Malcolm Horton

Tales of Forgotten Kent is a collection of twenty-two essays about the people and events that have largely been neglected by historians, but remain an integral part of Kent’s rich tapestry, featuring the eccentric, unusual and often overlooked tales buried within the garden of England.Who would have thought that the cradle of British aviation was the unfashionable Isle of Sheppey, home to Britain’s first licensed pilots and the world’s first aircraft manufacturers; or that the greatest technological change in printing – computer typesetting – occurred in the small town of Westerham; and that the poet who wrote the first sonnet was not actually Shakespeare but Sir Thomas Wyatt of Allington Castle, lover of Anne Boleyn; or that Britain’s oldest school is The King’s School, Canterbury, whose alumni includes the controversial playwright Christopher Marlowe, and still plays host to ghostly legends.Read on to unearth more of Kent’s best kept secrets and keep its forgotten tales alive.

An alternative guide to Cambridge featuring little known stories about both town and gown you won't find in the average guide book.It concentrates on the brilliant, bizarre and dangerous characters who have lived and passed through the city and its beautiful landscape with its felicitous combination of river, grassland Backs and beautiful architecture like a John Doyle watercolour painting.The DNA pioneer who suggested to Winston Churchill a brothel rather than a chapel for his new college.The college which still only pays a rent of 13.33 since it was negotiated by Elizabeth I in 1596 on behalf of founder Lady Sidney Sussex.The Washington family's coat of arms displayed on a memorial in a small church next to Peterhouse; the basis of the American Stars and Stripes.The rapist who terrorised Cambridge students between 1974 and 1975.The shilling murderer of Midsomer Common.The Cambridge graduate who founded Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Another graduate who lit up the world discovering the secret of electrical conduction.Christopher Wren's first architectural design was Pembroke College chapel despite being a fellow at Oxford University.Mr Bean visits the Fitzwilliam Museum and causes mayhem.Read on and discover Cambridge's best kept secrets.