Chorlton Book Festival is back ……

I say back but that weeklong festival of all things books starts on September 20th and runs through till the 28th in venues across the township.

If I have got my sums right this will be the 20th year when Manchester Libraries have invited heaps of authors to talk about their work and share readings from their books.

I am a great fan, not least because since 2009 I have hosted a history walk and talk during the week.

But to say more would be outrageous self promotion so I will leave a gentle plug for me till the end.

As it is still the middle of August, events and venues are still being finalised.

That said I have already booked tickets for two shows.

On September 21st Brian Groom will be speaking about his new book "Made in Manchester" which is a “A rich and vivid history of Britain's second city through the people who made it.

Long before Manchester gave the world titans of industry, comedy, music and sport, it was the cosmopolitan Roman fort of Mamucium. 

But it was as the ‘shock city’ of the Industrial Revolution that Manchester really made its mark on the world stage. 

A place built on hard work and innovation, it is no coincidence that the digital age began here too, with the world’s first stored-program computer, Baby.

A city as radical as it is revolutionary, Manchester has always been a political hotbed. 

The Peterloo Massacre is immortalised in British folklore and the city was a centre for pioneering movements such as Chartism. Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst hailed from here and the city still treasures its wilful independence.

Manchester’s spirited individuality has carried through into its artistic output too, bringing the world Anthony Burgess, L.S. Lowry, Jeanette Winterson, Joy Division and Oasis. Mention United or City almost anywhere and you’ll find fans, and opinions.

Until now, this magnificent city did not have its definitive history. From the author of the bestselling Northerners, this work of unrivalled authority and breadth tells the story of a changing place and its remarkable people".

The event takes place at the Chorlton Central Church on the corner of Zetland and Barlow Moor Roads stating at 6.30pm

And having renewed my knowledge of the city’s history, on the 27th I will be in the Edge Theatre to listen to Juliette Tomlinson introduce her debut novel, "Longford", which is set in the year “1864, in the great city of Manchester was Cottonopolis, rising with the sound of industry, and the boom of a hundred mills.

At the heart of its energies was John Rylands. 'the greatest merchant prince the world has ever seen'. 

This is the story of an empire built by a true Manchester man, given meaning and worth by the extraordinary woman who loved him.

Juliette Tomlinson has worked as a bookseller, and then in publishing. 

She lives in Stretford, Manchester, yards from Longford Park, which was a part of her childhood. 

The story will continue in a second book, Sunnyside”.

The talk starts at 2 pm till 4pm in the Edge on Manchester Road.

Which just leave me, and that history walk on Sunday the 22nd.

This year by popular request we will be in the graveyard by the village green exploring the history of the old parish church, and the stories of some who were buried there.

They include Thomas Walker who campaigned against the slave trade, supported the French Revolution and was tried for sedition, along with a mix of the “good, the bad, and the ordinary". 

Together they offer up a rich history of how Chorlton was from the late 18th century into the 20th.

After the talk we will have “light refreshments" at the Edge Theatre.

So there you have it.

All events are bookable through Chorlton Book Festival, https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/chorlton-book-festival-2024-3536319

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; book covers by permission of the authors, Chorlton graveyard, 1978 and 2008 from the collection of Andrew Simpson