What the discerning Kentish reader should be leafing through this week, from the county’s top authors

Arms by her sides, feet together and with that pleasant, well-rehearsed smile, a young Queen Elizabeth II stands with her father, King George VI, the Queen Mother and her sister Princess Margaret.

The photo of the royal family standing aboard the Victoria and Albert (III) in 1937 has been published with the permission of Her Majesty alongside several others of the 83 royal yachts in Gillingham-born author Alan Major’s 23rd published book.

Yet this is not just a history of the boats which have served Britain’s monarchy but also how they were viewed by generations of the royal family.

The book recounts the stories of the Nahlin, used by Edward VIII to woo Wallis Simpson and King George V’s Britannia, a J-class racing yacht. Alan also tells how Queen Victoria intensely disliked the Victoria and Albert yacht, believing it to be top heavy and prone to rolling.

Kent features heavily in the book, with many of the early royal yachts built in shipyards at Chatham and Sheerness as well as nearby Greenwich and Deptford. Many departed to and from Gravesend, Sheerness, Queenborough, port Victoria on the Isle of Grain and Ramsgate.

A report from the KM Group’s Canterbury paper, the Kentish Gazette, details a troublesome voyage of George IV’s royal yacht the Prince Regent on May 14, 1822. After setting sail from Deal to Calais to pick up the Prince of Denmark for a royal visit, it was forced to return unannounced to the county a day later having been unable to dock in Calais owing to “a violent wind from the north east with a very heavy sea on the coast”.

It’s still clearly plain sailing for Alan at the age of 82 with this latest book, for which he received a reply from the Queen thanking him for sending her a copy, reminding her of happy days aboard the Britannia.

Royal Yachts is published by Amberley Publishing in hardback and costs £20.

The Haunting of Harriet by Jennifer Button

Fate, destiny, chance and luck are all terms which Kent author Jennifer Button, below, is fascinated with in her debut novel, following enigmatic spinster Harriet.

Wracked by a tragic burden of guilt, Harriet feels she has a chance to redeem herself when a young family move into her home. What Harriet does not know is that she has been dead for 30 years.

Themes of trust, guilt and forgiveness abound in this ghost story by Jennifer, who lives in a timber-framed 16th century house in Wateringbury, near Maidstone.

“I think of myself as a woman who writes, not as a writer,” said the 66-year-old who trained in Fine Arts at Brighton College of Art.

“Suffice it to say all the pain, sweat and tears vanished when I held my beautiful book.”

The Haunting of Harriet is published by Grosvenor House Publishing and costs £7.99.

Briefs Encountered by Julian Clary

Known more for his acerbic humour than his writing, Julian Clary’s third novel, Briefs Encountered, is a wondrous and witty story and a magnificently sculpted piece of dark horror.

Over two time periods, Julian, who lives in a farmhouse at Aldington, near Ashford, introduces us to Richard, a successful actor, and to Noel Coward, the high society playwright.

Richard rose to fame playing Noel, so when there’s the opportunity to buy a bolt-hole in the country once owned by Coward (as was the author’s own home) he jumps at the chance. But transferring his city life to the countryside has its ups and downs. What appears to be the perfect idyll begins to harbour feelings of things going bump in the night.

Briefs Encountered has just been released in hardback by Ebury Press, priced £12.99.

Canterbury: A Pocket Miscellany by Kathryn Bedford

Some books are made to be read cover to cover, some to look at the pictures and others you can open at any page and simply enjoy. Canterbury: A Pocket Miscellany falls into the final category, packed with facts and trivia on the unseen side of the city.

The meat of the book is exactly as the title suggests, with plenty of fodder for the pub quiz aficianado.

It details how during the first year of the First World War, only one of the 460 patients treated at Dane John’s hospital died. Other facts include how Charles II stayed at the Three Tuns Inn during his journey from Dover to London for his restoration in 1660.

Aimed at raising a smile rather than feeding the inquisitive mind the book also says something about the kind of people who have lived in Canterbury since Roman times. In 1647, Canterbury’s Christmas Riot defended the citizen’s rights to put up decoration, eat mince pies and have a holiday.

The overriding sentiment of every page is of a deep affection for the city, formed through Kent author Kathryn Bedford’s PhD in history, for which she did a dissertation on Kentish history, with a focus on Canterbury.

Canterbury: A Pocket Miscellany is published in paperback by The History Press and costs £5.99.