This charmingly-written and quirky book about the author's bohemian riverside hometown, takes us on a journey through not just Wivenhoe and north-Essex, but by default, England itself. Chapters about deceased local residents: the actress Joan Hickson (TV's Miss Marple) and Wivenhoe's much-missed eccentric old GP, William Dean, sit comfortably alongside ones about the 1984 Miners Strike and the town's strange annual May Fair, known as 'Wivstock.'  Part biography, part-travelogue A Prospect of Wivenhoe comes across as Akenfield  if it had been written by Julie Burchill or P.J.O'Rourke. 

We learn about how the Angry Brigade briefly took up residence there. We hear about how some leather queens waiting for a train, get mistaken by an old lady for ticket inspectors. We watch a local fireman prevent a bloody fight outside a Colchester pub. 

We cycle with the author to a young man's funeral in Halstead. We idle outside the town's Station Hotel on a calm afternoon just before the Great War. Finally, in The Last Bus to Birdland we take a country bus to Thorrington Tidemill, returning on foot beside the river Colne. 

Newell, a broke rock musician in the 80s, who became a famous poet in the 90s has created a unique page-turner of a book which is by turns, evocative, poetic and sometimes, very funny.  

Note: This is the Wivenhoe Bookshop's first venture into publishing, under the name Wiven Books and is priced at just £6.95. 

     For more information about:

• Martin Newell, click here

• Wivenhoe Bookshop, click here