Since Chris Birch retired from journalism, he has written three books. When he had finished the first one, an account of his family going back to 1635, called  Ten Generations , he send the text to a literary agent, who advised him that no commercial publisher would consider publishing it, so Chris set up the St Christopher Press and published it himself. 

In doing so, he was following in the footsteps of William Blake, Hugh Walpole, Walt Whitman, Virginia Woolf, Lord Byron, Robert Burns, John Galsworthy, Alexander Pope, D H Lawrence and Beatrix Potter, all of whom had themselves published their own writings.

The literary agent to whom Chris had sent Ten Generations advised him that, if he concentrated on the more interesting characters on his family tree and put them in their social and historical context, a commercial publisher might be interested. So he wrote The Milk Jug Was A Goat and started hawking it around.

After eight rejection letters, one publisher, Pegasus Elliot MacKenzie Publishers, showed interest and eventually agreed to publish it.

Having written two books about his ancestors and other family members, Chris decided to write the story of his own life. There seemed little point in trying to interest a commercial publisher in it, so My Life was also published by the St Christopher Press. (Contact details at foot of page).

In summer 2011, Chris's wife Betty had her own memoir published by the St Christopher Press - We Save Bits of String - detailing the first 18 ½ years of her life.

Click the book covers below for more info on each book and to purchase