Non-fiction

Non-fiction
Books, Articles, Letters and Diary entries

For general writing advice, click here.

I will be putting extracts from all my articles (or essays, if you will) and many of my letters and diary entries on this website eventually, together with details and extracts of my books. A few of the articles have been published; many have not even been offered for publication - I always seemed to be too busy writing. Each will have a short description to help you decide which you might like to read. Those underlined in the list below are available to read now. If you are interested in any others, please contact me.

If you want to read the rest of any piece, you will need to pay me 10p, or the equivalent in another currency. If there is no button that allows you to do this, please contact me. I would love to let you read all my work for nothing, but we all have to make a living, don't we?

To encourage budding writers, the articles and diary entries are listed in the order I wrote them, so if you read them in that order you will be able to see how a writer develops. If you go to the last one, you may find it is still in preparation, which may help you further.

Please feel free to print or download any of this non-fiction for your own personal use. If anyone wishes to publish any article in any form elsewhere, they must ask for my written permission (in which case, contact me).

You may find some of them amusing. They reflect some of the topical issues of the time. They are all © Tony Holkham (in the year they were written) apart from 'The Writing on the Pack', which is © IPC (New Scientist).

Books
(see Bookshop for more detailed synopses of these books or contact me for more details)
Chance's strange arithmetic (1995, 2003) - available on CD
- two perspectives of the Great War, 1928 & 1995, illustrated
Beating the big one - available on CD
The story of Alan Priddy's high seas adventures in a rigid inflatable
Don't take it lying down - available by e-mail or on floppy disk
How to get even by letter - a complete guide for the consumer
Label writing & planning - a guide to good customer communication - available from Amazon
Irreverent look at product labelling and what should be done about it
The off-roader of the sea - available on CD
Everything you need to know about buying and running a rigid inflatable boat
Challenge - the story of multiple challenge 1996 - out of print but text available on disk
Multiple sclerosis sufferers sail round Britain - how, why and where

Articles (essays)
All available by e-mail (contact me)
Numbers to grapple with (1977)
What crisis? (1977)
Taking one's cue (1978)
Who hasn't seen a UFO? (1978)
A hobby to last you forever ((1978)
Too close to the heart (1978)
Perhaps they're here already (1978)
Publicity - via the media (1978)
Georgraphy - a tribute to Sellar & Yeatman (1978)
An infinity of numbers (1978)
Science is my write (1978)
The writing on the pack (1991)
In space, no one can hear you scream "Sod it!" (1993)
- is there a link between Murphy's Law and crop circles?
A fresh look at capital punishment (1994)
Seven wonders of the 21st century (1994)
The bigger the better (1994)
Stick that job (1994)
Fug trafficking (1995)
Labelling (1995)
Labelling book review (1996)
A burning issue (1996)
Whither forecast? (1996)
The lore of the draw (1998)
Romancing the stove (1998)
- emissions, junk mail and spelling my name wrong
What price heroes? (1998)
- we can't all be...
Pete's cupboard (1998)
- a pox on the paperless office
Alternative medicine
The down side
Cutting down smoking

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Letters

Many of my letters on consumer issues have been compiled into an e-book under the title Don't Take It Lying Down (see Bookshop for a synopsis). I will be including much of that book on this site eventually. Consumer issues have always been of great interest to me (see Consumer help) and many of my letters reflect that.

PUBLISHED LETTERS
UNPUBLISHED LETTERS

Diary entries

I started keeping a written diary in May 1978 when I was 30 (before that, my only written records were letters and a great deal of verse) and have continued to this day. Thoughts and ideas were jotted down as they occurred to me, together with personal details of my life (which will not be published in my lifetime). I am still in the long process of typing handwritten entries on to disk, but will be including unedited excerpts here, eventually up to the present day. I, like all writers must do, find it very interesting to go back over my notes and am often surprised by past opinions and thoughts. Sometimes ancient (as far back as 30 years!) thoughts prompt new ideas for articles or stories. I also often find the same thoughts and ideas recurring after many years of gestation. I suppose this is not surprising.

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