Village Books

Our books are written by residents, for the community and for posterity. We invite members of the community to submit a photograph that they want to put in the book. This may be a picture of a their favourite village scene, it may be a picture of their family outside their house, it may be a picture of the local shop, office or place of work. Along with the photograph we invite residents to submit a passage of text up to 75 words long that summarises their thoughts and opinions of community life or that provides an explanation of their photograph. We then take the comments and photographs and combine them with scenic photographs of the village taken by our commissioned photographer and with a brief history of the village, written by a local historian. Each submission (photograph and article) is allocated half a page in the finished book. The comments, the photographs and the history are then brought together in a beautifully crafted book. The book is published locally, archived at the British Library and copies are donated to the local museum or library, the Parish Council and the District Council.

Here are some examples of comments that we envisage being included in a village book:

“We moved to the Village in 1966 and have never looked back. I love it here, its so peaceful, I regularly go on long walks over the hills with my neighbours, beautiful seems an inadequate description of the area. There’s also loads going on in the Village. I play tennis at the local tennis club and last year we won the County League, I hope we manage to keep up the good results in 2005"

“The Village used to be so peaceful and lovely, now its completely different. The High Street is full of litter, the tourists block up the streets with their motor cars, and the price of a meal in the pub has shot through the roof, not to mention the price of a house. My children will never be able to afford to buy a house here.”

These examples are fictitious, but are typical of the comments that people might submit. All the statements benchmark community feeling at the current time and may be of interest to someone researching the history of the village in years or generations to come. A passage can express different thoughts about a single topic when viewed through the eyes of different generations of a family unit. Note: There are some types of comment that we cannot publish, and Timebox Press retain full editorial control to prevent offensive material being included in the book.

How does a book get started?

The Local Council or another body commission TimeBox Press to produce a village book, the Council promote the book to local residents, businesses, clubs and societies. Timebox Press approach members of the community and invite them to submit a photograph and accompanying text. We find a door to door approach yields the best results supplemented by local press coverage and leafleting where required. Residents are invited to:

• Take the photograph they want to include in the book and write a passage up to 75 words long, to support the photograph.
• Organisations such as the local tennis club or the local youth club are approached simultaneously and invited to submit a photograph and passage.
• Two weeks later, a representative from Timebox Press calls to collect the photograph and passage along with a cheque or postal order for £25.00 for residential submissions or £50.00 for organisation submissions.
• Within eight weeks copies of the book will have been printed and be available for purchase at a cost of £15.00 per copy. Copies can be pre-
  ordered at the time articles are submitted at a reduced price.

Timebox Press require at least 100 contributions per book for the project to be viable. In the unlikely event that enough interest cannot be established then either the book is subsidised by the commissioning body or no collections of money or contributions are made. Those who have expressed interest at the initial door knocking, are informed that the project has been cancelled.

For further information call TimeBox Press on 0775 2217847 or email: editor@timeboxpress.com