Wide Open Sea

19/12/2021

🐾 Christmas escape 🐾
The last day I’ll be posting orders is 22 December 🌟
Then there will be no despatches until 4 Jan 2022 🌙
🌲 So get your orders in today if you need them soon.
🌚 From 23 Dec the Wide Open Sea shop will be open but your order won’t be sent until the New Year. I am off on the road for a wee while!
🎄 Happy Christmas everyone 🎄

23/10/2021

⚔️ Things are really moving with Ossian: Warrior Poet ⚔️
🪨 The last couple of months have been taken up with moving house and new jobs my end, while Eileen has worked on all the maps and coloured illustrations.
🪨 We’re now at the VERY exciting stage of sending things to print ⚔️
🪨 The last week I’ve done the typesetting for Druids, an extra little book we are giving to everyone who backed Ossian on Kickstarter, or pre-ordered a copy.
🪨 It’s an introduction to Druids ancient & modern by with black&white illustrations
🪨 Any more pre-orders before publication automatically get this gift, to thank you for your support.
🪨 link in bio or go to wideopensea.co.uk and follow shop links ⚔️

#996

05/08/2021

If you are looking for a lovely, chatty audiobook to keep you company for a couple of hours, check out Keeping Hens, A Chatty Guide to Chickens. 🐥
Jane Furnival, her husband Andy and son Will share their years of experience keeping chickens in their back garden. Full of good advice and good humour, Keeping Hens is a great listen for complete beginners or experienced hen keepers.

"A great compact and informative manual especially useful to those thinking about starting a life in the company of hens."
- Bake Off winner and hen keeper Nancy Birtwhistle.

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Keeping-Hens-Audiobook/B09BFPJ7CW?source_code=AUKFrDlWS02231890H6-BK-ACX0-270299&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_270299_rh_uk

Check out this great listen on Audible.com. Keeping hens is easy. This friendly, chatty book gives you all the everyday information you need to keep your hens happy and safe. It covers all the questions you might have: How many hens to keep? What to feed them? What about a cockerel? Will they get .....

02/08/2021

The first printed proof for Ossian: Warrior Poet has arrived! Always so exciting to see a 📃 word doc turn into a 💾 pdf turn into 📖 a book!
Now we check every page of the layout to make sure it's perfect for you all. Lots of post-its required.

05/07/2021

Another old notebook discovery.
🕸 nodes of voluntary motherhood

18/06/2021

🦚 Cover reveal 🦚
What do think of the cover for Letters From a Field Hospital?

🏥 Mabel Dearmer volunteered as an orderly in a unit of women medics in the First World War.
👩🏻‍⚕️ They went to Serbia to treat wounded soldiers amid a devastating typhus epidemic.
📮 Dearmer’s experience was recorded in her lively letters. But tragically, she died after two months at the camp hospital.

For this new edition, I have written a new introduction with a history of the Women’s units in the First World War, to share more stories of the woman who volunteered alongside Mabel.

Mabel is quite a character and I’m looking forward to sharing this for pre-order soon.

07/06/2021

🐌 Top tip from Jane 🐌
A timely tip from Keeping Hens author Jane Furnival. I’ve spent months cultivating a friendship with some hedgehogs, hoping they’ll do the job with the slugs this year. 🦔🦔🦔🦔

🐔 Keeping Hens: A Chatty Guide to Chickens is full of sensible tips and advice, for embracing life with chickens.
🐥 If you are at all curious about establishing a backyard flock, this book is a great place to start.
🐓 For every copy sold direct from wideopensea.bigcartel.com we give a donation to the British Hen Welfare Trust.

09/05/2021

Cheerful Chard
24 hour zine (a year in the making)
A little one-sheet zine on yellow paper.
3 seeds
How to sow, grow, harvest and eat this cheerful pot herb
Folds out to A4 poster
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
You can get one through the link in bio
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

09/05/2021

🪴Char’d 🪴
I’ve wanted to start a little seed zine for like a year and I joined ’s 24 hour zine making challenge to make me get started 🌱
It was fun to paint some leaves and now I’ve put it together
🌿 every zine will come with a little seed
🌱 but what colour paper???

05/05/2021

Now that lockdown is lifting, rescue chickens are being re-homed again! We've been sending out a few copies of Keeping Hens to new chicken owners. I hope that Jane's chatty guide will give confidence and company during the first wee while with a backyard flock. 🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥
For every copy of Keeping Hens bought direct from us, we donate to the British Hen Welfare Trust so they can keep doing their great work finding homes for rescue chickens.
https://wideopensea.bigcartel.com/product/keeping-hens

Keeping Hens: A Chatty Guide to Chickens by Jane Furnival Paperback, 134pp. ISBN 978191611482 Keeping hens is easy. This friendly, chatty book...

21/04/2021

When I'm not making books, I make zines.
This little one-page folded zine is a direct response to the government's recent attempts to censor historical research.

Recently I was horrified by the right-wing responses to the National Trust in England’s (long overdue) work to state and explain links between slavery and property. And the Tories’ attempt to censor heritage organisations through threats of funding cuts, and malicious litigation. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/mar/11/national-trust-report-uk-slavery-links-did-not-break-charity-law-regulator-says
📑 Then the disingenuous Race Report came out last month, and it kicked me up the bum to get some stuff on paper.
So this little zine is a fold out map and information sheet, with illustrations of houses round here.
🤺 it’s a tiny kickback against the censorship of our history.
I’m sending them out at cost - here's the link if you'd like one: http://wideopensea.bigcartel.com/product/material-legacies-scottish-history-zine

24/03/2021

🌱 Off the beaten track 🌱
🍄 I’ve been having a little look at The Unschooled Life and enjoyed rediscovering this contents page, made with the author Lizi Gambell back in 2019.
🍄 We’ll be updating the book with a new introduction, reflecting on the homeschooling experiences of the last year.
🍄 But this lil map will stay cos I love it!
🗺 Maybe I could sneak a map into every book?

13/03/2021

🌱excited to get started! 🌱
Last year, at this time, planting seeds felt like a desperate act of hope in the looming darkness. This year I’m gonna sow a whole bunch of stuff and we’ll see what comes up...
(Though I’m really, really hoping the parsnips thrive like last year.)
Let’s go!
🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

14/02/2021

Who would you include in a Golden Book of Famous Women?
🌞 E F Brickdale included Joan of Arc, Catherine of Siena and Guinevere...
🌞 EFB was on the fringes of the medieval cosplay club known as the Pre-Raphaelites
🌞 and went to town on beautifully detailed illustrations of period dress.

🏵 The Wide Open Sea postcard project celebrates forgotten women illustrators with curated sets of postcards. Send them out into the world!
🏵 Shop link in bio or go to wideopensea.bigcartel.com

06/02/2021

🦚 Spring goals 🦚
Imagine walking through a rolling green landscape like Guinevere and not sinking to your knees in mud!
🩲 spring dreams right?
This postcard is an illustration from The Golden Book of Famous Women by Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, 1919.
They’ll be listed in the shop soon and I’ll do a wee giveaway cos these postcards deserve to fly out into the world!
🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃

14/01/2021

🐓 A new review for Keeping Hens:
“I’ve kept chickens for over 10 years and this was a fun and relatable read. The additions from her son Will really cement the chattiness of the text as you can almost hear the conversation between mother and son. This conversational style is so different to many other chicken keeping guides and underlines the fun element of the chicken keeper’s role and the joy that Jane clearly had in her flock.
Jane’s no-nonsense approach really resonated with me as hens are not a tidy pet and they will decimate your garden given the chance. However, the entertainment they provide and the joy to be gained from getting to know their personalities means, like Jane, you will let them away with it. It is almost impossible to keep them purely for eggs and not fall under their spell.
The book concludes with a couple of additional chapters from Jane’s husband Andy which contain a fantastic guide to building your own henhouse. I daren’t show my girls as they would be green with envy.
Overall a great read for prospective and existing chicken keepers, but a fun read for anyone. I dare you to read it and not want to join the chicken keepers’ gang.”


A perfect summary of Keeping Hens. Have you read your copy yet? What did you think?

Every copy sold from our website includes a donation to the British Hen Welfare Trust and supports our wee indie publishers 💛
🥚 link in our profile or wideopensea.bigcartel.com

10/01/2021

Today on BBC Radio Kent just after 5pm, hear Will Tribble talk about rediscovering and finishing his mum's book "Keeping Hens".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0922t2v
Jane Furnival's Chatty Guide to Chickens tells you everything you need to know to keep happy, healthy hens at home - and every purchase from our website includes a donation to the British Hen Welfare Trust!
Check it out here: https://wideopensea.bigcartel.com/product/keeping-hens

Keeping Hens: A Chatty Guide to Chickens by Jane Furnival Paperback, 134pp. ISBN 978191611482 Keeping hens is easy. This friendly, chatty book...

16/12/2020

Thank you everyone who backed Ossian: Warrior Poet during our kickstarter campaign!
We cannot wait to get the book to you next year.

Now the book is certainly funded, anyone who missed out on the kickstarter will be able to pre-order Ossian: Warrior Poet from our online shop (for delivery next summer).

https://wideopensea.bigcartel.com/product/ossian