Annie Murray, author
Scrapbook
Welcome to my scrapbook. This is where I collect the stories that I've stumbled upon when writing my books - the true-life tales provided by people I meet in the course of researching and investigating the history at the centre of each book. Please do GET IN TOUCH if you have any personal histories you'd like to share on these pages.
Evacuated to South Wales
Brian Holtham’s home address was 72 Cato Street, Vauxhall, but by September 4th 1942, when he was only five years old, he and his brothers had swapped their one Birmingham address for three different ones in Abergavenny…
Three cheers for the
automatic washing machine
One of the aspects of life never far from my mind when I’m writing stories about old Birmingham life, is how it must have been to be a wife and mother then, and I constantly compare my life now…
My long-lost family
Recently, when I was doing a book signing in Birmingham I met two ladies who told me they were ‘long lost cousins.’ One of them, Judith Malcolm, was kind enough to tell me her story…
Heartlands history
I have recently had the pleasure of making two visits to the Heartlands Local History Society, which meets in the Nechells Green Community Centre in Nechells in Birmingham. The society gathers its members from far and wide – I wasn’t the only one who had arrived from quite a distance away.…
A Boatman's Family
A couple of years ago, when I was speaking in a library in Walsall, I was approached by a couple from the audience, a Mr and Mrs Jones. They said they had enjoyed my two stories set on the canals in and around Birmingham, The Narrowboat Girl and Water Gypsies…
A walk through Brum
Imagining Birmingham in the past takes quite a bit of effort if you weren’t there to see it. In the old inner city wards you can catch glimpses of the city’s past, but there are also streets and whole neighbourhoods which have been wiped off the map. Walking round some areas with a map from 1918 or the 1930s is to feel surrounded by ghosts…
Tyre troubles
In the early days of motoring, when ownership of a car was only open to the rich, a significant number were shipped to buyers in the empire. My grandfather was one of the mechanics at Daimler, who was sent on two occasions to India with a car to teach the new owner how to drive and maintain the car and test its powers in new terrain…