Free online book about Motherwell's history being offered by writer who already has Facebook following

John Aitken of Elvan Street believes there is a gap in the market for such a publication as none has been forthcoming for years.

Many locals will already be familiar with the local history stories that John has posted on Facebook which have already picked up a following over the last five years.

He explained: “After reaching number 21, I decided that was enough, as the total number of pages had grown to 340. I considered having the work published as a book but that would have been too expensive.“I have however , to date, printed six books by myself and distributed them to Lanarkshire Heritage Centre, Dalziel High School, Braidhurst High School, and Our Lady’s High School.I then concluded that the best idea would be to find a way to make my stories easily available online. I could then give ‘my book’ away for free. The more people that had a copy the better.“I have made up a flyer which explains what I’m giving and how to download a personal copy, and I currently give it to anyone I think may be interested. For example, I asked if a flyer could be put on the Motherwell library notice board and local hotels where guests may be interested in local history during their stay.”

A QR code is included in this but typing the the code tinyurl.com/44wbaj7z into a browser can also secure access to the files involved.