made a visit to the newly updated Romiley Arms this week. The new owners had contacted me after I made a video about the history of the pub, which had been quite calamitous. We enjoyed the vegan lasagna and crumble, the staff were lovely, and no gambling or license law breaking occurred!

In Romiley Road project news, I have been very busy mastering "dynamic pages" on the website, which apparently is better than having separate pages for each household. I have now added the household data for all 83 households and I have written a page of information for the first 46 households. The latest is William Storer who seems to vanish after the 1881 census but his wife and daughter managed to keep going, working as servants and dressmakers. William Storer's father John features in the book as he worked for Robinson and Schofield hatworks and had a mishap due to drinking too much.

I have also been continuing my "Walk Down Romiley Road in 1871" series on TikTok where we are up to household 24, the Perrin Grocer's.

Releasing one's first book has definitely been a very up and down experience so far. There's an almost constant swing between extremes. There are times when I feel immensely proud to have written and published a book, and I'm filled with excitement at the idea of it going off into the world. I don't mind at all how many copies I sell and am happy to have connected with some lovely people through doing this project. Then there is the swing in the other direction. I convince myself that everybody will hate the book and tear it apart, or that I won't sell a single copy. Suddenly sales figures become important and (even though it's not even out yet!) another stick to beat myself with. Happily, I'm in the former category today. :-)

Over the next few weeks I'm planning to add more to the website and I'm going to pop along to my first meeting at the Marple Local History Society. Aside from that I have far too many appointments and meetings (non-book related) this month so that should keep me busy and away from negative rumination.