Vale Rawlings Book Title Revealed

We've reached an important milestone in the journey towards publishing our book about Vale Rawlings and his life and times in Burton upon Trent. A first draft of the manuscript has been completed by author Elaine Pritchard and is currently being proofread before it goes to publishers Goldcrest Books.

Elaine said: "I'm grateful to my volunteer early readers who took a few chapters each and gave me valuable feedback, which led to a few tweaks and additions. I've also had a first look at some ideas for the book cover, which is being created by Tilley Bancroft, who also did the cover for my Orton and Spooner book, Labour of Love. So it seemed a good time to reveal the title for the Vale Rawlings book, which will be Friendship, Love & Truth."

In order to raise as much as we can from sales of the book for our two nominated charities, YMCA Burton and SARAC, we need to raise some money to cover essential costs related to printing the book and running the CIC so we will be organising two events in Burton, one on September and one in October and we will share more details about these shortly.

August has been a month of discoveries and one of the most emotional has been locating the unmarked grave of Constance Shreeve, a young women who died 96 years ago this month in Burton Workhouse. There is a chapter on Constance's powerful story in Friendship, Love & Truth. Vale Rawlings, who had joined the 55-strong Board of Guardians that oversaw the workhouse not long before Constance died, spoke out at her inquest, but his concerns were brushed aside. After discovering her heartbreaking story, Elaine is determined she will be remembered and is working with SARAC and the YMCA to pay tribute to her.

On Saturday August 30, at 1pm, Elaine gives an illustrated talk on Vale Rawlings and the Flycatcher Girls at Derby Museum. Places are limited and the cost of tickets is £5.