Sam Trundal is a familiar name to readers of the Wymsey Chronicle which has featured his 'Down Our Lane' column for a number years (nearly two, as it happens). He is a countryman through and through who has only been to London once. "And that was when I got on the wrong train at Swindon." Today, Sam rarely strays from his beloved village of Wymsey although he does spend Christmas and a week in the summer at his sister's bungalow in Swanage.

Sam's recent book 'From My Gate' has gone down well in some circles, one reviewer wrote, "Reading this booking can be likened to riding on the back of a turtle who has just stopped carrying the world around. It is the perfect antidote for those suffering from urban blues and those deluded souls who hanker after a cottage in the country with roses 'round the door."

Another said,"This little book has changed my attitude to a number of things."

Reader Jean Plaiter comments: I found this book overwhelming and had to put it down constantly, so powerful was it effect upon me.

Extracts from From My Gate can be found at Slackville.

From my Gate, Sam Trundal, 2000. 250pp. Paperback price £8.99

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"Princess Terrapin pulled at the ropes, they held firm. If only, she thought, I had not been so excited by the Gnarckii. But what was the point for she was only too aware of her nature to be long in despondency."

Thus Part III of The House of Terrapin opens where Part II (Falling Into Darkness) ends. True To Type completes Volume II of the Gnarckii Chronicles, all six books that comprise Volume I & II are available from the Primrose Press.

Belinda Buckfast's unique combination of Gothic sex, Gothic architecture, Gothic fashion and Gothic shopping set within the context of an intergalactic conflict of gigantic proportions belies the fact that her first book was published at the age of 67.



Reader Erial Derth comments: The universe that Be creates is so real, I find it hard to accept that these are works of fiction. I use the characters as inspiration for my art works which I exhibit at www.gothartgirls.com .

True To Type, Belinda Buckfast, 2001. 450pp. Paperback price £9.99

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Mr Applegate's approach ensures that at all times the reader is presented, nay surrounded, with pertinent facts undiluted by opinion.


Reader Adrian Hardcastle comments: I have to say that I have yet to read a better book on batteries

The Battery Book,, John Applegate, 2001. 350pp. Paperback price £6.99

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Semi-reclusive compost pioneer, Elsanna P Lupin, brings in this delightful & slender volume her vast experience of composting and related processes. In it's way Miss Lupin offers, through the medium of compost, an engaging virtual history of nutrition, cottage gardening and the loss of empire.

From the Hindu Kash to the foothills of Killermanjaja this daughter of a British colonial tax gatherer imbibed the accumulated plant fertility knowledge of peoples who had been close to the soil for millennia. Miss Lupin brought this knowledge back to England with her when her father died a grizzly death at the hands of Kawasaki tribesmen resentful of paying tributes to "big fat queen in black dress way across the river". This knowledge she has put to good use on her Wymsey market garden over the past 50 years. This edition, which has been updated by the author, comes with an interactive CD.

Reader Celia Chumpley comments: I found this book overwhelming and had to put it down constantly, so powerful was it effect upon me.

A Brief History of Compost,, Elsanna P Lupin, 1943, 1968, 2001. 150pp. Paperback price £5.99

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Wymsey master tofu hunter and old soldier, Major General Barking-Barking , has here produced a most useful handbook for those who wish to ensure good hunting. Always controversial and at best hysterical, the General has taken the widest possible definition of vermin and offers many original ways of dealing with them.

Not a book for the namby pamby or campaigning local vegetarian who will find much to offend within it's covers, this slim volume will fit easily into the pocket of the true countryman's tweed jacket.

Reader Alfred Beanington-Smythe comments: Wonderful! I read it from cover to cover and then started again. An inspiration!



Vermin Control, Major General barking-Barking, 2001. 100pp. Paperback price £3.99

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