View east along the scarp of the North Downs from Wotton towards Dorking
Having signed a publishing contract with Oxbow Books, I now have the pleasant task of actually producing the book content before the autumn deadline. I have started assembling images into a book of 90-odd pages, which I do using the BonusPrint software for producing photo books. This is a very exciting stage, as you see things start to come together into another beautiful publication, and it is also interesting finding out which images I end up selecting. The publisher wants more text than in Chiltern Landscapes and An English Village Idyll and I have been mulling over the options for the theme of the book. My previous books were both structured around the seasons, but it may be time for a change: the winter was so wet and windy that I have no winter photographs and the Downs offer an alternative. I will start where England starts: at the White Cliffs of Dover. The book will then trace the hills westwards, counting the castles through Kent and it’s huge open fields, oast houses and orchards, across the Medway and into Surrey with it’s woods and pretty villages, to Farnham at the west end. The text will talk about the history and geology as well as describing the images.
The publisher loved the first draft and they are excited enough to want this to be a major book launch next spring! My job is to give them the best copy that I can create so that people love it as much….. and buy it!
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