John Winter – författare

A highly evocative story set in Liverpool of the 1960’s. An exploration of what it was to be like to be young in the time and city of The Beatles. The joys of music and football in a golden age. At the start of the 1960’s Liverpool is an ordinary, northern city. Badly damaged by German bombs and still struggling to shake off the fall-out from the war. Tony and his teenage friends look at their dull, grey lives and dream of something better. Even their beloved football team, Liverpool FC, seem to be stuck in Division Two and going nowhere. Then The Beatles and Bill Shankly come along. And everything goes crazy. The city is the focus of world attention. And it isn’t just the music. Liverpool start to dominate English football, becoming one of the very best teams in Europe. Tony and his friends watch The Beatles, who they first saw playing at small local venues like The Casbah and Litherland Town Hall, go on to achieve worldwide fame. It is an astonishing time to be young and living in Liverpool. Tony writes songs and falls in love with a girl living in Penny Lane. He and his friends join the swaying crowd on the Kop at Anfield to watch Bill Shankly’s team and sing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. The future looks bright. But life can be cruel. Nothing lasts forever. We all, in the end, have to grow up.

A SIGNED HARDBACK EDITIONA highly evocative story set in Liverpool of the 1960’s. An exploration of what it was to be like to be young in the time and city of The Beatles. The joys of music and football in a golden age. At the start of the 1960’s Liverpool is an ordinary, northern city. Badly damaged by German bombs and still struggling to shake off the fall-out from the war. Tony and his teenage friends look at their dull, grey lives and dream of something better. Even their beloved football team, Liverpool FC, seem to be stuck in Division Two and going nowhere. Then The Beatles and Bill Shankly come along. And everything goes crazy. The city is the focus of world attention. And it isn’t just the music. Liverpool start to dominate English football, becoming one of the very best teams in Europe. Tony and his friends watch The Beatles, who they first saw playing at small local venues like The Casbah and Litherland Town Hall, go on to achieve worldwide fame. It is an astonishing time to be young and living in Liverpool. Tony writes songs and falls in love with a girl living in Penny Lane. He and his friends join the swaying crowd on the Kop at Anfield to watch Bill Shankly’s team and sing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. The future looks bright. But life can be cruel. Nothing lasts forever. We all, in the end, have to grow up.

It is 1954. Steve and Dave are looking for adventure. Their home town of Liverpool is scarred by war. New York is the future and it will soon be the richest city in the world. They need to see it and feel the excitement. They need to be there. They need to become Cunard Yanks.Cunard Yanks were British men, mostly young, who worked on Cunard ships from the 1940s to the early 1960s on the transatlantic routes, mainly between Liverpool and New York. American consumer goods, fashions and music which they brought to Liverpool gave the city a special awareness of popular American culture.New York is their second home at a time when few British people go there. They see Buddy Holly play at the famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem and watch Pee Wee Marquette introduce Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie at Birdland. They visit Jack Dempsey’s Bar and shake the great man’s hand. And catch the A-line to Coney Island before watching Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.American clothes and records, and gifts of stockings and perfume, are a hit with the girls back home, while American music inspires groups like the Beatles who play at the Cavern and the Casbah, as well as at the Kaiserkeller in Hamburg, before finally presenting their Merseybeat version of rock ‘n’ roll to the world.