John Hussey is a Liverpool-based writer, and specialises in local history.

Titles by John Hussey

Cruisers, Cotton and Confederates

In the shadow of a 12th century monastery where the first Mersey ferries plied their trade, a ship took shape in Laird’s Dock No 4. Destined to become notorious around the world, the Alabama sailed out of the Mersey on a morning in July,1862, and entered into history as the talisman of the Confederate navy. Across the river, twinkling through a forest of masts, the lights burned late in the workshops dotted along the Liverpool waterfront, as a host of shipyards worked day and night, feverishly constructing ships designed to break the Northern lockade of the Southern seaboard. Further inland, their chimneys jutting skywards, the Lancashire landscape was dotted with massive, red-brick factories; the original “dark, satanic mills” on which a greater part of the Northern people depended for a living. Just a few short miles from bustling Liverpool, the monolithic cotton mills of the Industrial Revolution stood silent and the Lancashire cotton workers shivered in the shadow cast by a war between States they never knew and places they had never seen. A generation previously, the New World had cast off the shackles of the Old World and boldly declared its independence in the bloody days of the American Revolution. The American Civil War turned everything on its head and the Southern States were forced to return to their origins; to an England in the throes of a revolution of a different kind - the Industrial Revolution. The curious chimera of Confederate America and Victorian Great Britain was a surreal clash of cultures which was to have far-reaching consequences. One of the strangest episodes in the history of Liverpool, polarised loyalties, formed strange alliances and produced a fl otilla of ships bound for varying fortunes and a starring role in the naval battles of the American Civil War.

Price £14.95

Details

• ISBN 9781906823030
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Educational Resource
• Setting Merseyside

The Light of Other Days

John Hussey examines the motley legions of philanthropists and eccentrics, rogues and chancers, savants and merchants, blackguards and bankrupts, the dedicated, the feckless, the trustworthy and the devious who have at various times left their mark on the city of Liverpool and its fascinating history.

The book begins where Liverpool itself began – on the wterfront. It then moves outward to the city centre and beyond, just as the city itself expanded, and after mandering along various byeways, it lingers in Liverpool 7, before moving out into the suburbs. Topics include Liverpool’s role in the slave trade, the city’s wartime experiences and the history behind Liverpool’s impressive architecture.

Price £14.95

Details

• ISBN 9781906823221
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside