Recommended Essex Summer Reads

We celebrate two excellently researched new publications this summer that bring different aspects of our county to light. Re-discover forgotten stories, delve deep into our heritage and be prepared to reconsider your perceptions.

The Invention of Essex

By Tim Burrows

A Financial Times ‘Book to Read in 2023’

Welcome to Essex. A county both famous and infamous: but beyond the sensationalist headlines lies a strange and secret place with a rich history: of smugglers and private islands, artists and radicals, myths and legends. It’s where the Peasants’ Revolt began and the Empire Windrush docked. And where Essex leads, the rest often follow.

Deeply researched and thoroughly engaging, ‘The Invention of Essex’ by Tim Burrows, author and journalist (and contributor to ‘Radical Essex’) shows that there is more to this fabled county than meets the eye.

Tim Burrows will be appearing in conversation with Rosalind Green at the Essex Book Festival in a joint event with EA Festival at Hedingham Castle.

www.essexbookfestival.org.uk

The Witches of St. Osyth

By Marion Gibson

A compelling account of one of England’s most important witch trials, this is an emotive, haunting story of a community torn apart in Elizabethan Essex.

The so-called witches of St. Osyth have been largely overlooked by scholars, now Marion Gibson sets that right. Using fresh archival sources from the village, it’s neighbouring Elizabethan hamlets and habitations, and the Essex Record Office, Marion offers revelatory new insights into the sixteen women and one man accused of sorcery while asking wider, provocative questions about the way history is recollected and interpreted.

Marion is appearing at ‘Hunting for Essex’s Witches through archives and archaeology’ at Essex Record Office on Saturday 29 April.

www.essexrecordoffice.co.uk/events