A different kind of police history, this book tells the story from below -- from the rank and file officers trapped between the authoritarian dictates of their superiors and a realistically distrustful public. Historically, the major police mission has been to keep the streets clean of any group (young people, vagrants, bookies) that challenged by their presence and demeanor the moral mandate of policing. According to this oral testimony, police work in Britain was traditionally one of "policing strangers by strangers." Recent accounts of "community policing" have no historical pedigree. This account of between-the-war policing dicusses the effects of the Police Strike of 1919 on its participants, considers the ramifications of policework on family life, and documents the tedium of lonely beat work. It discusses the relationship between City Police, industrial workers and ethnic minorities, and recounts in individual testimony police interaction with bookies and prostitutes and the pettiness of CID work. This in-depth study will be of interest to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, history, and police studies.

This is the story of the Cavern Club - the most famous club in the world. The Cavern saw the birth of the Beatles and Merseybeat, and more. Respected author, music journalist and Merseybeat historian Spencer Leigh - with a little help from Sir Paul McCartney, who provides the Foreword - tells the Cavern's history by talking to the owners, hundreds of musicians who played at the club, the backroom staff and fans. Spencer paints a vivid picture of the Cavern, from its days as a jazz club, through the Beatles years to the present

The complete inside story of one of the biggest bands of the Merseybeat era.

The collection of essays, interviews and poetry compares and contrasts the work of people such as Adrian Henri and Roger McGough with the new crop of Liverpool poets such as Matt Simpson and Deryn Rees-Jones.

Summer with Monika is an honest and touching portrait of a romance, charting the progress of a love affair from the delicious intimacy of the honeymoon, with the milk bottles turning to cheese on the doorstep, through the stage of quarrels, jealousy, recriminations and boredom, to the point where love is as nice as a cup of tea in bed. Re-issued for its 50th anniversary, Summer with Monika is a hidden gem of British love poetry featuring beautiful illustrations from Children's Laureate Chris Riddell.