This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
Dr Christopher Moore FSA’s Rediscovering the Lost Manor of Dereby traces the Kentish manor once known as Darby’s Court, a lordship rooted in the village of Stalisfield on the North Downs. Moore begins with the English manorial system, where rent obligations shaped rural life under local custom, then follows Stalisfield from its Domesday identity as Stanefelle into the Hospitaller estate world. The account then narrows to the de Derby holding that became Darby’s Court before passing through Kentish gentry families into the Sondes estate around Lees Court. As the manor becomes a working farm and later survives through the preserved Grade II house before the title is revived in 2025, the book shows how a vanished name can still be recovered through old records and surviving land.
Dr Christopher Moore FSA’s Rediscovering the Lost Manor of Dereby is a brilliant piece of historical nonfiction, and Moore makes the history of a place feel active through people who worked it. Moore is excellent at showing how lordship changes on paper while farm life keeps moving through rent obligations and parish memory. I love how the book moves from Domesday Stalisfield to the restored Grade II farmhouse, because that range makes the manor feel traceable instead of lost. The best part is the human connection to the land. Sarah Chambers continuing Derbies Court Farm after John Chambers’ death gives the farm human footing, while Percy Lintott's turning difficult clay soil into wartime teaching ground makes the later history just as interesting. Well written and exhaustively researched, readers who enjoy English local history will adore this.
