Hertfordshire is full of stories.
The county’s proximity to London attracts the great, the good and those less so: Hertfordshire was once home to saints such as St Alban, St Thomas More and the only English Pope, Nicholas Breakspear.
Such virtuous figures pose a sharp contrast to those involved in the Hertford elections of time gone by, which were once declared the most corrupt in the country.
It is no secret that Elizabeth I became queen at Hatfield House in south Hertfordshire – but did you know that her father, Henry VIII, fled a plague-ridden London to a nearby village while waiting for his first divorce to come through?
And that just around the corner, 400 years later, engineers were secretly developing the bombers that helped win the Second World War?
Open The Little Book of Hertfordshire at any time or any place and be amused, entertained and intrigued.
The Little Book of Hertfordshire by Ruth Herman is published on 3 October, 2024.
Get a taste of Ruth’s writing in her feature The unsung heroes of Grub Street.
Find more history in our list of over 190 books published his year.
