Local historian and broadcaster Ken Pye has collected a further fifty true tales that celebrate the weird and wonderful side of Merseyside’s history. From the subterranean munitions factory at New Brighton and the bird-man of Speke, to wild tigers at Tranmere and a mysterious leprechaun, you are sure to uncover some truly amazing and extraordinary stories here. Richly illustrated, this fantastic collection will delight everyone interested in finding out more about Merseyside’s strange and curious heritage.

This fantastic collection of true tales celebrates the strange and curious secrets of Merseyside's history. The fifty stories inside – from the lion in the wheelbarrow on the tightrope to the twelve young women 'smothered by the incurable malady they caught of some sailors', the true tale of the 'man in the iron coffin' and the strange and mysterious disappearance of the Everest mountaineers from Birkenhead – uncover some truly amazing and extraordinary facets of the area's history and heritage. Richly illustrated and compiled by Liverpool's own historian Ken Pye, this book will delight residents and visitors alike.

Animals have played a vital role in shaping our towns and cities from the earliest settlements. This new series offers a fascinating insight into the oft-forgotten histories of the animals that helped to drive the economy and enrich our culture.

A look at the dark side of life in Liverpool in the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In a fascinating series of contemporary photographs and illustrations, well-known local author Ken Pye explores the life of Liverpool and its people.

Much research has been done on the social messages conveyed to children reading or listening to fairy tales. In this highly original study, the emphasis shifts from content to linguistic expression. The language and linguistic organization of a dozen versions, old and new, of the Little Red Riding Hood story are analyzed using a variety of theoretical approaches, including Critical Discourse Analysis, Conversational Analysis, Functional Grammar and Critical Stylistics, to uncover the contribution of fairy tales to the discourse of gender relations over time.

This illustrated collection includes stories by the world's leading masters of the macabre, including Clibe Barker, Ramsey Campbell, Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber and Dennis Etchison.

Although readers and filmgoers are strongly familiar with Disney's sanitized child-centric fairy tales, they are quick to catch on to reworkings of classic tales into a contemporary context. The rise is such retellings seems to indicate that readers are hungry for a new narrative, one that hearkens back to the old yet moves the storyline forward to reflect conditions of the modern world. No mere escapist fantasies, the reimagined fairy tales of the late 20th and early 21st centuries reflect social, political and cultural truths. Sixteen essays consider fairy tales recreated through short stories, novels, poetry, and the graphic novel from both best-selling and lesser-known writers, applying a variety of perspectives, including postmodernism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, feminism, queer theory and gender studies. Along with the classic fairy tales, fiction from writers such as Neil Gaiman (Stardust) and Gregory Macquire (Wicked) is covered.

The most definitive guide to Liverpool and its history, ever written - now updated with new information and stunning images.

An examination of feminist writers' appropriation of a range of popular genres: detective fiction, science fiction, romance and the fairy tale. The author argues that feminists can successfully appropriate all four genres because genres, as cultural productions, have accommodated the cultural changes brought about by second-wave feminism. The book provides a history of each of the genres, reinstating women's contributions in those histories, and a comprehensive review of the feminist critical debates on each of the genres.