A journalist on the Eastern Daily Press has published his first book celebrating the proud maritime history of his Norfolk patch.

Mark Nicholls, a former health and defence correspondent on the paper who reported first-hand from Iraq in 2003, somehow managed to find the time to write the book around his current duties as the EDP’s night news editor.

Called Norfolk Maritime Heroes and Legends, it takes a fresh look at the county’s maritime history and is designed to appeal to local historians, sailors and people with an interest in waterborne activities in general.

It is designed to follow-on from the celebrations in September marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of Horatio Nelson at Burnham Thorpe, and the commemorations of the bi-centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar in 2005.

But while Nelson is ever-present throughout the book’s 26 chapters as having had such an influence on maritime history, Mark said the book’s aim was to bring to life Norfolk’s “other maritime heroes.”

“The book is designed to pay tribute to Norfolk’s great mariners, raise the profile of their feats and characters and hopefully bring them out of the mighty shadow of Horatio Nelson,” he said.

It features many of the characters who owed their naval careers to Nelson – people such as Edward Berry, William Hoste, William Bolton and Captain George Manby.

There is also a chapter on Nelson’s uncle, Maurice Suckling, who launched young Horatio’s career in the latter part of the 18th century and acknowledges the role of the Vice Admiral’s body servant Tom Allen and the crews at Trafalgar, a significant contingent of them hailing from Norfolk.

Norfolk’s great lifeboatmen George Blogg and William Fleming are also included as is John Loynes, the man who pioneered Broads boating holidays.