A comprehensive history of three British railway lines,“nicely illustrated [and] impressively informative” (Midwest Book Review). This is the history of the Great Eastern Railway’s lines from Shenfield to Southend, Wickford to Southminster, and Woodham Ferrers to Maldon, including their ancestor. It is the only comprehensive history of all three lines and was researched using both previously published and unpublished material. The history covers not only the history of the lines in question but also a sample of services from the opening of them to the present day, the motive power that was and is used on them, and a topographical description of them. The book is ideal not only for railway enthusiasts but for those interested in the local history of the area served by the Great Eastern Railway.

This book is the first of two which covers the history of the Great Eastern Railway and its predecessors from the first proposal for a railway in the eastern counties in 1811 for a railway from Islington to Wallasea Island and Mucking to its absorption into the London and North Eastern Railway under the 1923 Grouping of Railways. This volume covers the period from 1811 up to the formation of the Great Eastern Railway in 1862. The history is the first history of the GER since Cecil J. Allen’s history of the railway which was first published in 1955 and which has long been out of print. The book makes use of both previously published works on the GER and its predecessors, but also contemporary documents such as the Directors’ reports to shareholders of the Eastern Counties Railway, timetables, reports in local and national newspapers as well as extracts from selected peoples' diaries. Some of which were not easily available to Allen when he wrote his history of the GER. Incorporating these other sources means the book sheds new light on the Railway’s history. The book is intended for anyone who is either interested in railways and particularly the Great Eastern Railway and the railways of the east of England, but also for anyone who is interested in general in the history of that part of England.

Maldon – A History is the story of Maldon, which is the second oldest town in Essex, from pre-historic times until the present day. It has information on Bronze and Iron Age Maldon, Roman Maldon , Anglo-Saxon Maldon including the Battle of Maldon, Medieval Maldon including the granting of the first charter of the borough in 1171 by King Henry 2, its monastic institutions, Maldon’s port and its involvement in wars, Maldon at the time of the reformation, its involvement in the civil war, its Parliamentary representation, the town in the 18th and early centuries including the building of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation, the dissolution and subsequent reinstatement of the town’s charter, the Napoleonic Wars, the building of the two railways to the town in the 19th century and their closure in the 20th century, the rise of municipal institutions in the 19th and 20th centuries, Maldon’s police force and abolition and subsuming into the Essex County Police force, industrial developments including its iron foundries and salt works, Maldon during the two world wars and the abolition of the borough in 1974. Also included is the parish of Heybridge which subsequently became a part of the borough as well as the hamlet of Beeleigh. It was researched using previously published works and contemporary documents.