Sep 12 2006
A professor and 'honorary Scouser' has written a book to mark Liverpool's 800-year-old past - and its historical significance. Mike Chapple reports:
Daily Post
Prof John Belchem with the definitive history of Liverpool - Picture: TRACEY O'NEILL
OUT of the past 800 years, five might seem a very short period indeed. But they have been very important years for the city - because, finally, after five years, the definitive history of Liverpool has been completed in time for its 800th anniversary celebrations in 2007.
However, John Belchem - the man behind the creation of the book Liverpool 800 Culture Character and History - is philosophical about finally seeing his long-awaited, whopper-sized, paper baby delivered in the flesh.
"When I first picked it up, it was an absolutely fabulous moment, because it was the first time I'd had a chance to look at the thing as a whole," said the Professor of History at the University of Liverpool.
"I showed it to my wife Mary and she thought it was fantastic and other people thought it was terrific.
"But because this has been five years in the making, with two years of my time completely devoted to it in terms of every working, waking hour, in the end I was thinking w-e-e-e-lll ... perhaps it's not bad.
"I suppose in some ways I even felt deflated."
He was holding the dummy of the paperback after its arrival from Slovenia where the entire run is about be printed, an irony not lost on him.
"If we could have afforded to have it printed in Liverpool, believe me, we would have done," said Professor Belchem.
The book should be in the shops by the end of the month.
The only thing left to be done is the burnishing of the front cover depicting the ferries and the waterfront.
The book contains the names of hundreds of famous Liverpudlians - everyone from John Lennon, Dixie Dean, Bessie Braddock and Ken Dodd - to the two Williams, Roscoe and Gladstone.
"I suppose that will be one of the most controversial aspects of the book - people complaining that so-and-so's name's been left out!" said the 59-year-old Professor, who was born in the East End of London, but came to the University of Liverpool in 1979 and now considers himself "an honorary Scouser".
At 523 pages, and weighing 1.9 kgms, even the paperback is a hefty tome, but one which, at £14.95, looks set to be the Christmas book bargain of the year.
The £35 hardback edition is heavier still at 2.15 kgms, while the 800 numbered, limited edition copies costing £100 in its bound slip case, will tip the scales at 2.4kgms. Professor Belchem edited and also wrote an introduction to the book, which is split into six chapters.
The first, Small Beginnings, covers the period 1207 to 1680. Prof Belchem said that this was probably the most difficult to complete and required three different people - Jenny Kermode, Janet Hollinshead and Malcolm Gretton, experts in medieval, late medieval and early modernist history, respectively.
"The problem is that there is so little to work with from that period," said Prof Belchem, who referred to the work of an academic predecessor, Ramsay Muir, who wrote the 700th anniversary history of Liverpool 100 years ago.
"We started off talking about Small Beginnings, while Muir began by referring to Long Centuries of Small Things, saying 'don't kid yourself that this is some venerable long romance about ancient Liverpool because that's just rubbish'.
"Really, it was just a bloody boring insignificant place where nothing happened until the late 17th, early 18th century, then, WHAM!!! all hell breaks loose."
Other chapters include:
* Civic Liverpool (1680 to 1800);
* A demographic breakdown entitled Living In the Modern City covering the 19th century to the modern day;
* Maritime Liverpool;
* Cosmopolitan Liverpool, which was also written by Prof Belchem and analyses immigration from the 18th century to the end of World War II;
* City of Change and Challenge, which covers the city's history from war's end to today.
THESE latter two also presented sensitive issues. "In Cosmopolitan, we were trying to cover so much from all the Celtic elements - the Irish, Scots, the Welsh and Manx - never mind all the European and Afro-Caribbean elements, so we tried to find as many imaginative and different ways to be as inclusive as possible," explained Prof Belchem, whose next book will be the history of Irish Liverpool, due out next year.
With the Change and Challenge chapter, he thought it important to include author Jon Murden, who was a great expert on the city - though he was not a Liverpudlian.
"That chapter takes us on a huge rollercoaster ride covering some very controversial topics such as Toxteth in 1981 and the reign of Militant.
"Jon was great for this because he is not a Liverpudlian. He's someone who would not have been too involved and therefore can't be accused of being too partisan.
"Of course, there will always be those who will say 'well, you said that about such-and-such an incident, but my auntie was there and she's told me that's not how it was!'"
Another issue requiring meticulous work was the widespread use of images and sorting out copyright problems. The University of Liverpool and the city council, which jointly funded the book project, proved to be especially helpful in sorting these out, especially the latter's records office.
"It meant we got access to sites not normally open to other people. They must take great credit for that.
"For instance, one of the distinctions about the book is that it will contain illustrations that people will never have seen before. There aren't, for instance, any classic pictures of the Liver Building, because people have already seen all that done a million times before."
What he hopes is that it will be a comprehensive reflection on one of the great individual cities of the world.
"The main thing I really like is that it IS a city but it's NOT provincial and it's NOT English. It's not boring and it's not bland."
He also hopes that the book's appeal will be universal.
"I think we've struck the balance right. We were trying to produce a book which tried to please every kind of audience.
"I wanted my academic peers to ask what is the best piece of research about Liverpool history - and they walk away reading Liverpool 800.
"We also wanted to appeal to the general reader, which is why we've tried to write it in the most accessible style possible.
"But we also wanted to appeal to the people who previously had never been interested in the history of the city. They don't have to read it from cover to cover. Some people might just want to look at the pictures - and the captions in themselves produce quite a good story."
Most important of all, he hopes that the book does justice to the city - and its historical significance.
"We used a narrative framework that looks at Liverpool as a kind of history of human geography," said Prof Belchem.
"Physically, Liverpool once was an isolated place, not very healthily located.
"But then, suddenly, it was realised that you could do things to transform that geography.
"That you could build all these amazing canals and roads, and God knows what else.
"That you could control oceans and then you could build the most incredible docks system - as solid and enduring as the pyramids. That you could control those high, wonderful tidal ranges, so that human intervention transformed the rather unfortunate geography and made this place, what was briefly, I suppose, the centre of the universe.
"That is why," he concluded, almost triumphantly, "this book is so important."
mikechapple@dailypost.co.uk
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