ALLOW me if you will to set the time machine’s controls back to the 1960s. More specifically, a rainy Sunday afternoon in the autumn of 1963. I was seven years old and bored. As the youngest of four by a decade, my older siblings were all out doing teenage stuff, so I was, to all intents and purposes, an only child. The Swinging Sixties had somehow missed my corner of Norfolk’s Marshland, where about half of my contemporaries were obliged to attend Sunday School at the village chapel. I was spared that affront to my freedom, but when it rained, I wasn’t allowed out to play. Instead, I had to keep myself quietly amused — with the emphasis on quiet, because my hard-working dad invariably had a nap on Sunday afternoons, no doubt aided by the three or four pints of beer he’d supped at the village pub before lunch (or “dinner” as it was known in those days). I wasn’t allowed to switch on the black and white telly, but even if I had been, it would have been dull fare. There were only two channels, and both were devoted to religious stuff on Sundays. Meanwhile, my mum was busy in the kitchen, baking. It meant there’d be fresh-baked currant buns or fruit cake at teatime, but for me the next three hours would be very lonely indeed. So what could I do? Idly, I picked up a book that had belonged to my elder sister, Wendy. Enid Blyton’s Mystery Stories, it said on the spine. I sat down by the fire, turned to the opening page and started reading. By the time I turned the page, I was engrossed. No longer a bored boy on a wet day in Tilney St Lawrence, I’d been transported in my imagination to Dorset and was stumbling through the ruins of Cliff Castle with my new fictional friends, Peter and Pam. Teatime came all too soon, and I reluctantly put down my book. In the space of three hours, my world had been turned upside-down. I had become addicted to books . . . and I haven’t stopped reading since.

It took me two or three days to read Blyton’s two mystery stories: The Secret of Cliff Castle and Smuggler Ben. Finishing the book was an elation, tinged with disappointment. I was hungry for more, and Mum sensed it, promising to take me on the bus to King’s Lynn Library on the Saturday. The town’s wonderful Carnegie library was situated close to the bus station on the Millfleet, and I can clearly recall the excitement of stepping through those doors for the first time. Countless shelves packed with so many books; I hadn’t imagined there were that many books in the whole world. Happily, there were shelves full of more Enid Blyton titles, including, of course, the wonderful Famous Five and Secret Seven series. From then on, I spent nearly every waking hour reading, and I had plenty of books to choose from. After all, Enid Blyton wrote 700, selling 600 million copies in 42 languages. Her books gave me a lifelong love of reading and, later, writing. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude, because her storytelling genius transformed my life, along with so many other youngsters of my generation. A year is a large slice of any childhood, so it should come as no surprise that my literary affections soon shifted to another. When I was eight, the headmaster at my village primary school, Peter Carter, had spotted my love of books and introduced me to C.S. Lewis and the wonderful world of Narnia, via The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. By this time, I loved books so much that I began writing myself. I loved English lessons and the chance to write essays, which probably helped me to pass the 11-plus and win a scholarship to the King Edward VII Grammar School, in King’s Lynn, where my amazing English teachers, Ken Gregory and David Sim, encouraged that passion. By the time I was 16, I was too impatient to stay on for my A-levels and got a job as a trainee reporter, which included spells on local newspapers in the Fens.

By the time I was 27, I was editor of a fishing magazine (Coarse Fisherman), and since then I’ve edited all sorts of publications, but I never forgot my first love: books. My own first book — on pike fishing — was published in 1990. My second, on the River Nene, in 1997. In 2013, I achieved an ambition when Haynes commissioned me to write one of their famous manuals, on off-road driving, then in 2016 I wrote the definitive history of Land Rover for Evro Publishing. Since them The Land Rover Story has sold over 2000 copies. My decision to publish my own books started as a hobby, using the Amazon Kindle platform. It opened my eyes to the possibilities of modern book publishing, hence Hickathrift Press. A year on, we now have nine titles — one by Victoria Burman, five by Andrew Stephen and three by me. Artist Sharon Langley and photographer Stephen Ward have also made invaluable contributions to our books. There are many more now in the pipeline and, by the end of 2026, we hope to have doubled the number of titles on the Hickathrift bookshelf. I will never tire of books. I am very proud of the fine titles we have created at Hickathrift. It’s more than half a century since I left school to become a wordsmith, and I love it even more today, thanks in no small part to the talented team around me, who have become close friends. Running the Hickathrift Press is brilliant fun — I hope you enjoy reading our books as much as we love making them. But that’s more than enough about me. Please read on and meet my much more interesting fellow Hickathrift creatives…  

READING VICTORIA’S HILARIOUS VERSES IS ALWAYS AN UPLIFTING EXPERIENCE

POETRY is one of humankind’s greatest achievements. Our great poets dig deep into their souls to mine rich seams of words that can stir a limitless range of emotions. They are a force of nature. And Victoria Burman is among their number. Victoria’s poetry can be powerful, tender, inspirational, barbed, soothing, and, above all else, simply laugh-out-loud funny. 

Outwardly shy and retiring, few outside Victoria’s own circle of friends knew of her talents. So we are indebted to fellow Hickathrift poet Andrew Stephen for spotting her potential and persuading her to add to our growing collection of fine books.  Soon afterwards, Victoria herself spotted the latent talent of artist Sharon Langley, whose quirky and distinctive style made her the perfect choice for the illustrations in their first book, Uplifting Odes, our best-selling title over Christmas 2025. Although Victoria had been delighting friends with her verses for many years, this is the first time her poems have appeared in print. The Hickathrift Press was delighted to be the vehicle she chose for her publishing debut. Much of her humorous rhyming verse is in the style of Pam Ayres, but much funnier and, indeed, cleverer. If, like us, you love the outstanding observational wit of the late, great Victoria Wood, youwill adore Victoria Burman’s astute verses. Victoria says: “Have you ever come across one of those annoying people who regularly sees the funny side of the human condition?  Well I think I’m probably one of them. Wikipedia defines the human condition as: “the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, reason, morality, conflict, and death.” “Don’t get me wrong, I can safely be invited to a funeral without collapsing into fits of laughter or falling into the grave – I’m fully conversant with appropriate behaviour, but by and large, human beings and the things they get up to, whether by accident or design, are excruciatingly entertaining and I just have an outlook on life that compels me to contemplate the bizarre.   “It’s probably some sort of syndrome, although I’ve never been tested and let’s face it, we all occasionally touch base with our inner psychopath when the supermarket manager decides to invoke yet another change to the layout of the store, making it impossible to find your favourite yoggit. What’s wrong with these people and why are there so many different ways of spelling yoghurt, yogut, yo-gourt? Drives me mad. “As a shy and introspective child, I didn’t properly start to notice the funny side of life until I’d slipped into adulthood; in fact it’s only really in the last decade or so that I’ve actually joined up the dots and started to put pen to paper. This was mainly to amuse myself, but I started to get requests to write poems for various events, as part of the “entertainment” at black tie dinners and wotnot. I was encouraged by positive feedback, the laughter and applause and amazed that people would catch on to my wavelength. “This first edition of what I would loosely describe as poetry, was been diligently compiled by the David Phillips, the founder of The Hickathrift Press.  For me, it’s been a long time coming and not something I would’ve pursued, had it not been for David’s enthusiasm and encouragement, but after careful consideration, he has reached the conclusion that I’m not a danger to the reading public. “Obviously, there have been a lot of things throughout my life that have influenced the content and style of my writing.  I’ve had a lot of challenges, both emotional, material and physical  – don’t get me started on all the surgeries, suffice to say, when supine, I could easily pass for a road map.  All these highs and lows have contributed to an almost hysterical stoicism; in fact if my upper lip were any stiffer, I’d have a most impressive speech impediment.  The point being, laughter truly is the best medicine –  allegedly it is capable of:

• ·       Boosting the immune system
• ·       Relaxing muscles
• ·       Aiding circulation
• ·       Protecting against heart disease
• ·       Lowering anxiety
• ·       Releasing tension
• ·       Improving mood
• ·       Fostering resilience
• ·       Acting as a natural anti-depressant
• ·       Improving cardiovascular health

I just hope it works for you!” Victoria’s poetry is guaranteed to put a smile on anyone’s face. So please treat yourself to a copy of Uplifting Odes. The paperback copy costs just £9.99 and is a click away on Amazon. Buy it, read it, enjoy it and laugh a lot. To show you’ve enjoyed it, please leave an honest review and tell your friends all about Victoria. The world deserves to know.

STOP PRESS!

Victoria and her friend, artist and collaborator, Sharon Langley, are currently working on two new books – a follow-up to Uplifting Odes and the first in a series of illustrated children’s books. We’ll be keeping you posted, so keep checking out this website and the Hickathrift Facebookpage.

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“Poetry is how I express my deepest feelings and try to explain an often baffling world”

Andrew Stephen explains how he became a successful Hickathrift Press author and poet

I was quite shocked to be introduced on Radio Cambridge recently as “Andrew Stephen – football fan, writer and poet”. The interview was about one of my great loves, Cambridge United, but the other two descriptions rather caught me out. Thanks to Hickathrift Press , and the sterling efforts of Dave Phillips, I have now published five books. But, for many years, I was convinced that publishing was for other people. It’s not that I haven’t always written. I got into plenty of trouble at King Edward VII Grammar School in King’s Lynn in the early 1970s for producing subversive magazines printed on a banda machine, one of which I remember was called Onan’s Lump. Ratz Alley was another. We produced them in the print room above the playground and then dropped them from the window onto the boys below. A number of these magazines were banned by the headmaster, who saw a worrying similarity to the anarchic Oz magazine, which was all the rage with wannabe hippies at the time.

Amazingly, many years later and by now a teacher myself, another magazine I produced was banned by the headmaster at the school where I taught. It had started out as a bulletin for my department and evolved into something much more wide-ranging, and which was distributed to all staff. I used the same method to defy the ban that I had employed all those years earlier at KES – I changed its name. The headmaster was the only person in the school who didn’t receive a copy after that. I was given enormous help in this by the English Department I managed, and by the lady in Reprographics, who became known as Moneypenny for her part in what was meant to be a clandestine operation. When I retired and moved to Norfolk, the newly-renamed Phoenix came with me and these days it comes out each month. In addition, I write the Lennensian Newsletter for former pupils of my old school and the Amber News for fellow members of Cambridge Fans United. I also write programme articles for the club called Hot Off The Habbin. I very much enjoyed my time as a state boarder at school in King’s Lynn. I was one of several servicemen’s children there while their fathers served abroad. It was a way of life that has more or less died out now. It ended rather badly for me when I was asked to leave midway through my A-levels, which led to an unintended gap year before I decided to take a chance as a teacher. It was a career I loved, although I’m not sure that I’d want to do it now. During my gap year in 1972, I worked in factories, bought books and wrote poems, either to or about girls, and tried to make sense of things. Perhaps that is what writing is for. I didn’t write much during my working life, and certainly not poetry. Meanwhile, many times I intended to throw out a couple of box files full of yellowing bits of paper that recorded the pain and uncertainties of adolescence. I’m glad I didn’t – as you’ll see. Forty years after leaving my old school I was persuaded to return and look round it, and subsequently I joined the Old Lennensians and became a governor and a trustee. I am actively involved with the school – now a comprehensive known as the KES Academy –  trying to pay back some of what I owe it. I have worked closely with the last two headteachers and become great friends with the current Head of English, Ian Corns. Through the OLs I met fellow ex-pupil Dave Phillips, who encouraged me to believe that my story was worth telling and, thanks to him, my first book Reading, Writing and Redemption was published. It is autobiographical and about education. It describes my experiences as a pupil, student and teacher, offering some views about what I believe education to be. It deals at some length with my time at KES and helped me to deal with some of my demons. Happily, it received many flattering reviews. Then those old box files of my teenage poems came out and I was surprisingly pleased with some of them, which I gently reworked. Then I wrote some more, particularly during the pandemic when life became very restricted. Writing frees the mind in ways I never imagined when younger. Endless River, my second book arrived. Even though poetry is not a big seller, I was very proud of it. I think that it showed that even when I found life hard I have found ways of staying positive. The Story In Your Eyes followed – a hymn of praise to Cambridge and to my ancestors. One of them was one of the first photographers in Cambridge and a truly great man in many ways. Last year I wrote The Season That Nearly Was to explain my devotion to Cambridge United. Many fans of other clubs have written to me to say that they understood the symptoms! Finally, my latest book Under A Norfolk Sky is, I think, my best. Ian Corns was a brilliant editor and Steve Ward’s photographs support the text brilliantly. Dave brought it all together with his usual skill and panache. Poetry is very important to me. It is the only way I can express my deepest feelings and try to explain an often baffling world. The poems in this book are much more developed than my earlier ones and explore my love for where I live and the way it helps me to live the way I want to. It would be fair to say that I am at home here and inspired by the landscape and culture, now that I live a mere two miles from where I went to primary schoolpassed my 11-plus. The three short stories I have included are all on the theme of how we become the person we do. All writers will tell you that they answer to themselves first. When they please others, it is a great bonus.  

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WHY EVERYONE’S SIMPLY POTTY ABOUT ARTIST SHARON’S POTS!

SHARON Langley is our talented artist at the Hickathrift Press. She was “discovered” one Saturday by writer Victoria Burman while browsing at Bury St Edmunds market. Victoria had been struggling to find the right artist to illustrate her wonderful, humorous poems, but once she clapped eyes on Sharon’s My Pot Doodle stall, she knew she’d stumbled upon comedic gold.

It was the perfect partnership, and the end result, published late in 2025, was Uplifting Odes, which went on to become our Christmas best-seller. Sharon says: “I’m an artist who loves turning everyday things into something a bit more fun. I hand-paint plant pots in a colourful, quirky style and also create mugs and cards.

“They make perfect gifts for any occasion if you’re looking for something totally unique. The plant pots are all individually hand-painted, so no two are ever quite the same.

• Sharon also sells signed copies of Uplifting Odes on her stall, as well as mugs and greeting cards featuring the hilarious characters she drew for the book.

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STUNNING PHOTOGRAPHS THAT CAPTURE THE ESSENCE OF NORFOLK

NORFOLK photographer Stephen Ward collaborated for the first time with Hickathrift Press writer Andrew Stephen by supplying the moody images that perfectly captured the latter’s enigmatic poetry in Under A Norfolk Sky. The talented lensman is based in West Norfolk, where he regularly displays his work at local art exhibitions.

A large part of his current work is reflecting on Man’s effect on the environment and its consequential wanton disfigurement, but in between, he is still a sucker for a scene of beauty. Mainly self-taught, he despises labels (of all sorts) such as professional and amateur, being pretentious or contemptuous descriptions of the time involved, money and quality of an artist’s practise.

Stephen says: “Having known Andrew for many years, it is a great honour to be asked to illustrate his latest book of poetry, a task which has allowed both of them the indulgence to revisit Stephen’s archive, to reminisce and occasionally to revisit forgotten pathways.”

• The illustrations featured here are available as prints. Please contact Stephen Ward on wardies5aw@btinternet.com for details.

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