By John Maguire
With World Book Day coming up on 6 March 2025, this month we decided to look at some Buried Treasure that stems from the writing desks of Liverpool. We asked our friends at Liverpool Literary Agency, a collective of contemporary writers about the local authors from the past that encouraged them to pick up the writing pen.
J.P Maxwell
Nicholas Monserrat wrote The Cruel Sea about the Battle of the Atlantic in WWII, which made the water itself the villain as a force of nature. Monserrat was born on Rodney Street and himself served during the conflict. This book was an early read which stuck in my head, especially during choppy ferry crossings to Ireland which I frequently made as a kid. No U-boats or Destroyers on the Irish Sea though, only fellow passengers swilled up on Guinness and Paddy Whiskey.
Flash forward to now and seafaring – or rather control of the sea – is at the heart of my two books; Water Street and The Americans of Abercromby Square. The advent of the screw propeller in the mid-19th Century was every bit as important as the railway in terms of how modern trade developed. Throw in slavery that was at the centre of the American Civil War and the transition of the United States into a superpower and it all boils down to that cruel sea, mistress of vast wealth and mass diasporas at the same time.
Zoe Richards
I’ve been influenced by a number of northern authors, and it’s been difficult to pick just one, but I’m going to go with a playwright. In about 1987 or 1988 (it was a long time ago!) I met Willy Russell at an event at his son’s school (a friend of mine taught at the school). He talked a bit and then he performed from Shirley Valentine, and I forgot he was a man reading the part of a woman because of his sensitivity with his words and performance. He was totally relatable and real. His writing was sharp and witty and tight, and he personally was kind and generous.
That event one summer’s evening inspired me and kept me going with my writing, albeit it took me a long time to realise my own dream. but Willy Russell showed me that ordinary people from ordinary northern backgrounds could weave our way in what felt like a very southern centric world.
Zoe’s Garden of Her Heart is available via uclanpublishing.com/book/garden-of-her-heart/
John Maguire
For me, it has to be George Garrett.
Ten Years On The Parish is a work that reveals hardships and unflinching observations of the poverty experienced in Liverpool between the World Wars. The book illustrates an uncompromising, graphic account of the unemployed struggle in Liverpool and the first Hunger March of 1922.
Garrett’s writing reveals a man of principle and a character that demands admiration. In his writings we see the very essence of the indefinable Liverpudlian spirit, which contains toughness blended with a subtext of tenderness.
Garrett wore many hats in his lifetime and is a working class renaissance man for he was a merchant seaman, a writer, a playwright, a radical activist and a founder member of Liverpool’s Unity Theatre. Which according to Alan O’Toole, ‘took both literature and the ‘message’ straight to the people on the streets.’
His catalogue of work, despite the hardships he suffered, is exceptionally impressive. Penning three plays overtly influenced by the new realism of American playwright Eugene ONeill (writer of acclaimed ‘Long Day’s Journey into the Night,’ recognised by the actress Jessica Lange as the greatest American play).
I have been influenced by his attitude of getting things done and also juggling many different projects weaving a tapestry of a creative career.
His approach inspired me to write my love letter to Liverpool, blending magic realism, humour and urban folklore in my novella The Liver Bird.
Keep an eye out for World Book Day Events in the Liverpool city region via our What’s On listings.