The Longmarsh Press was founded in 2008 by writer Bob Mann, a Westcountry historian, Buddhist and authority on his home town of Totnes, Devon. Novelist Joanna Briscoe writes of him: “Bob Mann is a passionate and committed writer and publisher. Literary Devon owes him a great deal.’

 

He has written guides, topographical portraits, stories and countless articles and reviews for local, national and international publications. He is also a popular speaker and leader of guided walks.

 

Having grown up in Totnes, roughly a mile from the Dartington College campus on the Dartington Hall Estate, Bob observed the spread and influence of the college both through its programme of arts activities and its student population in the town. He wrote regular articles from the age of 18 for the Dartington Hall News, later South Devon Scene, which gave him access to all areas of the Dartington Estate. Talking to students, writers, musicians and others in the White Hart and Higher Close bars, he feels he received ‘the equivalent of a university education, and all it cost was the price of a few pints every night.’  

 

He has been a Totnes town councilor, a school governor, given evening classes about Totnes history, and plays tuba with the Totnes Brass Band.

 

Longmarsh Press is named after the stretch of reclaimed wetland which runs for about a mile on a bank of the River Dart, with fine views of the river and the town. It is a good spot for wildlife and walkers alike.

 

Future Longmarsh Press publications will include new editions of books by such Devon writers as Sabine Baring-Gould, Vian Smith and M.P.Willcocks, and a collection of stories by Bob himself. The next major project, however, will be a study of LGBT lives in Devon, past and present.

 

See the Longmarsh Press website at: http://www.longmarshpress.co.uk