THIS highly accomplished Tyneside artist began painting watercolours of the city sixteen years ago and this Arts Council sponsored book contains over 50 of his fine studies. These include the oldest location, Castle Keep and the Black Gate, to Bessie Surtees House, St. Nicholas Cathedral, Newcastle Green Market, Laing Art Gallery, the Crown Posada pub, Central Station and the Tyne and Millennium Bridges. While painting outdoors with his drawing board and palette of paint and brushes, the artist attracted the interest of passers-by and heard their stories of how architecture and the buildings depicted in the painting effected them personally. It was he says: “A journey of surprises.”

THE 1950s was a decade of great change for South Shields, when residents were beginning to put their lives back together after the Second World War. New housing estates and factories were built bringing increased prosperity to the area, the rock and roll era arrived, and night clubs offered a new type of entertainment.

Major employers were the town’s six major shipbuilding and repair yards – Readhead and Sons, Brigham and Cowan, Middle Docks, Thomas R. Dowson, Tyne Dock Engineering and Anthony Proud Ltd – and the collieries at Harton and Westoe.

HERE is an attempt to make the geology of the north Northumberland coast accessible for families on holiday, dog walkers and anyone who marvels at the natural beauty of the coastal landscape. The book details what to look for on seashore walks between Holy Island and Alnmouth.

Each location has photographs of those features easily found, with simple explanations of their formation. In addition there are particular ‘treasure hunt’ quests for children of all ages.

Our stretch of coast tells us about the landscape here between 345 and 300 million years ago during the Carboniferous period, when Britain lay near the equator on the edge of a massive super-continent called Avalonia.

This low-lying coast was affected by the waxing and waning of great ice sheets, with cycles of rising and falling sea levels extending over hundreds of thousands of years to leave behind sediments which include limestones, marine shales, sandstones and coal measures.

Suggested walks start from Holy Island, Bamburgh, Seahouses, Beadnell, Embleton Bay, Craster, Howick, Rumbling Kern and Boulmer.