The unique culture and history of Liverpool has helped to create an environment that is conducive to creativity. Some of Britain’s best authors were born in Liverpool or spent a significant amount of time living there. Experiences like these may have helped to shape their creative process and affected the material that they produced.
Beryl Bainbridge
Beryl Bainbridge was born in Liverpool during the interwar years. At that time, Liverpool was experiencing an economic depression and widespread poverty was affecting the city. Although the majority of her work is not set in Liverpool, she often featured a Liverpudlian character or a character with strong working-class roots.
Clive Barker
The works of horror and fantasy writer Clive Barker were also deeply influenced by his childhood in Liverpool. Although he had a relatively stable upbringing, he witnessed the death of a French skydiver during an air show in the city when he was three years old. Many of his adult works included allusions to the life and death of the skydiver.
Barker set his 1987 novel Weaveworld in Liverpool, albeit a fantasy version of the city where several characters have magical powers. Nonetheless, the unique environment of the city helps to shape the actions and interactions of the characters throughout the narrative.
Liverpool Poets
If you are interested in poetry from Liverpool, you are recommended to seek out the works of the Liverpool Poets. These poets were active in Liverpool’s cultural scene during the 1960’s, and helped to bring a new type of poetry to the masses.
Well-known poets such as Roger McGough, Brian Patten and Adrian Henri are often associated with this group of poets. The Liverpool Poets tended to come from a working-class background, rather than the elite group with which poets were normally associated. They also sought to create cross-cultural alliances with other art forms, in order to help to make poetry more accessible to a wider audience. These poets would arrange performances and poetry readings in pubs and clubs, rather than church halls or libraries.
Some of the most prominent artists even produced LP recordings of their work. The style and subject matter of these poems was also very different to those of traditional poets. The Liverpool Poets would use regional dialect or attempt to use their accents to force rhymes in their poems. They covered a wide range of subject matter, but the themes often related back to political or social commentary about the working-classes. Sarcasm, irony and wit were used to maximum effect.
Linda Grant
Liverpudlian author Linda Grant was heavily influenced by the works of the Liverpool Poets, as she grew up watching their performances in local clubs. Having been born to immigrant parents in the city, she has a very interesting perspective on race, ethnicity and culture within the city. Her debut novel, The Cast Iron Shore follows the journey of one woman from the 1930s to the 1990s, and includes many scenes set in Liverpool, including the character’s experiences of Liverpool during the Blitz. The term “cast iron shore” is sometimes used as a nickname for Merseyside.
Helen Walsh
For a more controversial choice, you may want to look to the works of Helen Walsh. Although she grew up outside of Liverpool (the Wirral) and moved to Spain in her late teens, her first novel, Brass, seeks to portray the gritty realities of life in the city. Much of the book is written in local dialect, so readers who are unfamiliar may have to work harder to unpick some of the meaning. Conversely, the inclusion of local dialect helps to make her piece even more hard-hitting in many respects.
Willy Russell
Playwright Willy Russell is well-known for using his Merseyside upbringing to inform his plays and musicals. The majority of his works include working-class heroes who are suffering because of the preconceptions and constraints that society has placed upon them. Although the narrative may take place in Liverpool or the North of England, his plays have national appeal because they focus on themes which can be understood across the country.
Famous examples of his work include Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine and Blood Brothers. Willy Russell was nominated for an Oscar for his adaptation of Educating Rita into the 1983 film starring Michael Caine and Julie Walters.
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