YouCaxton has been involved in the design and publication of Oat to Joy by Olympic Medallist, Ella Pooley. Emma has now announced further launch events (details to follow):
Thursday 10th Herne Hill Velodrome
Friday 11th Chiswick
Saturday 12th Bristol
Sunday 13th Hebden Bridge
Monday 14th York
On the menu: a live reading from Oat To Joy and insights into the inspiration behind the book.
Served with: Q&A, a chance to get your copy of Oat To Joy signed, and all-you-can-chat discussions about bike adventures, racing and training, gear ratios, bike fit, sports nutrition, recipes, and of course oats. Lots of oat chat!
The book will be available to purchase at both events.
Launching on Sunday April 27 at 2.00 pm in the Glass Classroom, Enginuity, Coalbrookdale.
Hinkshay Rows by Heather Duckett, published by YouCaxton, is a meticulously researched history of a small development near Dawley in Telford. It charts the ‘Rows’ development from 1825, when they were built, to 1968 when they were demolished, tracing the arrival of the original families and where they came from and how the community developed, right through to the final exodus and where they emigrated to. A remarkable history of the Industrial Revolution in microcosm.
To celebrate publication of this remarkable book Heather Duckett is hosting a launch on Sunday April 27 at 2.00 pm in the Glass Classroom, Enginuity, Coalbrookdale.
On Sunday April 27 at 2.00 pm in the Glass Classroom,
Enginuity, Coalbrookdale
This book helps us meditate upon the experiences of Jesus as He was led to crucifixion and death. While it uses the same stations as any Way of the Cross, it also focuses the mind on the events that afflict communities around the world today. The environment is fragile and needs healing.
In Lent we focus on the journey of Jesus as He walked the Way of the Cross,
The Way that led to His Passion and Death.
Today, God journeys with us. God suffers and feels the wounds of His people who experience their own Passion through natural disaster, war, or tragedy brought about through climate change.
We are called to remember that God left us as stewards of His world created out of love.
Have we been good stewards? Do we believe God’s world belongs to us?
Can we journey together to help build a better world?
Sean was born and currently lives in Southampton. As a Catholic deacon and priest for 25 years, he has served in various parishes of the Diocese of Portsmouth where he has ministered to, and received ministry from, many people of faith and none.
Sean is no longer in parish ministry, but continues to serve God’s people through writing and an online ministry.
You’ve decided to write a memoir or the biography of a family member, or perhaps an autobiography. Where to start?
1 Consider your source material Perhaps you were inspired to write by coming across some old diaries in the attic, or perhaps a collection of letters, or perhaps it was some old calendars – or perhaps just memories of an interesting life? Whatever your source, it’s sensible to back it up with as much contextual research as you can manage. So you saw the Beatles in Liverpool in the 1960s but when was that in relation to their return from Germany? How big was the hall they were playing in? What record was Number 1 at that time? So you were fighting in Afghanistan in 2010 but what were the reasons for Britain’s intervention? What other foreign forces were there? What had Pakistan and Iran to do with it? Contextual information will help your readers to position themselves in relation to the central theme of the book and will add to its interest. It’s worth spending time on additional research.
2 Decide on a structure
It’s amazing how many people start to write without first considering the structure of the book they’re about to write – as if they never went to school and the teacher never told them to divide their essay into three or more paragraphs with a beginning, a middle and a conclusion. Once you’ve completed the background research, it’s vital to think hard about the structure of the book before you start writing it. It can be helpful to sketch out a possible list of contents, listing the various chapters, or divide the book into parts containing chapters. Without such subdivisions, the book will be indigestible. Also, from your own point of view as the writer, even a short book is a major undertaking. As with all large undertakings, it helps to break it down into smaller parts otherwise the work can become overwhelming and lose balance.
3 Choose an editor
So at last you’ve written the book. The next thing is to get it copy-edited. We do this for you at YouCaxton Publications but you may know someone who’s willing to undertake the work for you. Either way, it’s important to have it done. Even the most experienced writers can’t see their own mistakes otherwise they wouldn’t make them. Copy-editing involves careful line-by-line inspection of your manuscript, looking for errors of grammar, spelling and consistency, also any factual errors that are easily apparent to the editor.
4 Decide how to publish
Most memoirs and biographies are written for the benefit of friends and family but quite a number appeal to a larger potential audience. Nowadays, with digital and print-on-demand printing, it’s easy to produce a limited edition for family and friends and also to make the book available to the public online via Amazon and other online retailers, and perhaps also to publish an eBook version. Online availability can be especially useful if some of the potential readership is overseas. How you want to publish or print should dictate who you commission to do the work.
5 Choosing a publisher
Nowadays it’s possible to do everything concerned with publishing yourself but this is usually a false economy given the amount of time taken to write the book in the first place. If you have the budget it’s worth commissioning the services of a company such as YouCaxton Publications to ensure that the book is professionally produced and published. There are a number of us to choose from. One should never forget that a book will still be around in a hundred years’ time so the investment is justified.
5 Steps to publication with YouCaxton
Publication breaks down into a number of fairly distinct stages and these are costed in detail on the Publishing Page of this website:
*Editing – which we’ve already dealt with.
*Design and layout – once you and your editor have agreed on the final manuscript, the next stage is for YouCaxton’s designer to produce print-ready PDFs for your approval. This can take some to-ing and fro-ing between you, and we never upload to the printer for a bound proof until we have your approval of the design of both the cover and the interior.
* Bound proof – the next stage is to order a bound, printed proof from the printer. It’s important to check that the book is correct physically before proceeding
* Final stage – once you’ve approved the bound proof, we’re ready for the final stage: printing and producing any bulk order of copies for circulation to friends and family (and possibly reviewers); registering the ISBN, uploading to Amazon; making the book available through other online retailers.
On a remote piece of agricultural land at Hinkshay Farm in Dawley parish, Shropshire, three rows of houses were built in the 1820s, first 48 back-to-back dwellings called ‘Double Row’, then ‘Single Row’ and ‘New Row’, bringing the total to 78 houses. They were built by the Botfield family to house workers for a new ironworks, Stirchley Forge and Mill. Families moved there from the iron-making areas of the Midlands, from small rural hamlets, and some from Dawley itself. The settlement was in existence for 144 years and, at its height, the population of the Rows reached almost 500.
A close-knit community developed with many finding a marriage partner from neighbours. Large families were the norm and work was plentiful, including for women and girls – the Shropshire pit girls. The nearby White Hart Inn together with Hinkshay Mission Church provided a focus for community activities.
Gradual decline in the iron and coal industries in the late 19th century meant that many Hinkshay families decided to leave. Communities of Hinkshay migrants became established in Scotland and South Wales and Durham. But others stayed at Hinkshay, some until the end of the Rows in 1968 when they were demolished and the community of Hinkshay was lost.
This unique and detailed account tells the life stories of those families who came to Hinkshay, those who migrated and those who stayed. It is the product of many years of expert research. a Shropshire industrial community.
Heather Duckett was born at Charlton, a village near Wellington and after attending Wellington High School for Girls joined Shropshire County Library service. In the late 1960s and early 1970s she was librarian at Dawley where she first heard of Hinkshay. For 26 years she was librarian at New College Sixth Form College, Wellington. In 1998 she gained a Bachelor of Arts with Honours (first class) degree from the Open University.
Reviews of Hinkshay Rows...
The Local Historian Volume 55 No 3 August 2025 review by Martin Speight until recently chairman of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society
Heather Duckett has produced a fascinating and detailed study of this small corner of East Shropshire, which will be of interest to local historians in other industrial areas.
The author is to be congratulated on an excellent and detailed piece of research, which she has drawn together into a very clear and readable study.
The range of sources used is comprehensive and clearly referenced to enable the reader to follow up particular points.
The index is particularly detailed and comprehensive in the matter of personal names, and will be very useful to family historians.
This book will be of considerable interest to a wide range of readers who have an interest in industrial history in general, and in East Shropshire in particular, and I have no hesitation in recommending it.
The Railway Town of Ramsbottom
Past and Present
by Nigel Jepson
After George Stephenson’s ‘Rocket’ caused a sensation in 1830 by travelling at the then miraculous speed of 30 mph, “Railway Mania” took a grip on the nation.
This book focuses on East Lancashire including the meteoric growth of the original East Lancashire Railway Company which tragically though went out of business in 1859.
The phrase “survival of the fittest” - associated with Charles Darwin and his 1859 book ‘Origin of the Species’ – proves itself a telling means of accounting for how some companies survived the burst of the rail bubble and others did not.
By the mid-20th century, with steam engines becoming a threatened species themselves, the story is told of Alan Pegler and how he saved the Flying Scotsman from the breaking-yard but ended up dying virtually penniless himself.
In the wake of the Beeching Cuts of the 1960s, a brave rearguard action was mounted by the East Lancashire Railway Preservation Society (ELRPS) which ultimately bore fruit in 1987 with the opening of a heritage line from Bury to Ramsbottom.
This book contains a wealth of stimulating first-hand accounts, photos, maps and diagrams to make it a must-read for rail enthusiasts and all those keen to learn more about the fascinating human element to the railway story as a whole.
Nigel Jepson lives in Ramsbottom and is a keen supporter and member of Ramsbottom Cricket Club.
He first came to the local area in the mid-1990s when taking up post as Headteacher at nearby Haslingden High School. As far as the broader community was concerned, it didn’t take long to pick up the vibes regarding the longstanding rivalry between Haslingden and Ramsbottom, much of it existing on a cricketing front as traditional close rivals in the Lancashire League.
Nigel’s last UK Head’s post was at Kearsley Academy in Bolton from 2010 to 2014. ‘Retired’, he has though carried out interim Headteacher work in Dubai during 2016 and has also conducted teacher training programmes in New Delhi in 2018.
Although having always been keen on team sports, he developed a passion for long distance running which started with the London Marathon in 1982, moving through other events to New York in 2001. More recently, over 2017 to 2019, prior to the Covid pandemic kicking in, he ran four more marathons in Dubai, Belfast, Manchester and Liverpool.
Recipe for Life
Reflections on food in the Bible
by Hugh J Thomson
Many of the key events in the biblical narrative are pictured by different foods.
From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden all the way to the tree of life in the final chapter of scripture, foodstuffs carry deep significance.
Items come in pairs, ranging from the thorns and thistles of the curse in Eden which blight food production, through to the milk and honey which picture the lavish blessings of the Promised Land.
We learn important theological lessons from considering these foods.
Christians will be most familiar with the bread and wine taken at the Lord’ Supper.
Hugh Thomson was born and brought up in Aberdeen, and graduated from medical school there in 1977. He subsequently worked as a doctor in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Cambridge, North Carolina and Hong Kong before being appointed as a consultant surgeon at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham in 1994.
He was one of the founding elders of City Church in Birmingham in 1999, and stepped out of medical practice to work full time for the church in 2002.
A tale of courage and fortitude from World War II.
Based on true events, Beyond The Sandbar tells the contrasting stories of identical twin brothers.
While George rescues downed pilots during the Siege of Malta, Fred suffers deprivation as a prisoner of war in Nazi Germany.
The story follows both men through a series of intertwined snapshots in which the action unfolds in real-time to give a gripping, fast-paced narrative that captures both the horror and heroism of total war.
After a career in the high-tech world of bioscience research, Nick recently took a chance to change gear and refocus his creative energies. Working from his home in the wilds of the Norfolk-Suffolk border, Nick divides his time between writing and running workshops promoting the mental health benefits of wood carving.
When you have produced the final draft of your book, it is always advisable to have the text read and checked by a professional editor or proof reader.
You may have friends that are willing and competent to do this and we can advise you on the type of editing that is required.
We can offer four levels of editing as well as proof-reading.
You choose which, if any, are appropriate in your case: 1. Edit of sample pages and short report (£30)
We will edit a few pages to highlight editorial issues so that you can look for similar problems throughout the book.
This will reduce the amount of further copy-editing required when the book is finished. 2. Broad structural editing and criticism (£5 per thousand words)
A structural review is particularly relevant for works of fiction.
The structural reviewer will address the following main areas and produce a short report for the author ” Read More 3. Copy editing (£10 per thousand words)
A copy-editor takes a close look at your text, line by line, with an eye to grammatical errors, repetition, inconsistency and lack of clarity. The copy editor will make changes to the text, with suggestions for rewriting, grammar, and punctuation. When you receive the edited version, you have the final choice about accepting of rejecting the individual changes. 4. Proof Reading (£8 per thousand words)
Proof reading is a line-by-line check that the book is ready for publication. Proof readers will make small corrections for punctuation, grammar and spelling but they will not make significant changes to the text.
A proof reader will identify any significant issues and add comments to the text so that you can make those corrections yourself. 5. Consistency Scan
If you decide your book doesn’t need a full proof reading, we offer an electronic scan to search for common errors and inconsistencies. This looks at issues such as inconsistent spelling and inconsistencies of hyphenation and capitalisation.
We can also identify inconsistencies in the spelling of proper names. 6. Cover text
The quality of the text on the cover is very important as it indicates the quality of the writing in the book.
The title, sub-title and back-cover blurb are all important elements and we can work with you to make sure that these are correct and effective.
Copy Edit
Copy-editors get the raw material into shape for publication i.e they edit the copy.
When they have finished, the designer can lay out or typeset the book and produce a proof.
It is quite normal for the author to make additional changes after a book has been copy-edited.
Working through the material, the copy-editor may identify errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, style and usage, but also very long sentences and overuse of italic, bold, capitals and exclamation marks.
They should correct or query doubtful facts, weak arguments, plot holes and gaps in numbering.
In fiction, they should also check that characters haven’t changed their name or hair colour, look for sudden changes from first to third person among other things.
The Copy-editor is not a proof reader and should not be expected to find all of the errors in the text particularly if the text is badly written to start with.
This is the job of the proof reader.
The final proof should be checked by a proof reader or an experienced reader friend before going to print.
It is almost inevitable (and acceptable) to miss a few errors which can be corrected in a later edition.
Proof Reading
Proof reading is a line-by-line check that the book is ready for publication.
Proof readers will make small corrections for punctuation, grammar and spelling but they will not make significant changes to the text.
A proof reader will identify any significant issues and add comments to the text so that you can make those corrections yourself.
If you have decided to complete this stage of the process yourself, we will send a detailed check-list to help you.
We ask you to try and ensure that the book is completely ready before we start the layout.
Once the layout has started, we expect that you might want to to make a small number of amendments but
if there are a significant number, we may need to charge for the extra time it takes to change the layout
so best to discuss this with us first.
Structural Review
In fiction, the main areas that a structural editor will address are:
Plot: Does the plot make sense? Is it believable? Is it satisfying or does it leave the reader frustrated? Themes: Are the themes effectively handled? Are there so many that the book lacks focus? Do they interfere with the plot or complement it?
Characterisation: Are your characters well developed and believable? Are they cast in a role that fits their personality? Do they sometimes behave out of character? Point of view/voice: Is the voice consistent or is it sometimes confused? Is the voice authentic? Are you using too many or too few POVs? Pace: Does the plot move forward at an appropriate pace? Should you cut that preface? Should the action happen sooner or should the tension build more slowly? Dialogue: Do your characters sound real when they speak? Is your dialogue cluttered with adverbs and beats? Do you use clunky dialogue to move the plot forward? Flow: Is the narrative interrupted by dead-ends and tangents? Is there so much back story that the main plot is dwarfed? Are there missing plot points that would give the narrative greater integrity?
In non-fiction, the principle is the same, but the specific issues are slightly different:
Thesis: Is your thesis relevant? Is it clearly defined or is it lost among marginal issues? Exposition: Are your arguments clear and cogent? Are they well researched and properly supported? Do they have a clear relationship with your thesis? Content: Are all the necessary topics sufficiently dealt with? Are the chapters weighted correctly? Is there superfluous content? Organisation: Is the information organised logically? Are tables and illustrations used appropriately? How many levels of subheads do you need and how should they be arranged? Tone: Is the tone appropriate for the audience? Do you need to eliminate jargon? Is the text accessible? Pace: Are there passages that are bogged down in detail? Do you spend too long on detail irrelevant to the main thesis? Are there areas that need further exposition lest they be skipped over?
Cover Text
The quality of the text on the cover is very important as it indicates the quality of the writing in the book.
The title, sub-title and back-cover blurb are all important elements and we work with you to make sure that these are as effective as possible.
Consistency check
If you decide your book doesn’t need a full proof reading, we can run an electronic scan to search for common errors and inconsistencies.
This looks at issues such as inconsistent spelling, hyphenation and capitalisation.
It also checks for consistent formatting of numbers and dates as well as undefined abbreviations.
Full Script Edit
The script that you deliver to us will probably constitute what the industry would classify as the ‘Initial Rough Draft’, i.e. a full screenplay written without any other professional input or advice, and probably without a great deal of rewriting. We work through your draft, line by line, scene by scene, and come back to you with a comprehensive set of notes from which you can then work towards the official ‘1st Draft’. Some of our notes will be broad and general, dealing with such areas as the overall shape and structure, pacing, plot and character development; others will be far more specific, with corrections, clarifications and suggested cuts etc. It is of course entirely up to you whether or not to take these suggestions on board, and to what extent.
Subsequent Script Edit
It is very normal and generally beneficial for the script-editing process to go through at least a couple of cycles
i.e. the rewritten draft to be worked through once again by an experienced script practitioner – though this would be entirely at the discretion and behest of the writer.
Ongoing Support
We aim to make your self-publishing venture an enjoyable and rewarding experience.
Publishing is a complex business and we treat every book as a separate project.
We explain all of the stages at the outset and we manage the project schedule for you. This will include all of the expert services you have requested for editorial, design, printing, distribution and collection of royalties, keeping in close contact with you throughout the process.
You will be allocated a project-sheet on the YouCaxton website so that you can monitor progress and ensure that all stages are properly completed.
If you would like to see an example of a Project-Sheet…
go to My project on the menu and enter…
Username: Sample
Password : welcome.
YouCaxton has been involved in the design and publication of Oat to Joy by Olympic Medallist, Ella Pooley. Emma has now announced further launch events (details to follow):
