{"id":18073,"date":"2025-08-29T18:07:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/?page_id=18073"},"modified":"2025-08-29T18:32:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:32:47","slug":"blog-to-ebook","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/blog-to-ebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog-to-ebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some may wish to read the best of this blog as an ordered and sequenced ebook. It’s not yet in an ebook format, but here is a linked table-of-contents totalling 55,000 words. These range from full essays to short fragments, and many of these would be polished and expanded for a full ebook:<\/p>\n

Last updated: January 2021<\/em>.<\/p>\n

ON WATER:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Old Staffordshire saying: Fetch a duck off water<\/a>.
\nOn Jenny Green-teeth<\/a>.
\n\u2018Lady Wells\u2019 in the High Peak<\/a>.
\nThe springs at Willowbridge Wells, near Newcastle-under-Lyme<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ON FOLKLORE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some possible archaic survivals in North Staffordshire folklore<\/a>.
\nStaffordshire Folk and their Lore (1896) \u2013 some extracts and notes<\/a>.
\nLore from the North Staffordshire Field Club Transactions, 1897<\/a>.
\nFletcher Moss, a new source on North Staffordshire folk-lore<\/a>.
\nThe Folk-lore of North Staffordshire, version 1.5 (2020)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WILD THINGS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the Midderlands<\/a>.
\nMythical beasts and places of Stoke-on-Trent<\/a>.
\nMythical Beasts of Birmingham<\/a>.<\/p>\n

THE NATURAL WORLD:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Natural Kalendar<\/a>.
\nThe Auroch Skull of 1877<\/a>.
\nChildren and rainbows in Staffordshire<\/a>.
\n\u201cBlind Orion Searching for the Rising Sun\u201d<\/a>.
\nThe Runic Poem\u2019s \u201cmoor-stepper\u201d: Orion<\/a>.
\nOn the curlew in North Staffordshire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

AT HOME:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Painting Trentham Hall and Gardens, 1835-1935<\/a>.
\nSpeaking tubes in North Staffordshire<\/a> and The Old Pottery Kiln, Bradwell Wood<\/a>.
\nBeech Caves rock homes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WALKING WITH ERASMUS DARWIN:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Old fossils, new ideas<\/a>.
\nA survey of the biographies of Erasmus Darwin.<\/a>
\nErasmus Darwin\u2019s The Botanic Garden \u2013 a survey of the best podcasts and ebook versions<\/a><\/p>\n

AT BURSLEM, ETRURIA AND AROUND:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Burslem in 1730 and 1790<\/a>.
\nBrickhouse \/ Cock Yard, Burslem<\/a>.
\nCock fighting<\/a> and dog fighting<\/a>.
\n\u201cThe Sytch, Burslem\u201d<\/a>.
\nThe view from 18 Victoria St<\/a>.
\nGeorge Orwell on Burslem, February 1936<\/a>.<\/p>\n

HEALTH MATTERS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

A pox on Stoke?<\/a>
\nStoke as the home of the first health food: \u201cHovis\u201d bread<\/a>.
\nWedgwood Institute as a symbol of \u201csavage inequality\u201d?<\/a>
\nSlavery profits did not bankroll the Midlands industrial revolution<\/a>.
\nDid Karl Marx ever visit the Potteries?<\/a>
\nAir pollution in the Potteries: worse now, or in the past?<\/a>
\nDead by age 50?<\/a><\/p>\n

OFF WITH HIS HEAD:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The skull-collector of Stoke: Joseph Barnard Davis (located elsewhere).<\/em>
\nA Chartist leader escapes from the Potteries, 1842<\/a>.<\/p>\n

THE KEARY FAMILY:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the Potteries in the 1820s and 1840s<\/a>.
\nMiss Keary as folklore and song collector:
\nMiss Keary on the sing-song proverb-speech of the Potteries<\/a>.
\nMiss Keary rescues the North Staffordshire Halloween song<\/a>.
\nMiss Keary on doorstep luck in North Staffordshire<\/a>.
\n\u201cHark the robbers!\u201d<\/a>
\nThe Mount<\/em> (1909) by C. F. Keary<\/a> and Keary\u2019s The Mount<\/em> \u2013 now online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

STOKE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

12 ‘lost things’ from Stoke<\/a>.
\nKatherine Thomson (1797\u20131862)<\/a>.
\nA Vision of Hartshill<\/a>.
\nHoly Trinity church, Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent<\/a>.
\nJ.R.R. Tolkien in Stoke<\/a>.
\nVisualising the \u2018Potteries Thinkbelt\u2019 in the mid 1960s<\/a>.
\nKen Dodd and Stoke-on-Trent<\/a>.
\nHistory of Majestic Chambers, Stoke town<\/a>.<\/p>\n

STRANGE DOINGS AND TRACKS IN THE MOORLANDS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gog and Magog at Ipstones<\/a>.
\nMagic Methodists<\/a>.
\nDr. Arthur Edward Dodd<\/a>.<\/p>\n

IN THE PEAK:<\/strong><\/p>\n

A hobbit-hill near Buxton, in the 1820s<\/a>.
\nEbenezer Rhodes, in his Peak Scenery (1824)<\/a>.
\nHindus and the Peak District<\/a>.<\/p>\n

OLD MERCIA:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bury Bank and Beowulf<\/em><\/a>.
\nA 7th century rock-cut warrior grave and bowl at Barlaston<\/a>.
\nTwo novels: Wulfhere<\/a> (1920) and Elfwin<\/a> (1930).<\/p>\n

SOME WEAVINGS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interviews (located elsewhere).<\/em>
\nAll around the Wrekin<\/a>.
\nSome Shropshire jibes<\/a>.
\nOn The Butts, Baggins, and Butterflies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

OLD BIRMINGHAM:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tolkien in Birmingham: one<\/a> and two<\/a>
\nTolkien in Staffordshire: one<\/a> and two<\/a>.
\n\u201cAnd as far off as Birmingham?\u201d \u2013 a review of the book Sherlock Holmes in the Midlands<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

LOCAL WRITERS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

A survey of writers in and around Stoke. (located elsewhere)<\/em>
\nThe macabre work and life of Mary\u00a0Howitt<\/a>.
\nMary\u00a0Howitt’s “Sun-pictures” (linked in the above post).
\nMilton\u2019s Comus \u2013 a forgotten Midlands gem?<\/a>
\nMoore\u2019s A Mummer\u2019s Wife<\/em><\/a>.
\nITV\u2019s 23-hour Clayhanger adaptation<\/a>.
\nRoy Fisher as a poet of the Staffordshire Moorlands<\/a>.
\nWhere to find T. E. Hulme<\/a>.<\/p>\n

POEMS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

A lichen mnemonic<\/a>.
\nNorth Staffordshire Souling Song<\/a>.
\n\u201cThe Man in the Moon\u201d, Ludlow, circa 1314-1349<\/a>.
\nA rhyme for children<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Posts on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight<\/em> are to be found in polished and expanded form in my book<\/a> on Gawain<\/em> and its setting. Notes on the historicity of my novel The Spyders of Burslem<\/em> are now included with the novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some may wish to read the best of this blog as an ordered and sequenced ebook. It’s not yet in an ebook format, but here is a linked table-of-contents totalling 55,000 words. These range from full essays to short fragments, and many of these would be polished and expanded for a full ebook: Last updated: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18073","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18073"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18088,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18073\/revisions\/18088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}