Book reviews
New books on the history of Liverpool are released all the time. Here I’ve reviewed brand new titles that have been released, as well as older books that I’ve just come across but think you’ll be interested in.
The Beatles’ Landmarks in Liverpool, by Daniel K. Longman
A lot of local history revolves around nostalgia: people’s memories of 50 years ago are filled with family, friends, making-do and getting by, as well as reconnecting with old communities on new digital (more…)
50 Finds From Manchester and Merseyside: Objects from the Portable Antiquities Scheme
Modern administrative areas have little meaning when we go back even a short time. But they can make all the difference when it comes to modern heritage work. So that’s why we have this book on finds from (more…)
Candles, Carts & Carbolic: A Liverpool childhood between the wars
Is this the best Liverpool memoir? It’s certainly different to all the rest. There are plenty of memoirs and autobiographies written by people who lived through some of Liverpool’s darkest days (or, (more…)
Belated, retrospective book review: Culture of Capital by Nicky Allt
In this post I’m going to take a look at a book which was published eight years ago, but which I only got a copy of over Christmas 2013. And it’s taken me another 12 months to get around to reading it! (more…)
Liverpool in the 1950s
The 1950s were a turning point in the history of Liverpool’s urban fabric. In fact, it marked a point in time just before some of the most wide-ranging changes the city had ever seen. A new book by Robert (more…)
Liverpool: A landscape history (or Historic Liverpool: the book)
I can’t deny it – I’ve waited a long time to be able to say this: I have written a book, and someone has agreed to publish it. At the time of writing, Liverpool: A landscape history is due in shops imminently, (more…)
Maps of Landscapes
I recently visited that there London, popping into the London Review Bookshop (a bricks-and-mortar relative of the London Review of Books – definitely pop in if you’re in the area!), where I stumbled across (more…)
Liverpool Ghost Signs and Along the Mersey
I’ve got another two books for you today. This time they are Liverpool Ghost Signs by Caroline and Phil Bunford, and Along the Mersey by Jan Dobrzynski. The first pair of names are familiar through their (more…)
The Liverpool Book of Days by Steven Horton
This is a simple book with a simple premise: 365 historical stories of Liverpool, attached to their dates. The whole thing is presented in an attractive hardback, and is just the thing for flicking through (more…)
Not a Guide to Liverpool & Merseyside War Years by Daniel K. Longman
There are two new books out by journalist and historian Daniel K. Longman. Both are short books, and part of larger series, but take two different views of the city of Liverpool. They both cover history, (more…)
Hoylake Then & Now, by Jim O’Neil
The premise of the Then and Now series is to pair up historic photos of a town with modern shots taken from as close to the position of the original as possible. Hoylake Then & Now is Jim O’Neil’s (more…)
Little Book of Liverpool, and Bloody British History: Liverpool
The two books here, both published by the History Press, have been written by authors with previous well-known Liverpool books under their belts. Alexander Tulloch wrote the general history
Our Liverpool, by J.P. Dudgeon
Our Liverpool, by J.P. Dudgeon Our Liverpool (subtitled Memories of Life in Disappearing Britain) is part of the Disappearing (more…)
New book on Liverpool’s buildings, and how cities make us
Liverpool Metropolitan RC Cathedral, by Jonathan Gill via Flickr A new book is released this month by Stephen Bayley, and (more…)
Local History on the Ground and The English Semi-detached House
I’d like to review two books recently added to the NMR’s Library, which both have use for the local historian, and yet which are very different approaches to explaining their field. The first is Local (more…)
Liverpool Gangs, by Michael Macilwee
Sadly not a British indie version of Scorsese’s grand piece, Gangs of New York (though this book does reference the other), Gangs of Liverpool is the 2006 book by Michael Macilwee that looks into the slums (more…)
