My novella-in-flash William Prichard & Co was published by Arroyo Seco Press in August 2024. Copies can be bought from Amazon or if you would like a signed copy, you can purchase directly from me. The novella is a work of fiction but it was inspired by the pram manufacturing business once owned by my husband's family and follows 65 years of a family and their perambulator business. 

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Signed copies are available for a cost of £9.00 (or £11.25 to include postage within the UK). Please email me for international postage costs.

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If you would like to buy a copy, or have any other queries please email me at scooterwriter@gmail.com

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​​Praise for William Prichard & Co

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Another masterly novella-in-flash from Diane Simmons,  William Prichard & Co is a quiet tale of the 65 years of one family's perambulator business. In just 33 short but satisfying episodes, Simmons manages to portray an entire historical saga. By letting us into the inner life of each character while also showing them through the eyes of others, she builds a fully rounded picture of each family member, and, by the time we reach the moving last line, we are sorry to have to let them go. William Prichard & Co tells a deceptively simple story that plumbs surprising emotional depths.  

 

~Fiona J Mackintosh, author of ‘The Yet Unknowing World’

 

 

Diane Simmons is such an excellent author of historical fiction. You know you’re reading something that has been meticulously researched, but that research never shows up in info-dumps and is instead filtered through the examined lives of the Prichard family. This novella holds up a mirror to society and the changes in attitudes, industrial practices and politics as one family moves through the end of the 19th century into the 20th. There is humour, there is romance, there is emancipation, but most of all, there is an engrossing story of family dynamics that draws the reader in and makes us root for our favourites. This is historical fiction at its best.

 

~Karen Jones, author of ‘Burn It All Down’

 

 

Diane Simmons has done it again! Back with her latest novella-in-flash, Diane presents us thirty-three glimpses into the lives of three generations connected to a perambulator factory.  The novella starts with the establishment of the business in 1886 and traces the family members' highs and lows for the 65-year span of the business, with everything from class, empire, women's suffrage, mass production, and the changing role of women in the workplace swirling around in the background. With the focus on the individual, human stories at the centre of the story, Diane paints a compelling picture of their celebrations and struggles through keen observation and compelling storytelling. 'William Prichard & Co' is everything we've come to expect from Diane's writing: well-researched, sharply written, and full of heart.

 

~ Ingrid Jendrzejewski, Co-Director of National Flash Fiction Day

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