Books

A Century of Campaigning: People's Stories about the Labour Party in Milton Keynes Book

This book celebrates the centenary of the Labour Party in Milton Keynes (1917-2017) through archival material, historical photographs, and interviews.

Price: £10.00

A Lifetime Away

A compilation of personal stories from Stony Stratford. These childhood memories of older people who spent their early years in the town are accompanied and illustrated by many black and white photographs. The stories of home life, childhood games, schooldays, Fegan's Homes, starting work and the grown up characters of the town are all here, brought to life in the words of the people who experienced them.

Price: £10.00

Price: £5.00

A School in Moon Street

A history of 100 years of this educational building in Wolverton. First published in 2008 and compiled by Roger Kitchen we have limited edition copies of this wonderful record of 100 years of Bushfield School.

Price: £5.00

Bigger, Brighter, Better

The story of Bletchley from 1944 to 1966, told by its residents. This book is full of photographs, both personal and from the press, and includes quotes on many aspects of life experienced by the people who lived in the town from the post-war boom through to the Queen's visit when Bletchley Road, Bletchley finally became Queensway.

Price: £5.00

Bletchley Park People

The British government's top secret Code & Cypher School at Bletchley, otherwise known as Station X, was the unlikely setting for one of the most vital undercover operations of the Second World War. It was at Bletchley in present-day Milton Keynes that team of code breakers succeeded in cracking Germany's supposedly unbreakable Enigma codes, there by shortening the war by at least two years. A selection of archive photographs and illustrations accompanies the text, drawn from the Bletchley Park Trust Archive and the personal albums of those stationed at Bletchley.

Price: £5.00

Bletchley's Other Secret

The book encompasses the history of Leon School in Bletchley, and its predecessor schools, from 1870-2012. Source material ranges from the school logbooks, interviews with staff and pupils to local archived newspapers and social media postings. Objectivity and chronology combine with the pupil and staff memories, including those of Duncan and Grace Hume.

Price: £10.00

Book and DVD Package - Mud, Sweat and the Rule of Law

This special offer features a DVD featuring of 10 digital stories of Rugby in Milton Keynes along with ‘Mud, Sweat and the Rule of Law’ a book by Marion Hill that takes a look at the stories and memories of Rugby in the Milton Keynes area. Featuring stories and facts from 1870 to the present day, with contributions from Milton Keynes’ local clubs, ladies teams, schools and the more recent events of the Rugby World Cup, the Web Ellis Cup Tours and Fanzone events in 2015. Local Rugby enthusiasts should not miss the opportunity to discover more about their game in MK. View the short films here: https://www.rugbyheritagemk.org.uk/films.html

Price: £10.00

Price: £5.00

Bradwell Then & Now

Over the centuries Bradwell has been intersected by Roman tracks, the eighteenth-century Grand Union Canal, the nineteeth-century London to Birmingham railway and a twentieth-century city grid road system. It has seen its fair share of change over the years, but its past and present remain inextricably linked. A collection of archive and modern photographs sit alongside many fascinating stories and chart the history of the area from Bronze Age settlers to a disused railway line now threading a modern route as a cycle path.

Price: £12.99

Calverton Manor Farm

Calverton Manor Farm - a Century of Memories. The story of change over the last hundred years at Calverton Manor Farm. This book captures the recent history of England told in actual words of the hardworking people who held it all together.

Price: £3.00

I'll Tell You What Happened...

Hawtin Mundy was one of those natural story-tellers that you occasionally come across and you are immediately captivated by. I'll Tell You What Happened...is based on the reminiscence of his childhood days in the early years of the century in what is now the new city of Milton Keynes. With inimitable observation, wit and humour, he vividly recalls the places he grew up in, the people he knew, the fun, the friendships and the fellow-feeling that belongs to close-knit community life. The illustrations are by Milton Keynes artist Diana Winkfield.

Price: £4.00

Listen To Me

A unique book of recordings carried out with people with memory loss who are under the age of 65. Early onset dementia has only been recently been recognised and much of what is written is either by carers or aimed at carers. In the UK very few younger people have spoken out about what it is like to live with dementia. The stories of Evelyn, Jane, Hyacinth and Harry are moving and powerful and relate to the experiences of living with memory loss.

Price: £2.00

Memories of Milton Keynes

People living in the Milton Keynes area forty years ago came under the auspices of three towns, thirteen villages and a county council. Many changes have taken place in this time and it is the people, whose experiences and reminiscences are recorded here, who have shaped the area into the remarkable city it is today. All contributions come from the oral archive kept at the Living Archive which has been collecting reminiscences from city residents since 1975, and are complemented by 100 photographs from their collections.

Price: £12.99

Meri Kahani

This book is a result of a year long community initiative to collect stories from various members of the Asian community in Milton Keynes. It covers almost all religious and cultural groups and contains stories filled with human emotions, nostalgia of leaving their countries of origin, stories of settling thousands of miles away and of creating new homes and communities.

Price: £5.99

Price: £3.00

Milton Keynes Through Time

The Milton Keynes area has undergone many astonishing transformations, particularly over the last forty years. The area's colourful history includes tales involving a seventeenth-century butcher publicly hanged on Galley Hill, an eighteenth-century Lace School where children as young as five toiled for seven hours a day learning the trade, disused brickworks transformed into a beautiful nature reserve, and the world\'s largest steam tram. The remarkable new book focuses on the whole borough (an area the size of Malta), all six towns of it (Newport Pagnell, Onley, Woburn Sands, Bletchley, Stony Stratford and Wolverton) along with the twenty-eight villages and harmlets that join with the city's original thirteen. The author has used many hitherto unpublished images to illustrate the unique provenance of this unique place to live and work.

Price: £10.00

Milton Keynes: The People's Stories

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Milton Keynes, this book brings together stories from interviews with more than 50 people, on topics from sport to art, from heritage to transport. This book is the portrait of a city through a selection of its residents – the story of Milton Keynes in the words of its people.

Price: £7.00

Mud, Sweat and the Rule of Law

‘Mud, Sweat and the Rule of Law’ by Marion Hill takes a look at the stories and memories of Rugby in the Milton Keynes area. Featuring stories and facts from 1870 to the present day, with contributions from Milton Keynes’ local clubs, ladies teams, schools and the more recent events of the Rugby World Cup, the Web Ellis Cup Tours and Fanzone events in 2015. Local Rugby enthusiasts should not miss the opportunity to discover more about their game in MK...

Price: £3.00

No Heroes No Cowards

The book gives an account of the experiences of a private and (for a time!) lance corporal in the First World War, special interest attaches to the chapters on life as a German prisoner of war but the whole narrative is essentially 'history from below'. It is full of illuminating insights which will interest historians and general readers alike.

Price: £3.95

Piano & Herrings

This autobiography of Bill Elliot who was born in Great Linford in 1884 but moved to Wolverton when he was four, first in the now demolished Young Street, and finally in Anson Road. His story gives a fascinating insight into life in the Wolverton area since before the turn of the century, and shows that the life of 'ordinary' working people is far from ordinary.

Price: £2.50

Players, Passion and Pitches

The book focuses on the personal memories of 40 people. People who have played for, supported or administered teams in local leagues. People who have been committed to football over many years. The text is illustrated with over 60 photographs. Newspaper reports and programme quotes have also been included to show how the sport has been reflected in print.

Price: £3.00

Positive Tales

People with learning difficulties rarely get the chance to tell their stories. This book is different. Each author was interviewed on a one-to-one basis and there was complete confidentiality until each was happy to share their recorded story. The editing was a shared task and only rare changes in the order of words were made to clarify a story. As a result, you should hear the voices of the authors as you read this engaging compilation. Each page is supplemented with a key phrase in Widget's Rebus symbol language.

Price: £4.99

Price: £3.00

The Milton Keynes Book of Days of the Great War

'The Milton Keynes Book of Days of the Great War' This is a substantial account of the conflict from a local perspective. A large format book featuring 200 illustrated pages with first hand accounts from local people; personal letters, photographs, recorded interviews, newspaper articles... all make up an incredible account of each day of The Great War.

Price: £5.00

The Milton Keynes Songbook for Schools

Living Archive MK in collaboration with Marion Hill and Craig McLeish have selected 36 of these songs, not only to share their origins and their special heritage, but also to create the first accessible collection of home-grown music, for use throughout Milton Keynes – especially in schools and community choirs.

Price: £10.00

The Story of the Original CMK

This is the story of how Central Milton Keynes happened, told by the people who shaped the initial ideas of 'CMK'. Commissioned by the Central Milton Keynes Project Board (part of English Partnerships) and published (Oct 2007) by Living Archive of Milton Keynes, the book is illustrated with over 150 full-colour and black-and-white photographs, many never before published'.

Price: £10.00

Where The Lines Meet

Old Bletchley Station lives again through the words of those who lived it. Their stories tell the real tale better than any statistics... Bletchley Station has been 'Where the Lines Meet' for eight generations connecting London with Birmingham and Oxford with Cambridge throughout 100 of its160 years.

Price: £5.00