Black Country Theatres and Cinemas Project

Black Country Cinemas / Black Country Theatres

Stage & Screen in South Staffordshire and the Black Country

from Ned Williams
Uralia Press
23 Westland Road,
Wolverhampton
WV3 9NZ

Phone: 01902 773376
(Weekends: 0121 550 5943)

Email: nedwilliams@toucansurf.com

2011 - This year’s exciting book-production project

Back in 1982 I produced a book called “Cinemas of the Black Country” – an A4 hardback of 232 pages which dealt fairly thoroughly with its subject matter. One prospective publisher dismissed it as “Too much material on too small a subject – appealing to only a small readership!” Despite this judgement I went ahead and produced the book independently with the help of advance orders and a loan from the Co-operative Bank. 1000 copies were produced which seemed optimistic at the time, but the book was a great success and went “out of print” fairly quickly. That book is now quite a collectors’ item, which makes expensive appearances on Ebay! Meanwhile, of course, many people ask me if it is going to be made available again.

This year’s project is even more ambitious. I intend producing a revised updated version of “Cinemas of the Black Country” – but the project is a lot more than just that. The intention is two produce two books – one the companion of the other. The first will describe the “Theatres of the Black Country” – the second will return to the subject of cinemas. Some venues will appear in both books because they have served both functions, some will only appear in one of the books. Hopefully, as many people as possible will support the venture by buying both books, but they will be available separately.

At the moment the project is at an early stage – text is being revised, production details are being worked out etc. It’s not too late to add material to the books – information or photographs still very welcome! At the moment I am not clear about whether we will launch a special offer to customers who pre-order copies, or simply have a special offer available to those who come along when the book is ready – just at the time when I am having to pay the bills! However, what you can do now is let me know if you are interested in this project and would like to be kept informed of its progress. (Email addresses particularly welcome as that makes it easy to keep you informed.)

If you can help with information, interest or support – please do make contact.

Best Wishes

Ned Williams