7 November 2025

The people and energy that have fuelled Waveney & Blyth Arts for over 15 years have finally come to an end. The trustees that remain have decided to fold the organisation before the end of the current financial year.

  • The website will for the time being remain, but inactive.

  • There will be no further newsletters.

  • Memberships are not being renewed. If anyone would like any portion of their existing membership fees refunded, please let us know.

  • We are continuing with plans to co-publish the Waveney valley book, Borderlines. Many of you have already signed up for a discounted launch copy; we welcome more.

  • We will put whatever funds are left after we close towards the print costs of Borderlines. The book will be a suitable legacy for Waveney & Blyth Arts. It should be published around the turn of the year.

  • You can contact us about the book, or anything else, on info@waveneyandblytharts.com.

There will be time and an occasion to celebrate W&BA’s many achievements. Thank you all for your engagement over the years. We will meet again.

Publish With W&BArts

We are excited to offer members and supporters the chance to help publish a new book about a subject we can confidently assume you are interested in – the cultural history of the Waveney and Blyth valleys.

Borderlines is written; its 12 chapters exist. And they are from the pen of a prolific local author and publisher. In 1996 Peter Tolhurst launched Black Dog Books in Bungay and published 32 books over the next 25 years. There's fiction and non-fiction, but all with a regional slant. They include titles by other authors like Ronald Blythe, Elspeth Barker, Ian Collins, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Robert Jellicoe.

More recently Peter has had two of his own published by Norwich's Book Hive imprint, Propolis Books. Smiling at the Storm: East Anglian Folk Arts and Smiling at the Storm: Aspects of Norfolk Folklore: they're on bookshop shelves currently.

Borderlines is ready to be next. And Peter is giving us the  opportunity to launch it. So we are crowdfunding its print costs. We're not seeking investors (although we wouldn’t turn them away) just readers prepared to order in advance. By committing now to buying it for £17 you will secure a copy of this 235-page, colour illustrated book. With your support it will published by Christmas, and in bookshops for £22.

So what’s in it? Here are the Contents, the Introduction and an extract from Chapter 3 to help you decide if you want to get involved.

Simply email info@waveneyandblytharts.com to indicate your intention to buy and we will complete the sale in due course.

W&BA Trustees 

6 August 2025