I am very pleased to present a guest post from my blogging friend, Jon Risdon. He is an actor, author, and blogger who resides near the lovely seaside town of Whitby, in north-east England. https://wilfredbooks.wordpress.com/

Why Wilfred Books?

Wilfred Books was set up at the end of 2013, primarily to publish Black Shirt and Smoking Beagles, the biography of Wilfred Risdon, my grand uncle (that is: my grandfather’s brother), whom I never met, I regret to say. I discovered him in the course of my family history research, and the more I found out about him, the more interested I became in his life & work, so I thought there might be at least a few other people out there who would share my interest in him enough to also want to read his fascinating life-story. For what seemed, to me, to be very sound reasons, namely: he was not a household name; he was involved in contentious politics and activism for most of his adult life; it would probably be a strenuous & stressful (and, probably, ultimately futile) task to find an agent and/or publisher to take an interest; I decided to bite the bullet and publish the book myself. To market the book I set up the Wilfred Books website, which accepts payments securely, using PayPal, so no personal details are registered on the site, and I also created a WordPress blog, to promote the website, but also to write about subjects which might have interested my relative.

As related above, the first book published under the imprint of Wilfred Books was Black Shirt and Smoking Beagles, and it is still available as a print version (product code WB01), but also downloadable versions: PDF (product code WB02), ePub (product code WB03) and Kindle versions (product code WB04), in both popular formats (.mobi & .azw3); the ePub version can be read using iBooks on iOS devices, and on a wide range of other platforms; the Kindle version required can be selected from the link in the email confirming the purchase. In the future, I might also publish other books, either about Wilfred Risdon, or subjects related to his life and work, especially his animal welfare concerns; or any other subject/genre which I think is appropriate: check the New Items section on the About page on the website from time to time, for additions to the catalogue.

On that note, in 1967, Wilfred Risdon wrote & published a biography of a man whom he held in high esteem, and for whom he had great respect, the Edinburgh surgeon Robert Lawson Tait and, as it is now out of print, Wilfred Books is pleased to be able to offer a PDF download facsimile version, with the catalogue code WB05, of the original publication, with a preface to the new edition by J. L. Risdon. The book is called Lawson Tait: A Biographical Study and, given Wilfred Risdon’s close association with the National Anti-Vivisection Society, Wilfred Books will donate 10% of the annual net profit, over a minimum amount, from the sales of this edition to Animal Defenders International (ADI), the successor to the previous organisation. If there is sufficient interest, it might be possible to consider making it available in the other download formats, or as a print edition: please email me to register your interest. I look forward to hearing from you!
Jon Risdon jrisdon17@googlemail.com

I hope you will visit Jon’s blog and see what he has to offer.