Family Fortunes

It has come as something of a shock to discover that I am related by direct descent from some of the north west's greatest failures...

  

Thanks for nothing, Derek J Ripley! 

Sorry, I Forgot...

It's been a busy time here at Chez Blunt - with much of my free time being devoted to revitalising the fortunes of the old family firm, William Blunt and Sons. 

 I'm told it's not many more weeks before their online shop will be fully up and running again after its over-haul.  At the same time, I was approached a couple of weeks ago by my old sparring partner Thomas Hamburger Jnr who, against all the odds, has dusted off his unfinished online novel and is close to completing it.  He asked me if I minded casting my journalist's eye over a late draft, and I've spent a few evenings doing exactly that.

As if that wasn't enough, my friend Derek Ripley has had to remind me that I promised to plug his new book when it came out.

Forgotten Lancashire and Parts of Cheshire and the Wirral was published on 4 July and sales seem to be doing remarkably well in Lancashire, parts of Cheshire and the Wirral, from what he tells me.

There does seem to be some confusion about the book, however, as his publishers have classified it as 'humour' rather than as 'local history'.  Derek is a bit peeved about that, I don't mind saying.

www.forgottenlancashire.co.uk

Anyway, in his plundering of the archives of the old family firm, he's come across some interesting documents and artifacts, including this example of a propaganda fridge magnet that was dropped over north west England by the Luftwaffe in 1943.