Yeah -- it's hard to gather up all the different sources and sort out which ones to believe. Though I find this helps a great deal with a general outlay for beginners:

http://community.livejournal.com/crack_van/1299217.html

As for your alternate-Britain...sure, email away! I'm not sure how much I can help since I just kinda did it, but I can give a few pointers on building timelines and such :)