Liverpool: A Memoir of Words

‘Liverpool is a city that treasures words. Here Tony Crowley joyfully opens the treasure chest and holds words up to the light of history, politics, memory and love. A gold mine of a book.’ Frank Cottrell-Boyce

‘Both dazzlingly erudite and refreshingly readable, Tony Crowley’s book, which is part memoir and part cultural history, brings Scouse to life, showing us with abundant humour and grace the many ways we use language and language uses us.’ Professor Deryn Rees-Jones, University of Liverpool

‘By means of a lexicon of keywords in Liverpudlian English, Tony Crowley is able to interweave personal, social and linguistic history, drawing upon native wit, etymological erudition and a remarkable recollection of childhood years. Shorn of condescension and prejudice, the Liverpool vernacular with which he grew up is analysed with an accentuated sense of time and place that historians can but admire. So much more than a personal memoir, here is a significant work on the social and cultural history of Liverpool, wondrous place.’ Professor John Belchem, University of Liverpool, author of Irish, Catholic and Scouse

‘As a poet from “over-the-water”, Liverpool: A Memoir of Words offers an enjoyable exploration of vernacular language. Recognising the nuanced differences, edges and boundaries between localities within a city and its wider region, Tony Crowley places emphasis on variation and change, on the many-voiced reality of Merseyside, creating a perspective on the region which is both highly specific and yet coursing with the flow of historical tides. Language shifts as does identity, and by hearing and noting these linguistic changes an account is offered of how Liverpool and the wider region reimagines itself in response to its legacy as a port city and as a coastal landscape, of being of the land and always of the water.’ Dr Eleanor Rees, Liverpool Hope University

‘Who has done the most for Liverpool – the Beatles, Ken Dodd, Wayne Rooney? In scholarship the answer has to be Tony Crowley… Touching, sceptical and massively well-informed, it’s an ace book, wackers.’ John Kerrigan, Times Literary Supplement

‘Liverpool. A Memoir of Words with its selection of Liverpool English is a very important analysis of the politics of language and the “hierarchy of speech... which continues to exercise a deep and pernicious influence in British cultural life” But perhaps what I personally value most from the book is Tony's account of his upbringing – often moving, frequently humorous, occasionally exciting and dangerous.’ Graham Jones, author of Walking on Water Street

'Tony Crowley takes two well-worn concepts, a dialect dictionary and a memoir, and combines them expertly in this book in order to create a distinct and unique text as interesting and engaging as Liverpool English itself... Crowley’s sense of pride in both his city and his dialect come through clearly throughout this text. His writing style is entertaining and engaging, meaning that this book is accessible to both linguistic scholars and nonspecialists alike.’
Paul Cooper, Northern History