Lancashire Pride

Tommy Thompson (1880-1951)

Tommy Thompson was best known as a writer in the Lancashire dialect, and he wrote short sketches of Lancashire life for the back page of the Manchester Guardian from the late 1920's until his sudden death on February 15 1951. He also appeared regularly on the North Regional programme of the BBC in the 1940's, where he gave Wilfred Pickles his first break as Owd Thatcher in the barber shop where many of the sketches were set.

Most of the sketches from the Manchester Guardian were published in a series of books which were very successful in their day, and apparently were also very popular with American servicemen stationed in the North of Britain during World War II. He also wrote three novels Blind Alley, Crompton Way, and Cuckoo Narrow which were less successful, as well as a one-act comedy Stick-in-the-Mud, and his "little autobiography" Lancashire for me written in standard English.

Bernard Wrigley, the folksinger sometimes known as "the Bolton Bullfrog" has read some of Tommy Thompson's sketches on BBC Radio Lancashire, but I don't think he has recorded any of them. I hope the best of the sketches, and the autobiography, will one day be republished, as they well deserve a new readership.

The short pieces are full of a gentle humour, which can actually be quite sharp at times, and his characters are fully rounded individuals who come to life in a few short, pithy phrases. The rambling discussions in Owd Thatcher's barber shop are excellent of their kind; Tommy Thompson had a real genius for dialogue. The language is rich and expressive, and it is a real pleasure to read slowly while relishing the clear picture Thompson draws of some very extraordinary 'ordinary folk'.

Here is a short extract from a piece in 'Lancashire Pride': Music Hath Charms where the men in the barber shop are talking about music.

  "When Ah wor in th' village band we played 'Faust,' " said Jim Gregson.

  "Which on 'em?" said Young Winterburn, "Gounod or Berlioz?"

  "Both," said Jim. "We'd only five copies o' either. Ah wor on Gounod an' our Sam wor on Berlioz. Ah showed him who could play cornet. He never played a note after that do."

   "It'd sound like Wagner," said the barber.

   "When Ah wor a choir lad," said Farmer Platt, "we sung under the vicarage window when th' parson lay on his death-bed. He didn't tarry for an encore."

   "It con be terr'bly soothin'," said Owd Thatcher, "con music. That's why they play it in eatin'-houses. If tha chews a bit o' tough steak to a good tune tha con down it in no time."

   "Ah like chamber music," said Young Winterburn.

   "What's that?" asked Owd Thatcher.

   "Why," said Jim Gregson, "there's about four or five on 'em sits in a ring, an' one fiddle says 'Tiddley oom,' the t' other fiddle says 'Piddley pom,' then th' owd big fiddle chips in wi' 'Grunt, grunt,' then they o' han a do at each other 'ell for leather until it's oppenin' time."

   "In th' owden times," said Young Winterburn, "folks used to stop in an' sing madrigals."

   "They knew no better," said Alf Higson. "We're civilised now."

From:Tommy Thompson, Lancashire Pride, 1945

The Real Amazons!

Mandy Vere from the Liverpool radical bookshop News From Nowhere recently published a letter in the Guardian to protest at the pricing policies adopted by Waterstone's. News From Nowhere is a small haven in Bold Street where they sell real books and act as a focal point for many community groups. Waterstone's 3 for 2 aggressive pricing may seem to give the customer cheap books, but the policy actually reduces the choices available to book lovers.
Its been a struggle for this shop to keep going, but where many other independent shops have buckled under the strains this women's co-operative has stayed around.
Visit their website News From Nowhere, or better still visit the shop in Bold Street, and buy your books from the Real Amazons!

Matthew Edwards

The return of Henry Bohn

After my earlier lament for the disappearance of this valuable Liverpool institution, I'm pleased to be able to report that the shop has reopened around the corner in London Road (next to the Empire Theatre box office). It has actually been open for a few months now but I've only just been inside again today. There are lots of books stacked in chaotic order; many of them still in cardboard boxes awaiting pricing, so a persistent explorer may turn up all sorts of surprises. I was very pleased to discover a wartime edition of  Lancashire Pride by the Lancashire dialect writer Tommy Thompson for £3.50. This contains many of the wonderful articles he wrote for the Manchester Guardian in the 1930's and 1940's. Apparently the book sold well to American soldiers stationed in the North of England, so there must be some bemused children and grandchildren of those veterans who are struggling to understand the earthy humour in these tales. I'll add one of these tales in a later blog.

Matthew Edwards

Loss of a Liverpool bookshop

Henry Bohn Books, the second-hand and antiquarian bookshop in Lime Street, Liverpool has announced that it will close for business on the 27th January 2008. The shop premises will be demolished as part of the redevelopment of the Lime Street Station Gateway Project by English Partnerships. According to English Partnerships "The Gateway site currently consists mainly of low-grade retail shops and offices" and apparently a second-hand bookshop is of no value in our City of Culture.

It will be tremendously exciting to have the facade of Lime Street Station revealed once again in all its glory, and there will be few mourners at the loss of the hideous Centre Point tower. But I cannot understand why the powers behind Liverpool Vision couldn't have negotiated alternative sites for the few "low-grade shops" instead of bullying them out of business with a Compulsory Purchase Order. As it is these shops have been blamed for holding up progress while simply fighting for their rights to carry on trading. Liverpool Vision announced in September 2007 that their grandiose ideas had been affected by "the delays caused by a prolonged CPO process", resulting in "a thorough reappraisal of the Gateway project."

Henry Bohn Books is one of very few outposts of genuine culture and civilisation remaining in the so-called City of Culture. A really imaginative "Liverpool Vision" would incorporate the business as a vital part of the new Gateway; but sadly Henry Bohn has been consigned to a virtual internet existence, although there is a possibility of a physical reincarnation around the corner in the spring.

I have enjoyed visting Henry Bohn where there is almost always a good and interesting conversation going on about books, music or city politics. My wallet has often suffered after browsing the shelves, but I have always emerged feeling the richer for my visit.

Denvir's Penny Irish Library

If you perform a Google search for "John Denvir", you will likely be asked whether you really meant to search for John Denver. In the 19th Century John Denvir (1834-1916) was a noted Liverpool Irishman and a strong supporter of the republican cause. Although born in Ireland while his father was working there, Denvir belonged to an Irish community that was well established in Liverpool before the 1840's. As a young boy in Liverpool he witnessed the terrible scenes of distress among migrants escaping the Famine, scenes which powerfully influenced his political development as an Irish nationalist. His autobiography, 'The Life Story of an Old Rebel', was first published in 1910, and it is now available to read online at Project Gutenburg.

It is well worth reading for the story it gives of how the Irish in Britain developed a heightened political consciousness which was almost entirely based on Irish events, rather than on their own experiences in their 'home' community. Denvir himself contributed significantly to this expression of a distinct Irish cultural and political identity by publishing a series of penny booklets in the 1870's in his 'Irish Library'. These were sold by the thousands at the time but are extremely rare today. I've had to look in the British Library catalogue to find a list of his titles and I've shown them below to indicate how 'Irishness' was being expressed at the time.


Denvir's Penny Library, later issued as Denvir's Penny illustrated Irish Library
Published in Liverpool in two volumes in a monthly series, 1873-1874

No. 1 Ireland: her monks at home & abroad. Richard J. O'Neill
No. 2 Catechism of Irish history. John Francis MacArdle
No. 3 The Book of Irish Poetry. John Denvir
No. 4 The Second Book of Irish Poetry. John Denvir
No. 5 The Third Book of Irish Poetry. John Denvir
No. 6 Biography of Marshal MacMahon, Duke of Magenta. W.J. Ashton
No. 7 The red hand of Ulster; or, The captive chief of Tyrconnell. John Denvir
No. 8 The life of Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan. John Hand
No. 9 The life of O'Connell.
No. 10 How Ned Joyce went to his own funeral.
No. 11 The Life of Robert Emmet. John Hand
No.12 A wreath of Irish song and story

Vol. 2 No. 13 What is home rule? Hugh Heinrick
Vol. 2 No. 14 The camp fires of the legion in the late Franco-Prussian war. J. Lysaght Finigan
Vol. 2 No. 15 Hugh O'Neill, the great Ulster chieftain. Slieve Donard
Vol. 2 No. 16 Rosaleen Dhu; or, The twelve pins of bin-a-bola: an Irish drama in three acts. John Denvir
Vol. 2 No. 17 The story of '98. Ross E. Trevor
Vol. 2 No. 18 Home rule ballads. John Denvir
Vol. 2 No. 19 Irish street ballads. John Hand
Vol. 2 No. 20 The Irish in England. Hugh Heinrick
Vol. 2 No. 21 The Irish in the United States of America. John Denvir
Vol. 2 No. 22 Brian Boru and the Danish invasion. Daniel Crilly
Vol. 2 No. 23 "God save Ireland!" or, The rescue of Kelly & Deasey. Slieve Donard
Vol.2 No. 24 Our Irish Christmas garland

"Slieve Donard" was the pen name used by John Denvir