Birds of a Feather returns

Article in yesterday's Guardian on the return of Birds of a Feather and how Sharon and Tracey might cope in Towie's Essex. I expect Darryl is running a club by now and Sharon's moved into tanning salons... Wonder if they'll film in Sheesh and other Chigwell hotspots? Click on the link to read.

Who in Essex

Just found the first mention of Essex in Doctor Who, In the 1964 story The Keys of Marinus Ian Chesterton looks at the Tardis scanner showing the sandy planet of Marinus and declares "Well, it doesn't look like Southend!" Colchester also gets a mention in the Matt Smith era when Amy and Rory move there and the cybermen turn up, while Donna Noble also reveals to David Tennant's Doctor that she learned to whistle up West Ham.

Doctoring an Essex shed

Essex, sheds and Doctor Who all in one story... perfect. Tardis shed created by David Lifton from Chelmsford (whose lucky son is a Whovian) and a finalist in the Shed of the Year 2013 competition...

Stour house: The joy of Manningtree

Spent a great day in Manningtree last weekend. Constable country was looking glorious and thanks to my wife Nicola's relatives Diana and Eugenie for sustenance and entertainment. It's got a bit of everything, great views across the Stour estuary, some fine converted maltings, two Robert Adam towers from the old church, swans, a hut that was swept there in the 1953 floods and a great pub in the Red Lion, where you're allowed to bring in kids, dogs and takeaways. Good beer and chilli and honey roasted peanuts too.

And you can see the pond where infamous former Manningtree resident and witchfinder general Matthew Hopkins had his ducking stool. Hopkins was the ultimate Essex conman, paid per result, he inevitably produced more witches than he could shake a broomstick at. He was active during the English Civil War. Within a year Parliament was questioning his methods and thankfully he died young, at 27, in 1647 and is buried at Mistley.

On a lighter note, there's some fine footpaths behind the town through the   woods and fields, all oaks, cow parsley and buttercups. All this and it's only an hour from Liverpool Street on the train. We plan to return via train soon and walk to Dedham and Flatford Mill and, of course, sample more of Manningtree's delis and pubs…

Duckpond FC… by far the greatest team that Harwich has ever seen

Nice example of Essex humour from Duckpond FC, the Sunday League side from Harwich that spent £1000 hiring an open-top bus tour to celebrate winning the Colchester and District Sunday League. The Harwich locals turned out in their tens…

Give Tilbury a Fort

Spent a great day out with my family at Tilbury Fort last weekend. It's an unexpected treasure positioned between the power station and piles of containers. There's three pages on the Fort in The Joy of Essex. Manager Kevin Diver gave me an after hours tour and wasn't able to unlock everything while I was writing the book, but I should now add that the officers' rooms are really atmospheric with their old fireplaces and floorboards, the museum has some great letters and artefacts and that it's great to step inside the tunnels and rooms inside the magazines (told you we had magazines somewhere in Essex!). These rooms were cells at one period, housing Jacobite prisoners as well as gunpowder and shells. Tlbury also has lots of slopes for kids to roll down and great sweeping views across the Thames to Gravesend and is built in a distinctive star shape known as a bastion fort. The shop does a fine line in Dad's Army fridge magnets, marmalade and ice cream too. All this and a nice pint of Abbott in the World's End pub afterwards.

Done up like a Ukipper in Essex

Is there anyone left in politics not fixated with Essex Man? Friday's Evening Standard ran the headline, "Labour makes gains but has failed to win over Essex Man". While on the editorial pages Andrew Neather wrote that, "in grittier parts of Essex — Brentwood, Harlow, Epping — it was mainly Ukip not Labour that took votes off the Tories". In today's Guardian, John Harris writes that, 'Last week I spent time with Ukip in Essex… in such towns as Wickford, Bilerciacy and Rayleigh, the disaffection runs deep." Was there anyone in Essex last week who wasn't a journalist?