England the Country of my Birth by Alan R. Massen NEUF collections

Where do we come from? In this my 14th book that I have had published we will be travelling back in time to discover the answer to that often asked question "where do we come from". This is a big question and in this book I will be looking at the country of my birth England and its history since time began to start my journey of discovery to find my roots and answer the question. Where do I come from? In one of my other books I wrote about "Norfolk the County of My Birth" and by doing this it inspired me to find out more about the country of my birth. In England we have the advantage of not just being English but also along with our friends from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland we also belong to the wider family of Great Britain and the Commonwealth beyond. When I started to research the history of Great Britain before producing a draft of this book it soon became apparent to me that I would need to spend a lot of time reading and researching this vast topic area before I started to write this book. I found out that a TV programme called "Time Team" which was recorded over a twenty year period was being repeated on afternoon TV. As I had enjoyed this archeologically based factual programme, in the past I decided to watch it. The programme is introduced by Tony Robinson and featuring archaeologist Mick Ashley and Phil Harding and many other skilled contributors I decided to spend some time watching the re-runs. So using reference books, Internet, watching Time Team and making copious notes I began to get a deeper understanding of my past and the events and people that have shaped who I am today. Having done this what follows is my attempt at recording key milestones in our history from a personal perspective. So lets start our journey together by looking at the arrival of humans on the landmass we now call the Great Britain. We will look at some of the aspects of Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age Britain before moving into the modern era. I will be taking what is just my personal view of events during Roman Britain, Anglo-Saxon Britain, Norman Britain, Tudor and Stuart Britain before moving onto the Georgian, Victorian era and the Edwardian era. We will conclude our journey through the history of the island of my birth together by looking at aspects of the First and Second World Wars before finishing by coming right up to date.

Alan was born in the city of Norwich in the county of Norfolk, England in November 1949. When Alan was still a teenager he started painting whilst attending art classes in Norwich. In his mid-teens he had two paintings accepted for a National Art Exhibition held in London and other major UK cities. Alan spent most of his working life as a professional Health and Safety Advisor and rarely picked up a paint brush until Alan, his wife Susie and daughter Ginny (his other daughter Mandy is married and lives with her husband Adrian in Sheffield) moved out of the city of Norwich into the countryside in 1993. They moved to a little village called East Lexham in the heart of Norfolk. The village was very peaceful and pretty. This helped inspire Alan to take up watercolour painting once again. In 2004 they moved to another small West Norfolk village near Downham Market where they still live today. In 2008 Alan had to retire due to ill health (bad knees) and whilst he still painted regularly he began to spend more and more time gardening. In 2013 his wife Susie suggested that he kept a gardening diary to record his adventures in the garden and capture the changing seasons, animals, birds and the successes and failures of being a gardener he encountered. By the following year Susie suggested that he should write a book from his diary and include illustrations of both the garden and his artwork. In 2014 Alans first book was published by Creative Gateway called "Retiring to the Garden - Year One". This proved such a success that Alan decided to follow this up with his second book called "Retiring into a Rainbow" featuring his watercolour paintings. He then in 2015 published "Retiring to Our Garden - Year Two" published this time by Rainbow Publications UK. He then re-issued his first two books this time in a "Second Edition". Also published by Rainbow Publications UK. In 2016 he published: "Skiathos a Greek Island Paradise", "Norfolk the County of my Birth", "Art Inspired by a Rainbow", "Ibiza Island of Dreams", "Majorca Island in the Sun", "Flip-flops and Shades on Thassos" and finally "Mardle and a Troshin in Norfolk". He has recently started on the following new books which will be entitled: "England the Country of my Birth", "Mousehole the Cornish Jewel", "Sunshine and Shades on Kefalonia", "Shades and Flip-flops on Zakynthos", "Crete and the Island of Santorini", "Cyprus the Pyramids and the Holy Land", "Corfu and Mainland Greece" ", "Trips into my Minds Eye" and finally "Flip-flops and Shades on many Greek Islands". When completed they will also be published by Rainbow Publications UK.