The Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway
has a coach named "Helena".
An award-winning author and publisher
The holder of a BSc Honours degree in Social Science and Social History, Helena Wojtczak is a researcher and writer of books on women's history (her most recent is Notable Sussex Women).
Her websites include Women of Victorian Hastings and St Leonards and Railwaywomen 1900~2000 (temporarily offline)
She occasionally finds the time to give public talks and lectures and to speak at conferences at universities and museums. She is an occasional tutor in women's history and the methodology of research for the University of Sussex and the University of Brighton. She has written for the Oxford University Press, Ashgate, the TSSA, the RMT and Hunter House Publishing, as well as numerous newspapers and magazines, and also for various websites including The Victorian Web and Encyclopaedia Titanica, and has appeared on TV and BBC radio.
Publishing
Helena owns and runs the Hastings Press , carrying out most of the proofreading, editing, book cover design, typesetting, website design and maintenance and administration herself. She won the Writers' News/David St John Thomas Charitable Trust Award for Best Non Fiction Book 2007, as well as the Self-Publisher of the Year Award 2007. She runs occasional public seminars on self-publishing and also advises individual authors by private consultation.
Railways
At the age of 19 Helena became the first woman employed as a guard by British Rail. Read about her experiences of being a woman recruited and trained in a male industry here.
Working on the railways led her to research and write the award-winning book Railwaywomen.
Since being launched at the House of Commons, at the TUC Conference and at the National Railway Museum. the book has received
considerable acclaim including a plethora of excellent reviews.
Now Britain's foremost authority on the history of women working on the railways, she has been consultant
historian to the National Railway Museum and was a contributor to The
Oxford Companion to British Railway History.
Personal
Born in Sussex, Helena Wojtczak (pronounced 'Voy-t-chak')lived in London for twenty-two years and is now happily back in her native county. Her pet hate is being called "Helen".
Home page email Helena