February 2025

Amazon stops allowing eBook USB transfer for Kindles

You can no longer transfer eBooks from a computer to your Kindle via a USB lead.

There are a number of other ways to get eBooks and other documents on to your Kindle described on Amazon's send to Kindle page, with step by step instuctions for each.

June 2024

The London Civil Defence Area

Over the winter, courtesy of the Cambridge u3a, I have been learning to use QGIS, a free geographic information system that creates, manages, analyses and maps all types of data.

I could not find any accurate maps of the London Civil Defence Area to show the effect of the Blitz on different parts of London. Using QGIS, I have built one that does.

If you have ever flown over London or watched Eastenders, you will know how easy it is to spot the River Thames from the air. The map clearly shows how useful this was to the bomb-aimers.

November 2023

Amazon phasing out mobi files for Kindles

Amazon have announced they are moving to epub files and say "This change won't affect any mobi files already in your Kindle library."

If you use an older Kindle, I suggest you continue to download both mobi and epub files, just in case.

Eventually, I may stop providing mobi versions, but not until I am sure the new system works for everyone. I have updated the advice on the site that is affected by this. If you have any problem with any of my books, please contact me.

June 2023

Lockie's Topography of London, Combined Edition  by  John Lockie  1810 and 1813

A new, unique version that includes all the entries from the first edition and all those from the second, revised and enlarged edition.

I have contacted recent purchasers of the first edition to offer them a free upgrade to this version. If you bought a copy earlier and would like the new one, please email me using the same address you used to buy the original and I will send download links.

April 2023

Last year, the Society of Genealogists asked me to give a talk, via Zoom, on London street name changes as part of a 10 week course they organised to help anyone find their London Ancestors. I have now given a standalone talk, again via Zoom, called Finding London's Lost Streets. It was available to members and non-members worldwide. If they ask me again, I will post details here.

2020 - 2022

Changes made by both Apple and Amazon have made opening eBooks with an iPad more complex than previously. I have produced a step-by-step guide.

Lockdown has given me the opportunity to look, yet again, for definitive answers to the questions 'when did London first get street nameplates and house numbers?' I am now closer to the answers.

December 2018

Boyle's View of London and its Environs  by  Patrick Boyle  1799

September 2018

Wyld's New Plan of London  1851

An electronic version of James Wyld's famous street map produced for the Great Exhibition, with a newly created index. Available as a .zip file for instant download. Use on any computer with a browser, no other viewing software is required.

October 2016

London Streets lost to the Blitz  by  Bruce Hunt  2016

Three years in the making, with a cast of thousands. A unique list of every inhabited place in the London Postal Area in 1939 and how to find any that are no longer there. Including estates, roads and unnamed groups of prefabs that do not appear on most maps of the time, together with what replaced them and many Blitz-related facts.