Secret City of Southend (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781398111547)

Ian is the author of 12 books and four map narratives about the history of Essex and seven other books (four fiction, three poetry) that draw on Essex for inspiration. History books include 'Southend in 50 Buildings' (2016), 'A History of Southend' (hardback 2001, paperback 2010) and two histories of neighbouring towns ('Rayleigh: A History', 2005 and 'Hadleigh Past', 1998). His first book, 'Islands of Essex', which includes nearby Canvey Island, was published in 1994. The maps cover Southend, Leigh and Westcliff. Throughout the 1990s, Ian wrote history articles for a number of county magazines, including 'Essex Countryside' (as was) and 'This Month in Essex'. He has an MA in History (with distinction) from the University of Essex (2011) for which he won a prize for his dissertation on population migration in the Rochford Hundred in the late 19th-century. Ian was on the organising committee of an event to mark the 1,000th anniversary of the local Battle of 'Assandun' in 2016 (one of his poetry books is an epic poem about the battle, based on historic accounts) and he wrote a history booklet and the text for an information board for Ashingdon Parish Council. In 2019-20 Ian worked as a historical consultant on a project to create a heritage tapestry celebrating 1,000 years of the history of Rochford District. He has also contributed several chapters to a forthcoming volume of the prestigious Victoria County History series about Southend and is co-editing it. In 2020 he published a language book about "Single-context Words".