‘The Song of Peterloo’ by Carolyn O’Brien is set in Manchester in 1819 where the cotton mills are making the owners rich whilst the millworkers are poorly paid and working in difficult even dangerous conditions. Many of the mill workers are drawn to radicals like Henry Hunt who are agitating for reform and plans are being made for a peaceful gathering of tens of thousands … Continue reading The Song of Peterloo
Local writer, Keith Warrender is the author of several books about Cheshire and Manchester and he has just produced ‘Manchester’s Lost District: Life before the Arndale’. It may seem that the Arndale Centre has been dominating the centre of Manchester forever. In fact, the shopping centre was built in the 1970s to replacing a warren of streets, squares and courts, remnants of a much older … Continue reading Manchester’s Lost District: Life before the Arndale Centre
This Automaton by David Wheldon ( Nightjar Press) is a strange fragment of a tale. The first page tells us that the manuscript of the story was found amongst the effects of a British infantryman killed in 1918. It is dated 1905 and relates an episode in the life of the boy who, we presume, would later become that unfortunate soldier. The child lives with … Continue reading The Automaton by David Wheldon
Reveiw by Katie Frankland It does what it says on the cover: it’s a story about the sister of a witchfinder. There’s something quite simple, matter of fact about its title, yet quite deep and intriguing at the same time. The sister, Alice is making a reluctant but necessary move from London back to her rural beginnings in Essex. Her husband had recently died, leaving … Continue reading The Witchfinder’s sister Beth Underdown (Penguin Books)
Altrincham Word Fest 