I first spied LIVERPOOL: A STORY OF BRITAIN by Sam Wetherell after it was shortlisted for The Wolfson History Prize 2026 back in September. I was brought up in Liverpool, so I’ve retained a fascination for the city, even though I left it decades ago. I was particularly attracted to the 2026 paperback edition (the hardback was published in 2025), which winningly displays a nostalgic 1960s black and white image of children playing at the front of Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral. The author, Sam Wetherell, is a Senior Lecturer in the History of Britain and the World at the University of York, and his specialisms in urban and economic history are reflected in the focus of the book. It tracks the fortunes (and the many misfortunes) of Liverpool from 1945 to the early 21st century, in chapters ranging from The Rescue Mission, dealing with the decline of the city’s world-famous docks, to The Uprising, scrutinising the 1981 Toxteth riots and beyond, and Made Surplus, looking at the unravelling of Liverpool’s suburban manufacturing economy in the 1970s. Along the way, there is plenty of illuminating historical background on how and why Liverpool rose to become such a large, trading city - by the early 1800s, 40% of the world’s trade passed through it - and the book doesn’t shy away from slavery, slum clearances, racial disharmony, political division, and poverty, all key issues to its story. It is a dense read - Wetherell has certainly done his homework - but a fascinating one. Yet to lighten the reading experience, there are also plenty of delightful human interest stories: I particularly enjoyed the mention of one female dock cleaner, who, incensed by a colleague’s sexual harassment, hit the man in the mouth with her scrubbing brush! In my opinion, Liverpool still struggles to shrug off a list of tired cliches - from the Beatles and Liverpool’s football teams, to crime and poverty - but this book offers an enlightened, fascinating glimpse into why and how it evolved, post WWII. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in the regeneration of northern cities.
LIVERPOOL: A STORY OF BRITAIN by Sam Wetherell (Head of Zeus, £12.99)