Bøker av Ken Pye

An accessible history of Liverpool from prehistory to the present day highlighting the city's significant events and people.

Animals have featured in the lives and cultures of the people of Merseyside since the dawn of time, and in so many ways. Beastly Merseyside describes this, and tells wonderful stories about these animals, and about the roles they have played. Horses have carried us and our weaponry into battle for millennia, right up to the wars of the twentieth century. They have ploughed our fields, carried our goods, and pulled our carts, wagons, carriages, stagecoaches, canal barges, buses, trams, and ambulances. We have been racing horses on Merseyside for centuries. We have hunted animals for food, from rabbits and ducks to those great leviathans of the sea, the whales. Liverpool's whaling fleet was once one of the most important in Britain. We have also hunted, and in some cases still hunt, animals simply for 'sport'. This has included dog-fighting, cockfighting, bear and bull baiting, as well as fox hunting, hare coursing, and shooting. Animals have entertained us on the streets, in the days of dancing bears and organ grinders' monkeys; in circuses; and in the very many zoos we have had on Merseyside, again over many centuries. Animals have also rescued us, provided comfort to us, and helped us to see and hear. In Beastly Merseyside, popular local historian Ken Pye tells tales about the likes of Mickey the Chimp, Liverpool's own 'King Kong'; the execution of Rajah the Elephant; Pongo the Man Monkey; the amazing Hale Duck Decoy; the 'Lion in the Wheelbarrow'; the nineteenth-century Knowsley Great Aviary and the modern safari park; and why and how the Liver Bird became the emblem of Liverpool. Full of well-researched, informative, and entertaining facts, this book really shows just how vital a role animals of all kinds have played, and continue to play, in our lives and communities.

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.

Explore the fascinating history of Liverpool in this fully illustrated A-Z guide to the city's people and places.

Liverpool was once the epitome of 'the city with a pub on every corner', but no longer. As social habits and communities continue to radically change, hundreds of pubs continue to disappear annually, and mostly without trace except in memories. However, not all have been lost. Right across the heart of this European Capital of Culture and UNESCO World Heritage City, Liverpool still boasts many outstanding and historic pubs, each with fascinating tales to tell. Every year, millions of people from around the globe come to visit this world-class city and Liverpool's pubs feature high on their lists of essential places to visit. Here, they enjoy some of the finest ales, and experience one of the most hospitable places in Britain. In Liverpool Pubs, and with fascinating stories and pictures, respected local historian Ken Pye provides an indispensable guide, and a temptation, for even more people to come and discover the very best of these alehouses for themselves.

This fantastic collection of true tales celebrates the strange and curious secrets of Merseyside history. The 50 stories inside--from the tight-rope walking lion at the zoo to the 12 young women "smothered by the incurable malady they caught of some sailors," the true tale of "man in the iron coffin," and the strange and sanguineous saga of the Liverpool men who took on Mount Everest--uncover some truly amazing and extraordinary facets of history and heritage. Richly illustrated and compiled by Liverpool's own historian Ken Pye, it will delight residents and visitors alike.

Here is the LOATHSOME, LURID and DOWNRIGHT LAMENTABLE history of Liverpool!Beginning with the mysteries of the Druids and featuring astonishing tales of bloodshed, battles and the Black Death, Viking assaults, Victorian gangland riots, the mud, blood and bullets of the Western Front and the falling bombs of the Blitz, read it if you dare!