|
Roger McGough, Levi Tafari, Willy Russell, Terence Davies, James Hanley, George Garrett, J.G. Farrell, Brian Patten, Adrian Henri, Beryl Bainbridge, Jimmy McGovern, Alan Bleasdale, Helen Forrester, Lyn Andrews, Margaret Murphy, Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell... no matter what the genre Liverpool seems to have generated some of the most provocative and interesting writers of the last seventy-five years. Intended to mark and celebrate Liverpool’s 800th birthday in 2007 and its status as European City of Culture in 2008, this collection of essays and interviews addresses the wide range of writing that has emerged from Liverpool from the 1930s to the present day. It asks if there is a distinctive Liverpool voice, and if so, how it might be identified. Featuring interviews with Liverpool-born film director and novelist, Terence Davies, (Distant Voices, Still Lives, The Long Day Closes and The House of Mirth), Roger McGough, Willy Russell and Levi Tafari along with contributions from leading cultural critics such as former NME journalist and Mojo magazine founder Paul Du Noyer and award-winning poet George Szirtes, Liverpool Writing will be of interest to readers fascinated by the influences on and of the city dubbed ‘the Centre of the Creative Universe’ Introduction: Sounding Liverpool / Michael Murphy, Deryn Rees-Jones -- George Garrett, Merseyside labour and the influence of the United States / Joesph Pridmore -- 'No struggle but the home': James Hanley's the furys / Patrick Williams -- Paradise street blues: Malcom Lowry's Liverpool / Chris Ackerley -- 'Unhomely moments': the fictions of Beryl Bainbridge / Helen Carr -- A man from elsewhere: liminal presence of Liverpool in the fiction of J.G. Farrell / Ralph Crane -- The figure in the carpet: an interview with Terence Davies / Michael Murphy -- 'Every time a thing is possessed, it vanishes': the poetry of Brian Patten / Stan Smith -- Finding a rhyme for alphabet soup: an interview with Roger McGough / Deryn Rees-Jones -- Rewriting the narrative: Liverpool women writers / Terry Phillips -- Jumping off: an interview with Linda Grant / George Szirtes -- Ramsey Campbell's Haunted Liverpool / Andy Sawyer -- 'We are a city that just likes to talk': an interview with Alan Bleasdale / Julia Hallam -- 'Culture is ordinary': the legacy of the Scottie Road and Liverpool 8 writers / Sandra Courtman -- 'I've got a theory about scousers': Jimmy McGovern and Lynda La Plante / Philip Smith -- Manners, mores and musicality: an interview with Willy Russell / John Bennett -- Subversive dreamers: Liverpool songwriting from the Beatles to the Zutons / Paul du Noyer -- Putting down roots: an interview with Levi Tafari / Dave Ward -- 'Out of transformations': Liverpool poetry in the twenty-first century / Peter Barry
|
