The publication of the new local book, Cassiobury – the ancient seat of the Earls of Essex, prompted me to ponder over the three-book series of Watford in the 20th Century, which I wrote and revised over a number of years, covering the locality from 1900 to 1979.

As it happens, in established sales-speak, we have a few left, so get them while stocks last at a discounted rate. Details of their availability are to be found below.

I must admit to a mild disappointment. I would have hoped they were sold out and such was the initial surge of interest when the first was published (1900-1939) that seemed likely.

The fact they proved popular to some but did not ultimately sell like the proverbial hot cakes, may be, in part, due to the town’s lack of a real book shop. A fair number of the first book were sold through Waterstones, where the browsers happened upon them and considered them ideal Christmas gifts. Then Watford, once print capital of the world, lost its last book store.

Some potential readers were under the impression the books were just duplications of earlier in-paper supplements they received free with the Watford Observer over the years, but in fact they contain considerably more information, particularly the final book, 1960-79.

It serves as a further reminder that books on local subjects deserve as much publicity and exposure as we can muster. They are essentially a labour of love, for I know that had the two people closely involved in the production of Watford in the 20th Century series been paid the normal hourly rate, the books would have had to be sold at least double the cover price.

It is a further reminder of a fact I have begun to appreciate: it is the journey that is the delight, rather than reaching the publishers. There is great fillip to be obtained from the book finally making it to publication, but really, as far as I am concerned, it was the research, the writing and the honing, which I found most rewarding and absorbing.

You can become hooked on that. For instance, after publishing her father Ted Parrish’s Echoes of Old Watford, Bushey and Oxhey a year ago, Lesley Dunlop is now working on another book. Entitled Two Lives, Two World Wars, it will focus on local historian Ted Parrish and his father Reginald.

Lesley will delve into Ted’s life in the area and his experiences in the Royal Air Force in India and Burma during the Second World War. Extracts from the many letters he sent to his future wife, Peggy, will be included in the book, as will cartoons he created based on life within the South East Asia Command (SEAC). He did not forget his beloved Watford and Oxhey while he was at war, as is evidenced in his letters.

As a comparison, Lesley will research the life and experiences of Ted’s father Reginald, a military musician and regular soldier with the Royal Fusiliers. Policing the Empire, his regiment was called back in late 1914 to support the fighting on the Western Front, but instead was sent to Gallipoli. After being wounded, he was despatched to Malta to convalesce and subsequently fought on the Western Front.

He, too, spent his married life in Watford, instilling a love of the area in his only son, Ted, and entertaining local people with his band, The Sylvanians.

“I have visited sites on the Western Front and Gallipoli where my grandfather fought and will visit Malta, where he convalesced, in the spring. I am also exploring the possibility of visiting World War II-related sites in India and Burma, where my father was stationed,” Lesley tells me, adding the fact she intends to weave life in Watford during the First and Second World Wars with the two life stories.

That declaration of intent sums it up, for however well a local book sells, it will not refund the cost of flights to India, Burma and travels round the Western Front and the hours it will take to put it all together. Lesley is writing and researching, much as George Mallory approached his mountaineering: “Because it is there.”

Unfortunately I am based too far from Watford Library and sadly the accessible, bound copies of the Watford Observer ceased being produced shortly after Watford’s FA Cup Final appearance in 1984.

Looking through every copy of a newspaper on microfilm is a trying and unpleasant task: a short course towards headaches, stars before your eyes and apoplexy. It is one thing to find an article or item, quite another to take notes and summarise every page when only an eighth of it appears on screen, and you have to re-align and refocus each time.

So, as I have mentioned in this column before, I am enjoying the novel experience of writing fiction. In fact I have revelled in it, for having to write to certain lengths and parameters in journalism becomes in-built and I have had to relearn the fact that fiction does not have to be tight and terse, with every paragraph crammed-full of facts.

I have completed two books, around 125,000 words each: the second one being a sequel, and I have an idea for a third, which I know I will find even more challenging. Publishing? I have not taken that step. Almost certainly I will make a few enquiries at some stage.

I have just run through the first book for probably the 25th time and made many alterations. When I reach the stage when I feel I cannot improve it, perhaps I will have a look at the publishing route. I hasten to add, that I could not be so casual with a non-fiction book, for the need is to check the facts and then get it out there as a matter of record.

The fact is simply I have enjoyed the process, the journey, without regard to the destination. I delight in writing and that is a reward in itself. We are going back to England for Christmas and when we come back, I know I will return to my office and the computer, because already I will have mapped out some of the characters for the third book.

Such planning fills the odd moments when I am dog-walking, driving or just contemplating.

I have learnt that you can conjure a vision and get it down in words, but that is only the beginning. Each time you return to it, you add another layer, and so it grows and develops taking on a life of its own..

Really, the motivation came when writing Watford in the 20th Century 1960-79. I wrote chapters on youth, music, culture, sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll and I realized there was far more to write. So when the book was published I set about writing the rest as fiction and one book begat another, and now I will look to a third.

By then, I might have cracked the concept of writing fiction. On the other hand, I may not. In which case I will have to write a fourth. Either way I love doing it, because it is there.

Echoes of Old Watford, Bushey and Oxhey is available from www.pastdayspublishing.com or from Watford and Bushey Museums, priced £20 £12.99.

Cassiobury – the ancient seat of the Earls of Essex, by Paul Rabbitts and Sarah Kerenza Priestley is also available at Watford Museum priced £20.

Copies of the Watford Observer’s three-book series Watford in the 20th Century, (1900-1939; 1939-69 and 1960-79) are available from: our reception at Observer House, Caxton Court, Caxton Way, Watford Business Park; Rymans in the intu Watford shopping centre; Ward newsagents in South Oxhey; and online at www.watfordobserver.co.uk (see links in the Nostalgia section)