Sussex Exclusive Magazine. Issue 7

BOOKWORM
In The
Library
BOOKWORM
Pull up a chair and dig into the pages of two local but very different
Sussex authors and their books
Tawny Owl Wood
By Louise A Shaw
The Tawny Owl Wood series
are children’s books written by
Littlehampton author Louise
Shaw. The series were inspired by
her childhood spent in Angmering
Woods and the stories told by her
very spiritual grandmother, along
with a desire to tackle some of the complex issues that today’s
children have to navigate.
As a mother of four children, and a writer with dyslexia, Shaw
deals with issues like anxiety, living with Tourette’s, personal
identity, and diversity and inclusion. She hopes that by doing
so she can help encourage more open family conversations and
change attitudes.
Each book is different, but the series includes beautiful
illustrations and colourful characters whilst weaving enchanting
stories and adventures of woodland folk that captivate young
minds and sparks the flame of imagination.
The series transport little readers to magical realms where
talking animals, brave heroes, and fantastical adventures come
to life on the pages. With the use of simple but clever language
and thought-provoking tales, the author opens up some of the
big issues of today in a thoroughly engaging way.
Available to order:
www.tawnyowlwood.co.uk
Arundel The Dark Side
By Martin Alderton and
Karen Alderton
Martin and Karen are collectively
Arundel Tour Guides who love the town,
its stories, its history and its community.
Sharing and listening, bringing tales and
new facts into their tours, always finding
new ‘old’ pictures and adding them to
their files.
They have written a number of books
about Arundel including Arundel,
a Postman’s View and Arundel the
Dark Side.
And so to The Dark Side…
‘Stories of ghosts and hauntings; every
town, village, relic, ruin, church or
manor has them and Arundel has them
in abundance. All our stories are the firsthand
accounts of others with one or two
stories having been passed down through
families growing up, working and playing
in and around the town.
From feelings of dread or cold, to
visitations of nuns or the sound of
crying, all written about, many times in
many books, these are local, these were
‘real’ to the inhabitants of our town.
The spirits of lost children, a French
Governess, manifestations of people
who had already passed away, from
accidental death to suicide, all leave a
certain presence, sometimes only felt or
seen by a few. Like the haunted woods
of Binsted or the crying lady at the top
of Hiorne Tower in the Park, the Godiva
of Slindon so cruelly murdered, these are
all stories that have been passed through
generations, told and re-told in hushed
tones bringing chills to listeners or
readers alike.
Mischievous, is a description we heard a
lot when writing the book, whether it’s
blowing candles out, turning lights off,
moving things. Like the Youth Club’s
lost keys, at lock-up time, after an hour
or two searching, they appeared in the
middle of a pool table, with two cues
crossed over them.
The Headless Ghost of the Earl of
Arundel takes us back to Richard II, a
story of pure fear, treason, execution
and nightmares and the story of Jack
Upperton, Arundel’s own Dick Turpin,
well not quite, he tried once and failed
miserably, being hung and gibbeted on
Burpham Down all for £1 or so.
Smugglers, Gibbets, Murder
and Exorcism
Arundel was the murder capital of Sussex
for 30 years around the 1960s. Not just
in the town, but the area too. From the
bodies of men pulled from the river
to young ladies, maids, old ladies and
custom men.’
Available at Arundel Bookshops and eBay
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