Liverpool is a city of ghosts. Through the centuries, millions have lived here or come to find a new life, and found safe harbour. More than any other city in Britain its history resonates in the buildings, landscapes and stories that have seeped into the lives of its inhabitants. n Ghost Town, Jeff Young takes us on a journey through the Liverpool of his childhood - down back alleys and through arcades, into vanished tenements and oyster bars, strip tease pubs and theatres. We watch as he turns from schoolboy truant into an artist obsessed with Kafka, Terence Davies and The Fall. Along the way he conjures ghosts and puts hexes on the developers who've ruined the city of his dreams. Layering memoir, history, photography and more this is a highly original approach to this great city.
'A stunningly beautiful book about the ways time, memory and life shape and change cities, families and all of us.' Costa Book Award Judges, 2020.
'What distinguishes this book is Young's poetic expression of memory - its uncertainty, fluidity and inherent ghostliness.' Gareth E Rees, Unofficial Britain. 'An evocation of a world fast disappearing but never forgotten.' Ade Blackburn, Caught by the River. 'The memoir has a flinty realism, but the prose is sonorous, lyrical, sensual.' Paula Byrne, The Times
Author
About Jeff Young
Jeff Young is a writer for radio, television, stage and screen. He is one of BBC Radio Drama's most acclaimed dramatists, having written over twenty broadcast plays. For television he has written for Casualty, Doctors, Eastenders and Holby City. He has worked on many arts projects in Liverpool, including with Bill Drummond. He is also a senior lecturer in Creative Writing at the Screen School of Liverpool John Moores University.
