Cartoonist Stephen Stanley's account of growing up in the Toxteth (Liverpool 8.) district of Liverpool UK during the 1950s and 1960s. Illustrated with over forty sketches, cartoons and maps this light-hearted memoir brings to life a fondly remembered era in the city's recent past. Stephen also seems unique among Liverpudlians in freely admitting to letting the Beatles completely pass him by.
"This memoir comes at you like a homespun but eloquent and funny missive from another world: the hardscrabble, life of post-World War II Liverpool. Peter Haase came through by riding his wits, humour, fast-talking and toughness to overcome poverty, a penchant for petty crimes and other hardships. My only gripe is that the book ends too soon." --Derek Lundy, author of Borderlands: Riding the Edge of America "A nostalgic treasure, Liverpool Lad is a coming-of-age tale and streetwise portrait of working-class life in post-war Britain's tough industrial north. No wonder many left for a better life in Australia, Canada and beyond. Anyone who watched Coronation Streetor rocked to the Mersey Sound will recognize these butcher-boy depictions of the everyday joys and hardships from Liverpool, the town where Marx failed and The Beatles prevailed. Peter Haase turns memory into melody. Here's the real deal." --Trevor Carolan, author of The Literary Storefront: The Glory Years, 1978-1985 A lively memoir in an authentic and engaging voice of growing up street savvy, the youngest of four boys, in the famous downtown working-class slums of Everton, Liverpool in the '50s and '60s before they were demolished. Our young hero is talented but his valiant attempts to "be good" sometimes fail because of violence, poverty, bullying teachers and other disasters. He loves music and fishing; accidently meets Beatles George and John; wins big on the Grand National; apprentices as a butcher boy; becomes a Mod; digs the Merseybeat, the Cavern Club and tailored suits. Before Liverpool's economic decline deepens, at 16, resilient raconteur and Scouser Peter and his family find a "way out" and emigrate to the Land of Oz.
In 1967 Penguin Books published the work of Brian Patten, along with co-poets Roger McGough and Adrian Henri, in the collection The Mersey Sound, frequently credited as the single most significant anthology of this century in bringing poetry to new audiences. Some half a million copies have been sold, and thousands of poetry fans have flocked to theatres, arts centres and schools to watch Patten in performance. This is the first full-length critical evaluation of Patten's work - as a poet, as a performer and as a hugely popular children's writer. It seeks to explore his position in relation to his fellow Liverpool Poets and to contemporary poetry more widely. Consideration of Armada, Patten's most recent poetry collection for adults, is central to this study. The author explores the ways in which themes and pre-occupations from earlier works have now sharpened and developed, and argues that Armada signals the maturation of his talent.
The Bad Boy's is based on a true story of a young man Ray Hunter and his fight to survive in Detention, Borstal and then Prison. He had to fight inmates and warders and was always in trouble and put on the punishment block. After Ray was released it wasn't long before, after getting into more trouble, was sent back again. It was harder this time as his reputation went before him. Ray and two inmates escape steal a car and drive to London, where they do more crime. They get homesick and go back home only to be recaptured and sent to borstal for two years. He met harder men but still managed to accomplish what he wanted, to become the hardest man with a reputation that others feared.
