No royalties, and when a success does come along they stand in the gutter whilst the fat publisher streams by in his new car. A few copies, produced at personal cost, can bring equal satisfaction. Recently a Colchester man has written histories of garages in Colchester and of cinemas. He produced two copies of each. One for himself and his family, and one for the local library.
Personal histories can destroy our popular images.
I am editing a personal history at the moment. This man was a prisoner of war, captured by the Germans quite early on. Images of Stalag 15, of prison camps, of escape attempts immediately spring to my mind. Not a bit of it. He was sent to Austria, worked on a farm, had liaisons with the local girls, mixed with the villagers and seems to have really enjoyed his 'war'.