Boxmoor Christmas Village

Meet the Author: Jennifer Worth

It's with great sadness that we learned that the best-selling Boxmoor author Jennifer Worth died in June 2011. Jennifer lived in Boxmoor for more than 30 years. She was well known for the Call the Midwife trilogy of books, based on her experience as a midwife working in the East End of London in the 1950s. 

Her midwife tales are being adapted for a BBC TV series with Cranford screenwriter Heidi Thomas working on the script. 

Jennifer's last book, In the Midst of Life, is a nurse's memoir of people approaching their last days. There are warm, poignant and disturbing stories of dying wishes, families facing hard decisions, and life carrying on while elsewhere it is coming to a close.

Jennifer will be remembered very fondly by all who knew her in Boxmoor and it's hoped her books will continue in their success and will also keep her memory alive.

Read more about In the Midst of Life on Boho Boxmoor.

Read an interview with Jennifer Worth on Boho Boxmoor from 2008.

Meet the Author: Sue Hampton

Sue Hampton is a Berkhamsted-based children's novelist, writing for children aged from 7 to 15.

Sue trained as a teacher but writing always beckoned, so in 2005 she took a year out and produced her first book, Spirit and Fire (published in 2007). 

Since then eight more books have followed, three of them acclaimed by the former children's laureate Michael Morpurgo (who's another 'local' author, having been born in St Albans).

Her latest book is the double flip-over book called Ongalonging and The Snowgran, which she'll be selling at Meet the Author along with her other novels. Look out too for her previous book Traces, and The Waterhouse Girl - "beautifully written," says Michael Morpurgo.

She'll be joined by her partner Leslie Tate, author and poet (below), who'll be signing copies of his work Aphrodite's Children.

Meet the Author: Adrian Gilbert

Adrian Gilbert is a military historian who's lived in Hemel Hempstead for nearly 20 years - he currently lives in Boxmoor (declaration of interest: I'm married to him.)

He's best known for his works on the Second World War, including The Imperial War Museum Book of the Desert War and POW: Allied Prisoners of War, 1939-1945. The latter was named one of the 10 best military history books of the year by the Sunday Times when it was published in 2006.

Adrian's most recent book is Voices of the Legion: The French Foreign Legion in its own Words - a history of arguably the toughest fighting force in the world, told through first-hand accounts.

Adrian is also well known for his work on sniping, Sniper One-on-One, which has sold over 150,000 copies around the world. Last year he appeared on Channel 4's documentary on The Great Escape: The Reckoning.

You can find him on Facebook and on Twitter @AdrianDGilbert. His blog is War Books Review, which reviews the latest and best military  history books on the market.

Meet the Author: Chris Ambrose

Watford-based Chris Ambrose had finished university, but didn't want to be in the real world - he wanted to see the real world. So he set off on a round-the-globe trip. Once back from his travels, he wrote up his journal and published Table for One - Thoughts of a Round the World Backpacker.

Having then secured a fantastically boring job, Chris got fed up and took off  to Canada on a six-week adventure to track down a sandwich. When he returned he published his experiences as A Taste of Canada - In Search of a Reasonably Priced Sandwich.

Meet the Author: Reg Stickings

Music lover Reg Stickings is born and raised in Hemel Hempstead and currently lives in Apsley with his wife and two children.

In 2008 he published Searching for Soul, which recounts how he and his best pal helped bring a soul music movement from the north of England to Hemel Hempstead.

It documents Reg's lifelong obsession with soul music and paints a picture of 1960s Hemel Hempstead that will ring true with anyone brought up in the town then.

Unusually, Reg, who says he struggles with literacy, dictated the whole book to friends and family who typed it up. They'd always encouraged him to write a book because of his natural storytelling and love of music. The project took seven years to complete. 

Searching for Soul sold 2,000 copies on Amazon before it was released, and Reg continues to sell copies at soul events he attends or DJs at around the UK.

REG STICKINGS video on BBC's Inside Out - watch at full width

REG'S SOUL SURVIVOR SOCIAL NETWORK

Meet the Author: Shedworking

Alex Johnson is a journalist and homeworker living in St Albans, Hertsfordshire. He runs the Shedworking blog - a daily updated guide for people who work in garden offices and other shedlike atmospheres.

In 2010 he published Shedworking: The Alternative Workplace Revolution as an illustrated book, now available in paperback.

Alex believes shedworking is a greener way of working, improves work-life balance and accelerates your productivity. His book is an inspirational guide to shedworking structures around the world, "crammed with fantasies," says Reader's Digest. 

"The complete guide to relocating a business to the end of the garden" - The Daily Telegraph 

Alex writes regularly for  Enterprise Nation, the UK's leading website for homeworkers, and is a judge for the Remote Working Awards. He's a fount of knowledge for any freelancer or businessperson working from home.

Visit Alex's Shedworking blog, and check out his newest venture - Pubworking.

Follow Alex on Twitter @shedworking or visit Shedworking on Facebook

See also Alex's Bookshelf blog, of beautiful bookshelf structures.

Meet the Author: Roger Moorhouse

Roger Moorhouse is an historian and writer specialising in modern German and Central European history, with particular interest in Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, World War Two in Europe and the former German eastern territories.

His latest book, Berlin at War, is published by Bodley Head. He has collobarated with historian Norman Davies on a number of projects, and his previous book was Kiling Hitler.

Roger was raised in Hertfordshire, attended Berkhamsted School, and currently lives in Pitstone.

You can find out more about him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter @Roger_Moorhouse. His blog is Historian at Large.

Reviews for Berlin at War

"Powerfully describes what passed for normal life in the abnormal capital of Hitler's empire - Ian Thomson in the Daily Telegraph

Well-researched and beautifull composed account, vividly recreating those years of Nazi arrogance, opression and corruption..." - Antony Beevor