In Sixteen Eighty-Nine we passed a law – a Toleration Act to guarantee our right to think and worship as we will. A necessary law. To compensate for many centuries of wicked crimes. Four hundred years since our Edward the First required a scapegoat for his mis-spent reign. The Jews. No logic. Just a mass of myths. And so, they died. In massacres. … [Read more...] about From Persecution to Toleration, 1290-1700
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Liverpool 1911: The Welsh Connection
We built this city on Rock ‘n Roll? Or maybe on solid Welsh red brick – the blood, sweat and tears of Welsh construction workers? There are many volumes dedicated to the Welsh builders responsible for so much of Liverpool’s Victorian housing and architecture. Liverpool artist Frank Green has produced an entire book of his paintings depicting the … [Read more...] about Liverpool 1911: The Welsh Connection
From Magna Carta to Votes for Women, 1215-1928
In Britain, rights’ and freedoms’ history begins back in the Thirteenth Century. King John – the worst of all of England’s kings – spent all the country’s wealth in useless wars, then tried to make the barons give him more. They rose against him. Then, at Runnymede, forced him to sign a statement of their rights. They made him promise that he’d now … [Read more...] about From Magna Carta to Votes for Women, 1215-1928
1911 and the Liverpool Suffrage Campaigners
In The House on Hunter Street, the novel’s main protagonist, Cari Maddox, describes the state of the campaign for women’s votes in 1911 like this: So many suffrage societies in Liverpool now, she couldn’t count them anymore. Forty different groups? Fifty? And most of them wouldn’t have spat on the others if they’d seen them on fire. Fine, … [Read more...] about 1911 and the Liverpool Suffrage Campaigners
Hunter Street – the Historical Background
Hunter Street is now no more than a busy dual carriageway, running behind Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery and the Museum. The road connects the bottom of Islington with the end of Byrom Street. It carries an endless stream of vehicles heading in one direction, upwards, for the city’s eastern suburbs. To the M62 motorway, the cathedrals and South … [Read more...] about Hunter Street – the Historical Background