The growing interest in local history and nostalgia has spawned quite a publishing industry. There are many books now on the market that might make a good Christmas present for a friend or relative. CHRIS TITLEY looks at a few of them....

In our round-up of such tomes we begin with an unashamed plug for the Evening Press's own book, Yesterday Once More. This is a collection of the best items from this page over its first year.

Memories range from schooldays in the 1930s to an account of the German bombing raids in April 1942. Illustrated by photographs of bygone North Yorkshire, Yesterday Once More is available in local bookshops at £6.99.

It has been joined on the shelves by Memories Of York, published by True North Books, price £9.99. Filled with images of the city from the 1940s, 50s and 60s, it shows how we used to work, shop and play.

Packed with streetscapes, the book also recalls the old days of commerce. York businesses, including Barnitts, Garbutt & Elliott, Turnbulls and York Autolectrics are given prominent profiles.

Those looking for a longer read might try The Green Lanes: A Westmorland Childhood by Betty Emmaline Walker.

Mrs Walker was born in 1926 and was brought up in a village near Kendal. Her father was a foreman woollen spinner in the village mill and her mother a school teacher from the West Riding.

She married in 1945 and moved to York where she still lives.

In The Green Lanes, she writes of her childhood in Westmorland in the 1920s and 1930s.

One chapter is devoted to winter festivals. Christmas Day in her household meant a roast pork lunch, followed by pudding and sweets.

With lip-smacking relish, she recalls: "Round, thin wooden boxes of crme-de-menthe flavoured Turkish Delight, a four-pound box of Meltis assorted chocolates, dates and figs in boxes lined with paper lace and which also contained a two-pronged bone fork with which to handle the fruit."

The Green Lanes can be obtained for £8.95 (including £1 postage and packing) from Sessions of York, The Ebor Press, York YO31 9HS, or from the author at 6 Temple Road, Bishopthorpe, York.

Another Sessions book will have specific appeal for genealogists with Quaker forebears.

Joseph Besse's Sufferings of Early Quakers, Yorkshire 1652 to 1690, details an enormous number of names of individuals and places. It is available in bookshops, price £12, or from Sessions at the address above - please add £1 for post and package.

Aviation enthusiast Patrick Otter has written Yorkshire Airfields in the Second World War (Countryside Books, £12.95). This thoroughly researched book will fascinate anyone interested in local or military history.

More than 18,000 airmen died flying from Yorkshire's airfields. Otter's book recounts tales of incredible heroism and stark tragedy.

The rear gunner of a Halifax bomber from Elvington was ordered to bale out after fighter damage above Dusseldorf in March 1943. His foot became trapped and he was left hanging in the slipstream of the aircraft.

Somehow he managed to climb back into his turret where he found that the order to jump had been rescinded.

The wounded plane was then again attacked by three German fighters. He regained control of his guns, shot down one of the attackers and drove the other two away.

The bomber limped back to the English coast. The gunner received an immediate Distinguished Flying Medal.

It was the weather which held a nasty surprise for 426 Squadron, based at Linton-on-Ouse, during the last weeks of the war in 1945.

Several aircraft had just taken off for a deep raid on Chemnitz when they encountered severe icing problems. Within a few minutes, three of them had crashed.

One flying over York simply broke up under the weight of ice which had accumulated on it. Separate portions of the plane fell on to built-up areas of the city. Six of the crew and five civilians died, while a further 18 were badly injured.

Patrick Otter's book is packed with such stories, and illustrated with contemporary and modern photographs. It will be a particularly poignant read for those who remember the days and nights when the skies above Yorkshire never ceased to throb with the drone of aircraft.

Aircraft are at the heart of David Taylor's book A Suitcase Full of Dreams (Delta Tango publications, £8.50).

Mr Taylor was born in Scarborough, brought up in Norton and now lives in York. His book is a memoir of his working life in the RAF and the oil industry. Described as "a nostalgic insight of times which were far more tranquil than those of today", it boasts 63 photographs and 16 line drawings.

The book is available from some local bookshops or from Delta Tango Publications, 35 Lower Darnborough Street, York YO23 1AR (add £1.50 p&p).

The intriguingly titled Suck, Don't Blow! will hold the attention of everyone fascinated by gadgets. Sub-titled 'The gripping story of the vacuum cleaner & other labour saving devices', Jane Furnival's book takes a look at the development of those items we now take for granted.

"Old machines have an inherent charm," she writes. "With their funny names like the Dreadnought Dishwasher and the White Mountain Potato Peeler, they are relics of a more leisured past when raisins needed de-stoning, and of a frivolous time when machines were invented to butter toast and crack eggs."

Readers of Suck, Don't Blow! (Michael O'Mara, £8.99) will be introduced to Hubert Booth, who nearly choked to death on the dust that he sucked into his mouth to demonstrate that a vacuum cleaner should suck, not blow, as a rival machine-maker claimed; Percy Spencer, who exploded an egg over his board of directors to convince them that microwave ovens could work; Francis Bacon, who died of cold after deep-freezing chickens in the snow; and many others.

Illustrated by early advertisements for the labour saving devices, this is a fun read.

Finally, we go back to the war. And this time we can taste it.

Wartime Recipes is just that: a little book packed with recipes that the housewife relied on during the dark days of rationing. Everything from Gravy Soup, made with 2lb shin of beef, through Mock Duck (you shaped a duck from lentils and mince) to Eggless Sponge Pudding is detailed. Accompanied by posters and pictures of the time, Wartime Recipes (Jarrold, £3.99) will give those who over-indulge on Christmas Day food for thought.

PICTURE: Flooding in Walker Street, York, 1947, a picture taken from Memories Of York