If you are one of those people who want to write non-fiction but can’t think what to write about, the answer is at your fingertips.

History has already been written, so why not simply draw your reader’s attention to it?

Magazine editors are always looking for well-written, topical articles, and when historical events are presented as anniversary pieces on the relevant dates, they become topical.

So, hit the internet, find historical anniversaries and follow your nose. However, take care – it’s easy to get hooked on research, so don’t spend too much time on it. Save your energy for writing.

As well as using the internet, collect anything that lists historical events in chronological order. I still have an invaluable eight-page supplement published by the Keighley News years ago, entitled ‘On This Day’.

From this, I found the date on which engineering giants Rolls and Royce met, and Best Of British published my centenary article about the formation of this brilliant partnership.

I also wrote about the anniversary of the disappearance of Cheshire-born George Mallory (possibly the first man to climb Everest) for Cheshire Life, and my story about Harry Ramsden establishing his fish-and-chip empire from that little wooden hut in Guiseley went into print 80 years after the event.

And now a four-year bonanza of easy pickings lies ahead, as we embark upon the centenary of the Great War. From the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand to the signing of the Armistice, thousands of article-worthy episodes are up for grabs.

Why did Winston Churchill volunteer belatedly for service in the trenches? What happened when the British public found out about the 60,000 casualties on the first day of The Somme? And how did Annie Souls dredge up the courage to carry on, when she was informed her son had been killed, the fifth boy she had lost in the fighting?

Amazing things also happened on the home front, especially in the vital roles played by women. They worked in munitions factories, drove trams and buses and sweated in the fields in the Women’s Land Army.

There was a Volunteer Women’s Police Service. They formed the Women’s Hospital Corps, Women’s Emergency Corps, Women’s Voluntary Reserve and the Central Committee on Women’s Employment. The creation of each of these organisations has an upcoming centenary.

One last tip: get your copy in early. Editors need time to plan. Happy anniversaries.