Kickstarter for Mike\'s book

[Sean Manning]

This seems to be all of my making. I am sorry as its caused a lot of grief. I only asked, in good nature, if Mr Bishop could do a complete book on helmets. It got a good response though.

My granny used to say 'if you don't ask, you don't get' so you were right to do so. It's neither your nor my fault that the circumstances make it well-nigh impossible, especially when some of the main beneficiaries of such reference books would be the very museums charging for the photos (and they have no choice in that as they too have to cover their costs). Funny old world...

In the long run, I suspect that the same national bodies which pay to publish scholarly articles online will give grants to pay writers of books for research time and photo rights. Right now you would have to frame the proposal in terms of research and research expenses rather than publication.

Douglas Strong is just finishing a similar project for European plate armour 1300-1430. Finding as many pieces as possible, negotiating with museums and collectors, taking photos and drawing sketches, deciding which pieces are authentic, sorting out image rights, and finding a publisher has taken decades of part-time work.