Steve Roberts - Contact

GLOBETROTTING

I've done a bit of travelling in my time and am always casting my writer's eye over 'stuff' in case there's something I can scribe about. At the last count I had set foot in 29 different countries, including the UK of course. Here's my list with a few anecdotes:

UNITED KINGDOM - includes island hopping (Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Orkney, Shetland Islands and not forgetting the Isle of Wight) and a few visits to Gibraltar

IRELAND - Dublin, the only time I've managed to fly from my local airport, Bournemouth

FRANCE (Paris via Eurostar for my 40th and a memorable drive around Normandy)

SPAIN

PORTUGAL

ITALY

SAN MARINO

VATICAN CITY

MONACO (but I didn't break the bank at Monte Carlo)

GERMANY (including some of the former East Germany)

BELGIUM (another Eurostar, this time to Brussels)

ICELAND

USA

CANADA (including a trip aboard the 'Rocky Mountaineer')

NORWAY

SWEDEN

DENMARK

FINLAND

RUSSIA (a memorable day in St Petersburg on an individual visa - very intrepid)

SWITZERLAND

HOLLAND

INDIA (a business trip to Chennai. It was the monsoon season so I didn't see much of the place sadly)

FAROE ISLANDS

GREECE (including Athens)

TURKEY (Asia and Europe, including the fab ISTANBUL)

ROMANIA

UKRAINE (including Crimea which was part of Ukraine at the time)

CROATIA

MALTA

I have had a grand total of 1,475 magazine articles published in more than 80 different publications (correct @ 04/12/2023).

REGULAR COLUMNS

As an historian I love writing about characters from the past and contribute series of 'Greats' for a number of magazines.

I have regular monthly or bi-monthly columns in 10 magazines up and down the country. These are (with numbers of published articles in brackets):

COTSWOLD LIFE (109)

SUFFOLK NORFOLK LIFE (91)

SOMERSET LIFE (76)

ESSEX LIFE (65)

HAMPSHIRE LIFE (55)

CHESHIRE LIFE (41)

KENT LIFE (39)

THE NORTHUMBRIAN (24)

CORNWALL LIFE & CORNWALL LIFE HOME & GARDEN (23)

SUFFOLK MAGAZINE (6)

LOCAL HISTORY COLUMNS

I have contributed local history columns to a trio of local magazines mainly for the love of it but also to spread the word about our rich heritage:

HIGHCLIFFE HERALD (100)

CHRISTCHURCH EYE (77)

MUDEFORD MAG (27)

COUNTY, CITY and REGIONAL MAGAZINES

As well as my regular columns I have also contributed one-off articles to a number of other county magazines:

SURREY LIFE (36) - a sadly discontinued magazine

HERTFORDSHIRE LIFE (22)

WILTSHIRE LIFE (20)

SUSSEX LIFE (17)

DEVON LIFE (15)

EXETER LIFE (14)

DORSET LIFE (13)

WHAT'S WHAT magazine - SHROPSHIRE (8)

LINCOLNSHIRE LIFE & LINCOLNSHIRE POACHER (8)

BERKSHIRE LIFE (7) - another sadly discontinued magazine

THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE (7)

LAKE DISTRICT & LANCASHIRE LIFE (6)

DERBYSHIRE LIFE (6)

CORNWALL TODAY (4)

DOWN YOUR WAY - YORKSHIRE (4)

YORKSHIRE RIDINGS magazine (2) - discontinued

ABSOLUTE HEREFORDSHIRE (2) - discontinued

CAMBRIDGESHIRE COUNTY (2)

PURBECK (2)

DORSET (1)

RAILWAY MAGAZINES

One of my guilty pleasures is rail travel (I detest driving because there are so few competent/considerate motorists about any longer!)

I have written for the following railway publications. My 'Britain by Bradshaw' features for RAIL magazine have given me particular pleasure.

RAIL (21)

BACK TRACK (17)

TODAY'S RAILWAYS (15)

RAILWAYS ILLUSTRATED (14)

STEAM WORLD (14)

RAILWAY BYLINES (7)

STEAM DAYS (5)

BRITISH RAILWAYS ILLUSTRATED (4)

HERITAGE RAILWAY (4)

THE RAILWAY MAGAZINE (4)

THE REST OF THE UK and IRELAND

I get around as I've also written for magazines in Scotland, Ireland and Wales. This included a pair of memorable research/photography trips to Orkney (2014) and the Shetland Islands (2016)

SCOTTISH ISLANDS EXPLORER (28)

WELSH COUNTRY (20)

THE SCOTS MAGAZINE (20)

SCOTTISH MEMORIES (16) - discontinued

SCOTLAND MAGAZINE (7)

SCOTS HERITAGE (6)

IRELAND of the WELCOMES (5)

MILITARY HISTORY

Another favoured subject of mine. I want to pay a personal tribute to the late Dr. Neil Faulkner here, the former editor of Military History Matters, who gave me sound advice, to read some Hemingway and adopt a more economical style of writing. It's advice that has stood me in good stead.

MILITARY HISTORY MATTERS (22)

MILITARY HISTORY (4) - US magazine

BRITAIN at War (3)

WORLD WAR II MAGAZINE (2)

ANCIENT WARFARE (1)

THE MILITARY TIMES (1)

TRAVEL, HERITAGE, the ENVIRONMENT etc

I've written for some magazines where my purpose has been to spread the word about the amazing places we have in the UK to visit:

THIS ENGLAND, EVERGREEN etc (26)

THE COUNTRYMAN (16)

BRITISH HERITAGE (13) - sadly discontinued

MAIL on SUNDAY travel section (2)

FAMILY HISTORY, GENEALOGY & MISCELLANEOUS HISTORY

I also quite like a dabble into family history. As well as writing one or two personal stories I've also written a bunch of royal histories for Family Tree magazine which has been fun.

FAMILY TREE magazine (10)

DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS (8)

ALL ABOUT HISTORY (2)

DISCOVER YOUR HISTORY (1)

SPORT

Although football is really my bag the only sport magazine I'm actively writing for these days is The Cricketer.

THE CRICKETER (7)

BACKPASS (5) - football

LATE TACKLE (3) - football

WHEN SATURDAY COMES (3) - football

MY ROGUES' GALLERY

I think every freelancer should have a rogues' gallery of magazines they no longer write for and these are mine. To be fair they may well have me in their own rogues' galleries and I'm not sure I'd blame them. There's not too many of them anyway:

LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE (135)

CUMBRIA MAGAZINE (32)

THE HIGHLANDER (18)

THE DALESMAN (10)

BEST of BRITISH (7)

HISTORY of WAR (2)

Contact

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