Welcome to our regular blog about new (and sometimes not so new) local books.
Firstly, this time, a mention of some new titles on significant local people. The Simons of Manchester by Martin Dodge is a look at the well known family’s importance to the city’s development in terms of housing and education. Meanwhile Henry Enfield Roscoe the Campaigning Chemist by Peter J T Morris and Peter Reed is a biography of this eminent scientist. Roscoe, who was also an MP for South Manchester, is perhaps most significant for his contribution to the development of the University of Manchester by converting Owens College it into Victoria University (later to become the University) and making it viable. A nice link here is to another new title: Manchester Minds: a History of the University by Stuart Jones, which celebrates the organisation through the stories of individuals associated with it. The University celebrates it’s 200th anniversary this year.
Another new title is Brewing In Manchester and Salford by Deborah Woodman. It is an accessible history of the brewery industry in the area, from its beginnings to the present day. Individual breweries are mentioned and all the familiar names appear: Boddingtons, Joseph Holt and so on. In her acknowledgments the author refers to existing publications and although many of these were published quite some time ago they are still relevant. In particular the series by Neil Richardson, publisher, are worth a mention such as A History of Chesters Brewery Company and Old Pubs of Rochdale Road and Neighbourhood.
Finally lets include some new Manchester fiction. On a festive note Christmas for the Home Front Girls by Susanna Bavin is another in her Home Front series set in the 1940s. The World War two period is a popular one for novels. Maisie Thomas’s Railway Girl series and Frieda Lightfoot’s Dancing on Deansgate and Polly’s War are also set in the era.