Writing Liverpool : essays and interviews / edited by Michael Murphy and Deryn Rees-Jones.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Murphy, Michael, 1965-

Rees-Jones, Deryn.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English literature--England--Liverpool--History and criticism.

English literature.

English literature--20th century--History and criticism.

English literature--21st century--History and criticism.

Liverpool (England)--In literature.

Liverpool (England).

Liverpool (England)--Intellectual life--20th century.

Liverpool (England)--Intellectual life--21st century.

England--Liverpool.

Physical Description:

xii, 288 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Liverpool : Liverpool Univ Press, [2007]

Summary:

Is there such a thing as a distinctive Liverpool literary voice, and if so, how can it be identified? Writing Liverpool addresses these questions from a number of different perspectives and through the works of a wide range of Liverpool writers from James Hanley to Helen Forrester, Brian Patten to Ramsey Campbell, Lynda La Plante to Matt Simpson. In their introduction the editors locate Liverpool as a city with a complex literary and cultural heritage, charting its ongoing connections and affiliations with Ireland, Wales and the USA as well as the importance of its working-class culture and seafaring history. They suggest that Liverpool, though central because of its status as, second city of Empire, by the middle of the twentieth century was very much at the margins of British culture, a situation that offered its native writers a unique position from which to resist and interrogate 'Englishness'. As well as essays on poetry, novels, drama, TV drama and film, this collection also features interviews with Alan Bleasdale, Terence Davies, Linda Grant, Roger McGough, Willy Russell and Levi Tafari. Writing Liverpool demonstrates the remarkable strength and depth of creative talent in the city.

Contents:

Introduction: Sounding Liverpool / Michael Murphy, Deryn Rees-Jones 1

1 George Garrett, Merseyside Labour and the Influence of the United States / Joseph Pridmore 29

2 'No Struggle but the Home': James Hanky's The Furys / Patrick Williams 43

3 Paradise Street Blues: Malcolm Lowry's Liverpool / Chris Ackerley 55

4 'Unhomely Moments': The Fictions of Beryl Bainbridge / Helen Carr 72

5 A Man from Elsewhere: The Liminal Presence of Liverpool in the Fiction of J. G. Farrell / Ralph Crane 88

6 The Figure in the Carpet: An Interview with Terence Davies / Michael Murphy 105

7 'Every Time a Tiling h Possessed, It Vanishes': The Poetry of Brian Patten / Stan Smith 117

8 Finding a Rhyme for Alphabet Soup: An Interview with Roger McGough / Deryn Rees-Jones 138

9 Rewriting the Narrative: Liverpool Women Writers / Terry Phillips 145

10 Jumping Off: An Interview with Linda Grant / George Szirtes 160

11 Ramsey Campbell's Haunted Liverpool / Andy Sawyer 166

12 'We Are a City That Just Likes to Talk': An Interview with Alan Bleasdale / Julia Hallam 184

13 'Culture Is Ordinary': The Legacy of the Scottie Road and Liverpool 8 Writers / Sandra Courtman 194

14 'I've Got a Theory about Scousers': Jimmy McGovern and Lynda La Plante / Philip Smith 210

15 Manners, Mores and Musicality: An Interview with Willy Russell / John Bennett 228

16 Subversive Dreamers: Liverpool Songwriting from the Beatles to the Zutons / Paul du Noyer 239

17 Putting Down Roots: An Interview with Levi Tafari / Dave Ward 252

18 'Out of Transformations': Liverpool Poetry in the Twenty-first Century / Peter Barry 265.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781846310744

1846310741

OCLC:

154689956