THEN AND NOW
By John Dean

Every picture, so they say, is worth a thousand words and that is certainly true of this book. The book takes a simple premise, that the streets of Darlington have changed dramatically down the years and that the best way to portray those changes is through pictures.

We have been given permission to use photographs from the archives of The Northern Echo in order to re-create them. The result is a stroll round the town which allows us to travel back in town and marvel at how it has evolved over the years. The Northern Echo pictures, which provide a fascinating history of the town's development over the last 150 years, were not selected to represent a particular era. Some date back to the 1870s, others are as recent as forty years ago. But they have something on common: they take a moment in time and offer us the chance to see how streets have changed - and in some cases, how they have undergone remarkably little change despite the passage of time.

Every effort has been made to re-shoot the pictures from the exact places where the originals were taken and as far as possible that has been done. In some cases, it was not always achievable. Sometimes it was difficult to identity where the original photographer was standing, in other cases some of the original buildings have disappeared. But whatever the challenges, Darlington Then and Now provides a snapshot of a town which is changing, sometimes for the better, sometimes, it could be argued, for the worst.

The better is represented by some of the developments which have added to the town's character, the worst by those which have blighted it, such as the redevelopment of Commercial Street. But the main change has been the dramatic arrival of the motorcar. Once-quiet streets are transformed into bust thoroughfares full of traffic fumes and rushing cars, buses and lorries. Progress does not always mean better.

The book is available for £4.99 at Ottakars in the Cornmill Centre, Darlington, or by contacting Inscribe Media direct.

Fragments of Faith
Writer Geoff takes a wry look at Church life

When ill-health prevented Geoff Taylor, of Darlington, from becoming a deacon in the Catholic Church, his mind turned instead to recording some of his musings on faith in a light-hearted book. Now Fragments of Faith has been published, a sideways glance at the author’s experiences and memories of life in the Church from childhood to the modern day.

Geoff, 53, is originally from the St Helens/Wigan area but moved to Darlington, County Durham, to work for many years as a sub-editor with The Northern Echo. He retired 18 months after being diagnosed with MS in 1990 and since then has obtained a degree and done extensive voluntary work. He is a long-serving eucharistic minister at St Augustine's Church, Darlington.

Geoff said: "I had some hopes of becoming a deacon but my health was too poor so I wrote the Fragments instead. They are meant to be wryly humorous and to make my points as briefly as they can.

"People might ask why I am writing now about things that happened 40 years ago. Maybe because they were good years, both from my own point of view and from the Church's perspective. I had the optimism of youth: the Church's word was law in a way it never has been since.

"There has already been plenty of interest in my book and I hope people will enjoy reading my slant on religious life."

Fragments of Faith also features twelve pieces of original work by illustrator Liz Million, who lives in Darlington and is well known for her work illustrating a variety of books.

* Fragments of Faith costs £5 to help meet production costs, £6 if postage and packing are required. Any profit will be donated to the Church. Fragments of Faith can be ordered by contacting Geoff at geoff.taylor83@ntlworld.com

.Fragments of Faith is also available from Ottakars bookshop in Darlington town centre.

The Dinosaur Week

John was a lonely boy and a bit of a dreamer. Did he really find a tiny dinosaur in his garden one Summer morning or was his father right, was it just a dream? Everyone said such a creature could not possibly exist.

Could everyone in the whole world be wrong? Did that exciting week really happen? Even John was not sure until....

This book is a delightful read for children aged between seven and nine years old, and has been read by the author to more than a thousand children in her capacity as a Writer In Schools.

Haghir The Dragon Finder

Haghir The Dragon Finder leads a hapless band of dwarves trying to make a living by slaying dragons. Desperate to do something less dangerous, his comrades persuade him to rescue a damsel in distress.

However, nothing is as it seems in their world and after encountering book-reading dragons, forest folk who hate forests, tunnel-dwellers who create staggering underground worlds which promptly collapse, evil black dwarves more interested in tea and crumpets, a Forest God who really wants to work in a library, and a monarch whose subjects want to honour him in dung, it all goes horribly wrong for the dwarves.

Haghir The Dragon Finder is a hilarious romp with plenty of off-the-wall episodes which will appeal to children of primary school age and up.

Northern Tales

A compilation of short stories, published for Shildon Town Council in 1997.
Cost £8.95 available from the Town Council on (01388) 772563

A Place In History

A Scarsdale Books (Publishing Services) book on the history of Darlington Railway Centre and Museum.
Cost £1, available from the Museum on (01325) 460532

Bill Stenson has been a familiar figure on the streets of Darlington for the best part of half a century. To many people he may be best known as a local councillor and former mayor, to others as a builder of repute, but come darkness Bill Stenson adopted a different persona.

For many years he was the man who was called out when town centre shop windows were smashed, either accidentally or on purpose. Many a nightime reveller wending their way home in the early hours has stumbled across Bill and his team at work. For many people it was their first meeting with Bill Stenson - the Night Owl.

Now he has published Night Owl, his autobiography which tells his story, a tale of a man who started from humble beginnings and through his own determination created one of the most successful building firms in Darlington. The book recounts the many adventures which he experienced on the way - and the cast of characters he met while most of the town slept.

Told with his characteristic candour, honesty and plenty of humour which shows that truth can indeed be stranger than fiction, Night Owl also evokes images of an age long gone, of a time when life was harder for many people and yet more gently paced.

The book, which costs £7, is available from Ottakars, in the Cornmill Centre in Darlington town centre or by contacting Bill on (01325) 468249 or through Inscribe Media.

A proportion of the profits from this book will be divided between Cancer Research UK and the Alzheimer’s Society.