Dave Marden - Southampton

Born in Southampton and growing up there in the post war years, Dave’s working class roots gave him an appreciation of life’s values. Apart from a few childhood years spent in north London, he has lived all his life in his home town, watching it recover from the devastation of the blitz and then seeing many of his old neighbourhoods swept away in the name of progress with families, having grown up together for generations, uprooted and re-housed on new estates, far out on the alien fringes of the town.

Dave has written several books featuring the long gone streets of Southampton together with his other great interest, that of industrial railways, a subject that prompted his original authorship back in 2007. Having worked in the port of Southampton for over 40 years, he wrote about its railway history in two volumes, and then moved onto several other ports’ systems including Portsmouth, London and Liverpool. Over the years he has been a regular contributor to magazines and journals, and has appeared with Michael Portillo in an episode of Great British Railway Journeys. Other subjects he has covered include the final years of Southampton’s trams.

His first book for JMD Media was back in 2012 when he wrote The Building of Southampton Docks, which looked at the development of the docks from its earliest days through to its epitome as one of Britain’s premier seaports.

Dave now enjoys delving into local history, especially that of Southampton’s pubs, where now so many have disappeared and are now just memories. One of his hobbies is the digital restoration of old photographs and his postings of vintage scenes on social media add to the nostalgia.

New Book 2020: