Lisa Horner Writer & Artist

I couldn't resist buying this illustration from Mike at Family Scribbles  for one of my husband's Christmas presents.  It is quirky and shows all the notable elements of Billericay High Street.  Mike had the business acumen to advertise his illustration on The Billericay Discussion Page on Facebook, where I saw it.  It is finally on our bedroom wall and looks brilliant! You might be thinking, where have I heard of Family Scribbles before?  Mike was very kind to give an illustration of a very wonderful person who has become known as Colin the Clapper.  He handed Colin the illustration as a thank you, Mike had been jogging past Colin most mornings as he stood on the roundabout near Basildon Hospital clapping all the NHS staff as they went to work.  You can read a bit more about this here . Colin Wilkinson started paying tribute to the NHS staff on the 25th April 2020.  When he had done it for forty days he made the national newspapers when he was ...

I was asked to contribute towards the  Radion Project  by choosing a piece of heritage that I think should be celebrated.  I decided to choose a picture of the building at East Square before the work on the new cinema started as it is often the case in local history books that you see the past and present picture and it's good to see what was there before.  As it says on the Radion website: "A broad range of archival and present day photographs have been selected to create a panoramic visual depicting an alternative skyline of Basildon's heritage past and present from a chronological perspective." T his w ill be one of two panoramic images that will be displayed on a lenticular screen as part of the new cinema in Basildon. I have also been asked to do a small audio piece that will add to a local guided tour of each piece of heritage included on the design, this will be accessed by a QR code. If you're like me and can miss the subtleties of a website, when you go o...

Sylvia Kent has written an article about a gentleman who has been very helpful to me when I was researching both of my books, Ken Porter.  In particular Basildon Through Time .  I virtually became researcher in residence on a Monday and Wednesday at the Green Centre at Wat Tyler Country Park in 2014.  He is by far the leading expert on Laindon and Langdon Hills history at present.  You can see Sylvia's article here .  You could also visit Basildon Heritage's website , Ken is the chairman and treasurer of the group.